I'm Laura Jotham and I, stop, stop, you're fine, no, stay, good boy, that's a good
boy, yes. Hi I'm Laura Jotham and I am legally blind, I have no vision in my
left eye and about 10% in my right and to help me with that this is my guide dog
Watson. The idea to go around and talk to different groups whether it be the
Rotary Club, UCW Lines Club, even just school groups, I got the idea in my
grade 12 year of high school because I thought that like not even a whole lot
of my classmates understood the rules and it's not that they didn't want to
respect the rules they just didn't they just didn't know. I set out for people
to see a how wonderful Watson is in terms of what he does and how he assists
me but I've my secondary objective was also not only to educate people about
the dog but to educate people about me and to see me as a person first and my
disability as secondary. The reception has been quite something very special
actually to me. It's been very successful and people have really absorbed
what Watson and I have kind of set out to do. Watson is a graduate of the canine
vision Canada program at Dog Guides Canada in Oakville, the Lions Foundation
and he went through two years of training before becoming a dog guide and
before we were matched as a team. For their first year of life perspective
dog guides are placed for the foster family and they teach them the basic
come stay they house train them and that little puppy is allowed to go
everywhere that a perspective that a dog guide would get to go and it wears a
little green vest so that the public knows that that dog is allowed to be
anywhere and after the first year of training that dog is brought back to the
facility and tested for good temperament and obedience and if that dog passes
that test it goes on to do proper dog guide training and once that dog
completes that training then they're matched with a handler and we've been a
working team for four years now. Watson forward let's go. Before I had Watson I
traveled with a white cane and with a cane it took me forever to get places
because with a cane it fires all the obstacles in your path and then you
have to navigate around them whereas with a dog the dog completely ignores the
obstacles in front of you the dog completely glides through them so I'm
not afraid to go walking around town or walk to a friend's house or I might have
been a bit more skittish to do so before just because it was just me and my
cane and it's hard to put the trust into it on the stairs as opposed to an animal.
Find the stairs. Good boy. Forward. Yes.
Oh god not bad how are you? I'm hanging in there. Good.
Thank you. You too. Watson heal. The automatic assumption is that they can pet
the dog but it does say on his harness do not pet. Watson no sit sit
but the general etiquette of a dog guidance you are you are to basically
ignore them act as if they're not there because Watson even if he's sleeping or
on the floor or lying down hey he is still focused on me and if anyone
distracts him from what he's supposed to be doing that could potentially put me
in danger whether it's at a crosswalk or set of stairs or anything of that
nature. No. Stay. I love you. Okay. I love you and you're fine. Yes.
