As you may be aware, our Mt Ridley Campus has been home to a few Seeing Eye Dog (SED) puppies in training over the last couple of years.
it is with great excitement that as a family, class and school we say farewell to our first SED ‘Jethro’ as he is now about to embark on the next stage of his career of becoming a Seeing Eye Dog.
Since Jethro has been in our lives, he has completed and graduated from Year 4 twice with Mr Butcher, as well as being a part of the Seeing Eye Dog breeding colony where he has sired 5 litters, resulting in over 40 (all black) puppies who are currently going through the Puppy Raising program.
Starting Monday, 23 November, he will be going into formal training to become a Seeing Eye Dog and finds himself in a unique position where he will be commencing training with his first litter of puppies, so here’s hoping he can give his kids some good fatherly encouragement.
Jethro will be staying at ‘boarding school’, otherwise known as the SED kennels in Kensington, and will be taken out each day for lessons, where he will learn how to support a client who is blind or has low vision. He will be learning things like how to use an escalator, what to do at a set of traffic lights and how to enter and exit trains safely.
His training runs for about 16 weeks and once he graduates, he will be matched with a client. They will then work together with a Seeing Eye Dog Instructor for a few weeks to get to know each other and start their new friendship. We hope that Jethro passes all of the applicable assessments and is able to continue to work as a Seeing Eye Dog until he is much older.
It has been great seeing him interact with the students in the classroom and out in the yard. At the same time, it has been a pleasure seeing students who were previously apprehensive around dogs to become so much more comfortable. There have been many times when he has been able to have his vest off and have a pat with both students and staff to his enjoyment, as well as theirs. He has in many ways been a support for all.
We wish Jethro the very best of luck for his future endeavours and have high hopes that he will go on to great things, but most importantly giving a client the independence and confidence to live the life they choose.
Aaron Butcher - Assistant Head of Student Wellbeing (3 - 6)
