Saturday, July 16, 2011

New Training Reports

Our Saturday meeting ended with some info about changes at SEGD and changes in our group.

First, as previously announced, new monthly training reports are here. Since my last pup Dodger went IFT in June, I was in the first batch of raisers receiving the new training reports. They are definitely different, so I wanted to explain them.

Basically, the biggest change is that the training report is now less of a report card grading how your puppy is doing on each task and more of a status report of where your puppy is at in the training process. Near the top, the report states the puppy's name and the month of evaluation as well as confirming his or her breeder evaluate status. It also states what phase of training the pup is in, with a brief description of the tasks in that phase.

Something to remember about training phases is that the higher the phase, the less trainer involvement there is and the more the dog has to make choices. It's quite possible that a puppy in, say, phase 2 of training will demonstrate that it is not yet ready for that phase and will go back to phase 1 to build its confidence and better prepare it to move ahead. Again, the phases show what level the puppy is at, not how well or poorly it is doing. If your puppy spends more time in phase 1 than your neighbor's puppy, it is not a reflection of the job you did as a raiser. (Ditto if your puppy flies through training.) It's just a fact of life that some puppies adjust to the training process more quickly and easily than others.

After the training phase come two sections, for "Training/Commands in Progress" and "Behavior: Behaviors exhibited during training." Each section lists commands or behaviors, with checkboxes by each one. Boxes that are checked show specifically what tasks the puppy is learning in training. A checked box does not mean the puppy has completed that task but simply that the pup is working on it. Because Dodger is just beginning his training adventure, he has only 4 out of 25 boxes checked on his first training report.

The bottom of the report is a section for the trainer's general comments about the dog. Overall, the report is also more colorful.

Raisers might feel frustrated that they no longer see their dogs graded on a variety of tasks as with the old "report card" training reports, but this change came about because some raisers were inadvertently discussing training issues that their pups had had with the students who received those pups as their new guides. I think we all understand the importance of a visually impaired student learning to trust and bond with his or her new guide dog in their first few weeks together. Discussions of training issues listed on report cards had the potential to undermine that trust and make a delicate time for student and dog even more difficult, so the new training reports were devised as a way to continue giving raisers updates on the puppies they raised while ensuring the best possible outcome for SEGD students.

The more information raisers have, the more incumbent it is upon them to be discreet about sharing it. Many guide dog schools prefer to limit the information they share with raisers to avoid a lot of issues. We are fortunate that Southeastern shares as much with us as they do.

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