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Seeing It Through: Riverview Woman Trains Guide Dogs As She Is Going Blind

Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

Alice Boose of Riverview, 72, gets a kiss from her latest trainee, Linny. Although the attachment is mutual, Boose will have to return the puppy one day to Southeastern Guide Dogs Inc. to be assigned to a blind person.

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By LOIS KINDLE

lkindle@tampatrib.com

Published: January 2, 2009

RIVERVIEW Eight years ago, Alice Boose received her first puppy to train as a guide dog for the blind. It would become a cause much closer to home than she thought.

Years earlier, she watched helplessly as her mother, Belle Reddick, suddenly lost her vision and learned to live in darkness. The experience led Boose to focus her volunteer work on a new charity — Southeastern Guide Dogs in Palmetto.

"It's ironic I chose to volunteer for them in the early '90s, and then in the mid '90s realized I was going to lose my own sight," she said.

Diagnosed in 1994 with age-related macular degeneration, Boose, 72, has been gradually losing her central vision — all the while still training pups to help others. Soon, she said, she will need a guide dog of her own.

Boose leaned on the experiences of family to prepare herself for what was to come. An aunt, now 87, also lost her vision.

"It's been a slower process than I thought," Boose said. "With my mother, it only took about three months for her to lose her sight. My Aunt Alice told me I probably had about eight years before I'd lose mine. It's been seven years since she said that, so I probably have about a year …."

Until then, Boose continues her volunteer work and is now raising a smooth-coated collie named Linny, provided by Southeastern Guide Dogs when the pup was only 9 weeks old.

Now every bit a 5-month-old "toddler," Linny will live with Boose and her husband, Bob, for about another year. Then, having gone through Boose's basic training, she'll move on to Canine College, where a professional trainer will provide the finishing touches. After six months of formal training, she will be ready to become someone's eyes — and best friend.

"We have 260 volunteers raising puppies right now," said Melinda Shaver, a program coordinator with Southeastern Guide Dogs. "I've known Alice for the past five years. She's a great puppy raiser and wonderful person. She has a good heart and is doing this for all the right reasons."

As a trainer, Boose socializes young guide-dogs-to-be, teaches them manners and basic obedience and exposes them to as many environments as possible. The dogs are bred on site by Southeastern on its 23-acre campus.

"The puppy becomes a member of our family," Boose said. "My job is to prepare each of them to take care of a blind person, so the dog needs to be confident, well-behaved and good around people and other animals."

For example, Boose takes Linny on walks throughout the area to get her acclimated to as many animal smells as she can. The dog pretty much goes wherever she goes, she said.

"There's a property near here where sheep, emus and a bull graze," she added. "When we enter a store, I even have her smell down pillows."

Training a future guide dog is serious business, Boose said.

"Once that coat goes on, Linny knows it's behavior time," she said. "The simple act of retrieving a toy becomes 'get it, bring it, and give it' for someone who's blind.

"This dog will someday make such a difference in that person's life," she continued. "Right now, she's a puppy and she doesn't get it all right, but she will."

Boose recalled a 24-year-old man blinded by an accident who got Esther, a black Labrador retriever she sponsored. "She gave him his independence," Boose said. "Thanks to her, he's able to live on his own and go to college."

When Boose first volunteered, she was a puppy hugger who soon became a dog walker, then a walkathon participant, puppy sponsor and finally a puppy raiser.

"When you go there, you think you're going just to hug puppies," she said, "but one thing leads to another. You can't help but want to become more involved."

Including Linny, Boose has raised six guide-dogs-to-be. The others were Grace, Faith, Genesis, Patters and Cansy, all of whom were placed with blind people after their training intensives.
"The hardest part is giving them back," Boose said. "That's the most heartbreaking experience. I liken it to raising children.

"You help them grow up to be responsible adults, watch them go off to college and get a career, and then move into a home with someone else. But they love us forever."

Boose said Southeastern hosts a special day when puppy raisers get to visit with the dogs they trained and watch them work and interact with their new owners.

"It's so rewarding," she said. "We all take pictures and have lunch together."

Boose calls working as a volunteer with Southeastern and training the puppies "a wonderful education.
"We have a spaghetti dinner at the school where everyone wears a blindfold so they can experience what it's like to be blind," she said. "Most people end up taking theirs off, but I keep mine on because I know it's something I will eventually have to go through.

"When I first learned about my condition, I felt pretty panicky," she continued. "But I've had all these years to work on it, and I know there is something else out there I'll be able to do. And knowing I'll be getting a dog, it's not as scary as one might think."

HOW TO HELP
WHO:Southeastern Guide Dogs Inc.
WHAT: Nonprofit group dedicated to breeding, raising, training and placing guide dogs for the visually impaired; provides dogs who cannot meet the stringent requirements for becoming guide dogs to law-enforcement agencies, hospitals, assisted-living facilities, nursing homes, schools and individuals with special needs
FOUNDED: 1982
WHERE: 4210 77th Street East, Palmetto
BREEDS: Labradors, golden retrievers, goldadors (Labrador/golden retriever mix), smooth-coat collies, Australian shepherds and Hungarian Vizslas
COST: From breeding to placement, per dog, $60,000; cost to recipient, $0.
NEEDS: Volunteers to hug, walk, sponsor and train puppies; basic dog supplies; cash donations
TOURS: By appointment
INFORMATION: (941) 729-5665

Lois Kindle can be reached at (813) 865-1553.

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