Kent guide dog puppy has big job ahead of him

Like any other 10-week old puppy, Lipton seems to want nothing more than to chase things and chew on something, anything: paws, shoes, toys, newspaper reporters.

He’s not picky.

But as the green vest slung over his puppy shoulders indicates, it’s not all fun and games for the young golden Labrador retriever; Lipton is a working dog, just beginning his training as a future guide dog for the blind.

“You’re going to be a guide dog,” says Kent resident Kelli Reiter, scratching behind Lipton’s ears as she pulls his excited puppy face close and allows her voice to raise briefly into a baby-talk lilt, which gets the rapidly growing Lipton’s tail racing back and forth even faster. “We tell him that all the time.”

Lipton will be the ninth puppy Reiter and her husband have helped train for a role as the eyes for a blind person. It’s the family business for Lipton, as the Reiters have already trained his father and grandfather as well.

“This is a third-generation puppy for us, so it’s pretty cool,” Reiter says as Lipton settles at her feet, content to gnaw on a rawhide bone held between paws that seem slightly too big for his young body.

Lipton’s training has just begun. He’ll stay with the Reiters for about a year, perhaps a little more, and then head off to a guide-dog finishing school where he will learn the specifics of his new job.

The Reiters’ job is simply to socialize the puppy and get him used to being out in public. They teach him to behave and stay calm in all sorts of situations, by keeping him at their side no matter where they go. A few weekends ago, Lipton made his first trip to church with the family.

“He’ll go everywhere with me, mostly,” Reiter says. “Blind people go everywhere.

“The more we can expose them to the world, the better,” she adds.

Soon, Lipton will head of to Boeing every day with Reiter’s husband, Don, where he’ll have to learn to sit quietly all day long, like a grown-up guide dog would.

“He has to learn appropriate behavior,” Reiter says.

Reiter and her husband have been raising guide puppies for eight years. They are members of PUPS2C4U, a Kent-area, puppy-raising group and though they have their own pet, a St. Bernard show dog named Greta, the Reiters always open their home to new puppy, usually plucked from the “Puppy Truck” and often Labradors.

“They’ve just done really well with the program,” she says of the breed.

But Reiter is insistent that Lipton, like the other puppies they have raised, is not their pet. Unlike Greta, who has free rein of the house, guide dogs are not allowed on furniture and have their own set of rules to follow.

Though they are in the house and with the family for about a year, Reiter says it is important to not get too attached. After a year, most of the dogs head off for the formal education.

Before Lipton, the Reiters raised Adam, a black Labrador whom they turned in about the same time they picked up the little ball of golden fur rolling around on the floor.

“People always ask how can we give them up,” Reiter says. “It’s because we get a cute little puppy!

“Besides,” she continues. “How can we not give them up when they’re going to help people?”

Though their success rate is high, Reiter admits that not all of the puppies grow up to take their place at the side of blind human. Some get “career changed” because they are “a little too much dog to be a guide dog.”

Some are used strictly for breeding, while others get adopted out as pets.

Reiter says her club is always looking for new families to help train the puppies, but insists it takes a patient person.

“You don’t get very far when you have a new baby puppy,” she jokes about taking Lipton out with her.

The dogs are not allowed to play with balls or to fetch, though they can play tug, and Lipton will not be learning any tricks, Reiter says, just “appropriate play.”

Generally, the puppy-raisers’ jobs are just to teach the dogs to be gentle and “good citizens,” no matter what situation they are in. And despite the floppy, tail-wagging fun of a new puppy, it is serious business.

“We need to do our best to teach him that,” Reiter says.

The dogs also are taught to go to the bathroom on a schedule, instead of whenever they feel the urge, since working with the blind means having to adjust their business to the human’s schedule.

In all, there is a 1-inch thick binder filled with rules and guidelines for raising the dogs, such as not allowing the dogs to take food out of someone’s hand, despite whatever rules Greta may live by.

“You have to follow the protocols of what the program has you do,” Reiter says.

The Reiters also still stay in contact with the families who have received their dogs over the years, allowing them to remain connected with the four-legged friends that at one time shared their home.

“For us it’s just become an extended family,” Reiter says.

On the floor, Lipton rolls over, rawhide still in mouth. His ears flop to the floor, his tail wags and Reiter reaches over to scratch his belly, proving that while there may be serious business ahead, it’s not all work and no play for the young pup.

“He gets to mostly be a puppy,” Reiter says.

Learn more

PUPS2C4U are always looking for new puppy-raisers. For more information on on the club or to get involved in raising guide puppies, call 253-639-8868 or e-mail pups2c4u@comcast.net.