In Memorium: Arie Schmidt

Hello again. Today's entry is not going to be my usual happy entry. You see, today marks the "shloshim" (30th day) to the tragic passing of Arie Schmidt.

Arie Schmidt lost his vision suddenly two years ago, and last year came to the IGDCB to get Alvin to help him get around. For 39 weeks, "Alvin" regularly updated his blog about being a guide dog in Israel. You can find all the entries here.

Arie was a very special person, who was putting lots of energy and effort into raising public awareness about blind people in general and guide dogs in particular. He was a go-getter who didn't let his sudden blindness stop him from working at IBM where he had worked for years and years, nor from teaching his classes at Michlelet Emek Izrael. He had many plans and ideas to further the issue of visual impairment in Israel, which have been cut short by his untimely and sudden death.

Everyone at the IGDCB were very fond of Arie, and appreciated and respected his energy and sincerity. We send our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends, and Alvin, too, who surely miss him more than words can say.

Yehe Zichro Baruch.



(photo by Nir Landau, Walla.co.il; אלווין ואריה שמידט
(ניר לנדאו, מערכת וואלה

The Miracle of the Light

Hi my faithful friends,

Today is the fourth day of Hanuka, and so I am taking this opportunity to say Chag Sameach to you all and also tell you about four new "miracles of light" that are happening right now at the IGDCB.

This is week 2 of the latest "course," and this time four pairs of eyes are being teamed up with their new handlers. Yes, my great pals, Polo, Paco, Pluto, and Rosie are now in stage four (puppyhood, evaluation, training, course) of their careers.

I thought you might like to see a picture of Paco and Rahel Niv in action practicing in a real-life situation.

Good luck my friends! All the best in you new, important missions.

This week, we also welcomed four groups of visitors to the center to see the place and learn about guide dogs in general and the IGDCB in particular. All together, there were about 100+ visitors, who, among other things, got to see and pat some of our wonderful dogs in training, spoke with Noach, Itzik and Jimmy (Itzik's dog...OK, he didn't say all that much), experience walking with Jimmy or our "mechanical training dog," and enjoy seeing the facilities and watching our "moviette." We were lucky to have such great weather too! (Another miracle?)

We, at the center, want to thank all the visitors who came and also made very generous donations to us. If you still haven't come to visit, what are you waiting for? And tell all your friends!

Hmmm...my nose detects a batch of fresh sufganiyot. Gotta go! Chag Sameach to you all!

One Good Deed Deserves Another

Hi again, my loyal readers. What do you think of these two cuties? These are Nina and Nala, two young GSD (German shepherd dog) puppy girls that are just having a quick nibble before going off to their foster families. We don't get GSD pups here all that often. We don't have any breeding GSDs, but once or twice a year (maybe more) we will get a donation of these wonderful dogs.

Anyways, these little beauties are really special because they are the gracious donation of one of our GRADUATES, Uri Basha, who is teamed with Polly, one of our golden-lab crosses. If you've seen the wonderful movie, Partners for Life, at the center, you'll probably remember the guy on horseback. That's Uri.

Uri lost his sight in the Lebanon War. Today he is a social worker up near Netanya. Besides his guide dog, he also has a pet GSD, and she just had a litter of 10, of which these two are now, hopefully, destined for a special life as guide dogs!

GSDs have a really different personality from labs and goldens. They are more sensitive, but also quite headstrong, and they need a really strong person (personality-wise) to handle them. That's also why we only use females, as they are a bit more easy-going. But there is a special something about these beautiful noble-looking dogs, and some people want nothing BUT a German shepherd.

Did you know that the first "official" guide dog in the US was a German Shepherd? His name was Buddy, and he belonged to a man named Morris Frank, who established the first school for guide dogs, called "The Seeing Eye." The whole story is very interesting, and here is one link that you can go to read about it. If you google "Buddy Guide Dog" you can find a lot more info.

So, yoo hoo...little puppies....learn what you gotta learn, and get yourself ready! We are rooting for you to become somebodies seeing eyes, too!

"The seeing eye, the hearing ear; The Lord hath made them both." Proverbs 20:12

Bye for now.

Izzy

Oh, P.S., and this is really important, so I will probably be repeating myself about this from time to time.
If you like reading this blog, please sign up to get an automatic email each time it is updated. I try to send out notices, but because they go out to a whole bunch of people at the same time, many email programs identify them as spam, so it's much better if you sign up yourself to receive updates. You can do this REALLY simply, by clicking on the link just under my picture on the right side where it says "Subscribe....by email." It's really simple; a piece of dog biscuit!
Oh ya, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE getting email, but most of my dog buddies don't own computers (yet), so if you're reading this, I'd love to hear from you!

A Honey of a Post

Hi folks! Do ya believe all that rain we're getting? I'm so happy, since we need it so badly. This is one country where you'll never hear the song "Rain, Rain, Go Away," and I am one dog who will never complain. My ancestors, you know, hail from Labrador in Canada, where we were water dogs. So I love the wet and the cold! More! More!


Anyways, on to "Dog of the Day." The cutie in the middle if this snap is Honey, fresh off the plane from the New York area. She was puppy-raised there by Jeff Lambert and family. I have never been on a plane, and I am waiting to have some time to talk to Honey about how she liked flying. I hope I get to fly somewhere sometime.

Because dogs are naturally pack animals and enjoy having company, they are usually housed with a couple of roommates at the center, since we want them to be as happy as possible. It's fun to have pals to fool around with, to snuggle up with if it's really cold, or just to yap with a bit and share experiences. So, in this pic are Honey's new Israeli roommates: Zita the second (the shepherd) and Kaya (the golden).

At this moment, Honey and Kaya are being "evaluated." (If you don't know what that means, check back a couple of posts, where I explained it.) Good luck guys! Hope to see you soon out there on that obstacle course!

What's new? A course, of course!

Hi folks.

Izzy here again. Hope you are all well. It has been so hot lately, that it is hard to believe that it is the middle of October already! And, being the middle of October, we, at the Center are really excited because "it's that time" again!

Yup, we're really busy here at the Center because a new "course" will be starting in just a really short while. Six of our dogs have finished their training, and are all ready to be set up with their new partners for life.



In the picture here you can see Norman (remember him from a few blogs ago?) all ready and waiting with his nice new harness before he started the course with Dani a while back. I think he looks a bit concerned because he still didn't know who his new buddy was gonna be. I mean, it's kind of like meeting your new bride at the wedding. But at the end it was a wonderful match because the staff at the Center puts lots of careful thought into making it, and it's usually love at first sight. Really...you can trust me on that!

In case you don't know what this "course" is, I will tell you how it works.

At our beautiful Lady Kaye Student Center we have 6 lovely rooms, each set up with a bed and a private bath. There's a nice rug for the dog to sleep on too. Our dogs' partners-to-be stay here for three weeks, when they meet and learn how to work with their highly educated canine.

While they are here, the students have their meals served to them in our lunchroom. Freida is the cook, and she makes them the most wonderful food! There is also a student lounge where, in the evenings, they can relax, play piano, read books, work on the computer (it talks, and has a braille keyboard, too), check out what the time is by listening to the talking clock, or just have some drinks and snacks.

They will start out practicing with the trainers on the premises on the obstacle courses. You should see them. Blind people who are not used to walking with a dog will start out really hesitant and shuffling, but before long, they are striding with confidence because they have learned to trust their new four-legged eyes. It chokes me up every time when I see it.

Once they have gotten the hang of how to hang on to the dog (heh heh), they will head out to the city, to go to venues that get constantly more and more complicated. At the end of the three weeks, they have a grand final test, where they are given instructions (verbally, and with a 3-D map) on how to get to a certain place, and they have to manage it without the instructors.

On the last day of the course, there is a grand finale celebration, when the best thing happens....but I think I will save that for another time!

So Many Visitors!

Man, oh, man....or should I say, dog, oh, dog...How the time flies.

Well, it's holiday time here, and so many holidays, and we are all so busy. What with Rosh Hashanah, and then Yom Kippur (dogs don't fast, by the way). And now, it's Sukkot time, when all the little kiddies are on holidays.

Well, we've taken advantage of the holiday times to have a few tours to the center. We invite anyone who is interested to just give us a call and we can arrange a tour of our facilities. If you have never visited the center, what are you waiting for? You get to walk around, see all the doggies, see the student dorms and hear all about being a guide dog. There's always something "special;" like a blindfolded walk (sometimes with a dog), or to hear some real experiences from one of our staff.

Just this last Monday we had about 16 people visiting. In the pic, you can see someone doing the "dog obstacle walk" as we call it, and the other pic is Katya (our receptionist) and her dog, Dundi, talking with the group.

Tomorrow we are planning another tour, and I hope to post more pics. By the way, you can see more pics here.

Enjoy...and hope to see you at the center. Here's our phone number in case you want to ask when the next tour is: 08-940-8213
P.S. If you come, say Izzy sent you!

Shana Tova

From all of us,
to all of you,
we wish you a New Year
that's blessed with everything good!


(P.S. This is a picture of Mona, a beautiful golden retriever, and 5 of her 8 pups. Mona was generously donated by Michael Testler of the UK. The pups' father is Neon, a black lab (I bet you figured that out yourself!). These gorgeous "Y" pups have just been given to their puppy-raiser families, just in time for the New Year!)