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Caspian the Leader Dog in training gets a closer look at the camera as trainer Sarah Rankin of Listie looks on. Dave Lloyd
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Listie teen trains guide dog
LISTIE — Caspian is a social animal.
Well-mannered in public, he visits restaurants, attends church, sleeps in hotels and hangs out at shopping malls.
And he’s only 7 months old.
Caspian Tyler Leader Dog is a cuddly chocolate Labrador retriever in training to become a guide dog for the visually impaired.
Fifteen-year-old Sarah Rankin of Listie and her family will spend a year preparing Caspian to become all the dog he can be.
She has been a puppy raiser for Leader Dogs for the Blind for more than two years.
The Rochester, Mich.-based organization trains dogs after volunteers help them to develop social skills. Sarah is one of nearly 400 puppy raisers in the U.S. and Canada. Her knack for training dogs is indicative of her keen affection for the animals.
“This dog is a ham,” said Sarah, a sophomore at Somerset Area High School. “He likes to show off for people, roll on his back and paw at the bottom of chairs.
“We were in Wal-Mart for a long time, and he got tired and cranky like a little kid,” she said. “But all the local stores in Somerset are fine with him.”
Puppy raisers travel to Michigan to pick up a puppies 7 to 8 weeks old. The dogs are returned when they are a year to 15 months old and given to the visually impaired.
Caspian is the third dog the Rankin family has trained. Sarah got the idea after seeing a TV show, “Animal Adventures,” on the subject.
A black Lab named Sweet Pea was 6 months old when she was diagnosed with elbow dysplasia. She experienced a “career change,” and is now the pet of a nearby family in Friedens.
After Chester was trained, the yellow Lab was taken back to Michigan, where he was tested by Leader Dog officials.
It was there that Sarah received her biggest surprise.
“They did an evaluation and then came back and said, ‘He’s really, really, good,’ ” she said. “ ‘Can you raise 50 more puppies like him?’ ”
Now the family has Caspian, a friendly dog they named after a character in “The Chronicles of Narnia” books by C.S. Lewis.
The pup is being taught basic commands such as “sit,” “come,” “stay” and “heel.”
Caspian slept in a hotel room with family when they recently traveled out west and is acquainted with employees of local stores and restaurants.
Sarah said that, when she visits a store without the dog in tow, the workers jokingly ask, “Where’s the puppy? Caspian?”
The job of socializing Caspian is shared by the whole family – Sarah, parents Paul and Debbie and brother David.
“He goes to church with us,” Debbie Rankin said. “It’s a family effort, but she’s the main puppy raiser.”
Sarah’s work hasn’t gone without notice.
Without caring volunteers like Sarah, the program would not succeed, Leader Dogs spokeswoman Beverly Moody said.
“It says a lot about how much she cares for puppies – turning them into leader dogs – and how much she cares for people she’s never met,” Moody said by telephone from Michigan. “She’s such a wonderful inspiration for people her age.”
Sarah hopes to pursue a career working with animals. But for now she will continue as a puppy raiser until she graduates from high school.
She offers advice for those who may be interested: Don’t get too attached to the pup.
“You have to love them, train them, care for them,” she said. “And when they are a year old, you have to give them away.”
For more information on Leader Dogs for the Blind, call (888) 777-5332 or visit www.leaderdog.org
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