By KEVIN ELZE
Although she is not officially enrolled as a BYU student, McKayla has been attending the university for the past couple of months and rarely skips classes. She is doing well and is receiving the training she will need to be an asset to others in society. Instead of graduating in four years, she will graduate in just one.
McKayla is a dog.
She is being trained by Martine Savageau, a technology education major from Spanish Fork, as a guide dog for the visually impaired. Savageau brings McKayla to class to help train her so that she can be placed with a blind person after her training is through.
'I don't think there is any greater gift than to give someone the ability to be able to see and to get around,' Savageau said. 'The independence that a guide dog gives a person makes training the dogs worth it. I just totally love dogs, and now that I have been doing it for a while, I just totally love my friends who are blind as well as those who have received our dogs.'
McKayla is six-months old, and Savageau and her family have had the dog since she was eight-weeks old. The trainers receive the puppies at eight- weeks old and keep them for a year before returning them back to Guide Dogs for the Blind, a company based in San Rafael, Calif., which trains the dogs.
'We do basic obedience and teach them commands like sit down, come, stay, stand and heeling on leash. We teach them really good house manners so that they are house broken and they don't chew things up and destroy things,' Savageau said.
According to Savageau, the main focus of the training is to socialize them so that they get accustomed to different public experiences.
'If they were just to be raised in the kennel, which they used to do, they have a really hard time adjusting to the world because they haven't been exposed to it. It is better for them to be exposed at a young age than to be exposed later,' Savageau said.
The trainers are not required to take the dogs everywhere with them but raising the guide dogs in the public is what enhances the process of the dog's socialization, which is the purpose of the trainers.
Part of the socialization process has been enhanced for the dogs by bringing them to the BYU campus. Savageau has always brought the dogs to BYU, and because of this she seems to get a little more attention than most people. She frequently has fellow students, whom she doesn't recognize, say that they are familiar with her and her dog.
'I'm thinking 'I don't know who you are,' but because I am more visual with the dog I stand out more. Having a dog with you at class is not an everyday thing,' Savageau said.
Savageau said that although she has had problems in other places she has never had any problems with teachers prohibiting her from bringing the dogs into BYU classrooms. She did say that a few times teachers have confused her with being visually impaired and that did cause some confusion.
'They wanted to know if I needed special help with getting notes from the board and other help but I just told them, 'No, I'm not visually impaired, and you don't need to help me,' ' Savageau said.
Savageau will graduate from BYU in April and do her student teaching this fall at Pleasant Grove Junior High School and Lehi High School. She will teach wood shop at both schools.
'I am hoping that they will let me take McKayla once in a while to school,' Savageau said.
Eric George, director of training for Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc., said they only use Labrador Retrievers, German Shepherds and Golden Retrievers as guide dogs.
'They have the kind of temperament that allows us to ingrain a consistent work pattern, which is imperative for making them reliable for guide work,' George said.
Michele Pouliot, a supervisor in the Training Department for Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc, said, 'In selecting the breeds we use at Guide Dogs for the Blind, we have chosen breeds with temperaments that are willing to please and willing to work. We also need a dog that is physically adept, that is big enough to effectively guide a person but not be unmanageable.'
After the year of training with Savageau, McKayla will be sent back to San Rafael where she will spend six more months in training, learning all of the formal commands. One of those six months will be spent with a blind person walking and eventually going into the city and doing traffic work.
The blind person will stay in San Rafael on the campus and get training along with the dog. Everything is free to the blind. They are flown out to the facility where they stay for the month with all of their expenses covered by the company. The company is privately funded and receives no government funding.
'They are really proud that they don't use tax dollars to train these dogs. They get lots and lots of donations,' Savageau said.
Those who train the dogs do it on a voluntary basis and receive no compensation for their services.
'As a matter of fact, it costs a lot of money to train these dogs. They pay for the vet bills, but everything else is our responsibility,' Savageau said.
Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc. estimates the value of each dog somewhere between $30,000-$40,000. To get that figure they take into account all of the expenses of all of the dogs trained and divide it up among those who become working guides.
Not every dog that gets trained makes it as a guide dog. Actually, only half of those trained make it as guide dogs. McKayla is the eighth dog Savageau has trained since she started about five years ago and four of them have not made it through the process.
According to Savageau, the dogs physically have to be very sound to be able to guide. The dogs can get dropped from the training program for a number of reasons, but all of the dogs Savageau has seen dropped were for various health reasons including skin, leg and hip problems.
As well as being physically sound, the dogs have to display a special type of temperament. If some show they are unable to handle the city or traffic or show that they are not going to enjoy being a guide dog or cope with the stress, they will be dropped.
The dogs can be dropped from the program at any stage. Some are dropped while being raised and some are dropped before they are given to an individual in need.
If a dog does get dropped, they are offered initially to the person who raised them and if they don't want them, the trainer has the option of placing them with someone they know. Otherwise, the San Rafael site places them in a home from a list that has a two to three year waiting list.
'The list is very long for puppies that don't make it as guides because they are so well-trained,' Savageau said.
Because Savageau decided to keep the dogs that did not make it as guides, she has five dogs, that live with her six children and her husband.
'My family is really involved with training the dogs. In fact, McKayla is really not my dog. She is my daughter's dog. She is really possessive of the dog. I have to ask permission to take it,' Savageau said.
Savageau also said raising a dog helps teach the children about charity and responsibility.
'Our family is very focused on working with the dogs. The kids are very responsible, and my husband is really good with the dogs. Everybody knows that the dogs are a big priority -- probably the No. 1 priority.'
Savageau said that in Utah County, 12 to 16 dogs are being raised for the blind. Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc. sends dogs to Colorado, Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, Idaho and Arizona. The company breeds the dogs and ship the puppies to be trained for a year.
They have strict rules on who receives the dogs and how they must care for them. Those who have the dogs are obligated to have the dog live inside the house, and the house must be safe for the dog.
'I'm one of the leaders in Utah County, and we do home visits to make sure that the homes are safe for a dog. We're really picky, too. We tell people that they have to fix things that the dog could get hurt on,' Savageau said