Puppies training to be CNIB guide dogs treated to a Calgary Philharmonic rehearsal

Calgary Philharmonic opened up its Friday morning rehearsals for some very special guests—CNIB Guide Dog volunteers brought in their puppies.

The Calgary Philharmonic (CPO) (Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra | Calgary, AB) had a morning rehearsing for its evening show ‘Best of Barber: Adagio and More’ in front of an unusual audience: a bunch of guide dog puppies in training.

It’s the first time the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) has partnered with the Calgary Phil.

“It’s a really good opportunity for our puppies to kind of get familiar with different sounds and different experiences, like the Philharmonic,” said Kezia Gray, CNIB puppy development trainer. “A lot of our puppies are pretty new to our program at the moment so this will be a big experience for them.”

Gray says some of the puppies in attendance are around 10 weeks old and for many it’s the first time being downtown.

Currently there are close to 15 puppies training in Calgary and many of them were at the Jack Singer Concert Hall Friday for the rehearsal.

“We typically work with labradors and golden retrievers and crosses of the two,” she said. “They’re better suited for this kind of work just because their size for one thing matches our size a little bit better than a chihuahua and also they can deal with different temperatures across Canada -- and they’re really easy to train.”

Fostering puppies

Volunteers live with their dogs while they’re in training and typically give them up for advanced training when the dogs are close to a year old.

“We have three different puppy raising roles,” said Gray. “We have puppy starters who have them for about four months, we have puppy finishers who have them for about eight to 10 months and then we have puppy risers who have them for about 12 to 15 months old so it all varies depending on what they’re willing to commit to.”

The puppies have to learn how to guide their blind handler, so they have to walk in straight lines and if there’s an object in front of them, they have to safely navigate the person around it.

“They can also help them in situations where they might go into a restaurant and they want to find a seat so they can tell the dogs things like ‘go find a seat’ and the dog will go and find a seat for them,” said Gray.

“Most of all they help clients build confidence and independence,” Gray added. “That’s a really overlooked thing that clients do get from these dogs that a lot of people don’t realize.”

Third puppy

Barb Shanahan is training her third puppy in as many years. She’s now working with ten week old Frankie that she’s had for just 14 days. Frankie just received his ‘guide-dog-in-training’ yellow vest and it’s his first in the city’s core.

“We really are trying to reward him every time he’s focused on us, every time he’s doing anything that’s a positive action we’re reinforcing that with treats and lots of ‘good boys’,” she said.

“They feel like yours for the year that we have them for sure and I just think with the support that we get from Kezia and from the CNIB in total, it’s just such a wonderful opportunity,” Shanahan said. “It’s so fun to have them and be able to interact with puppies all the time, I mean how great is that, look at that face, how can you not love that?”

Shanahan says in her role that she also educates the public about guide dog training and how the public can respect a working dog. Frankie is already showing skills that will make him good at his job.

“He’s really attentive, he’s really eager to learn, he’s really excited to try new things and he’s already learned a number of the cues that we work with and it’s amazing how quickly they learn,” she said.

“When he’s got his vest on, you can’t interact with them and really we try to encourage people not even to make eye contact with them or that sort of thing because they’re little puppies and they’re just excited about anybody that wants to pay attention to them so part of the of the role I think is that education.”

When the lights go down in the concert hall and the orchestra begins to play, the puppies take in the changing environment and the music.

Marc Stevens, president and CEO of the Calgary Philharmonic Society, said the Calgary Phil started its partnership with guide dog training organizations in 2009.

“We love having these dogs in the rehearsal, it’s a wonderful distraction for musicians of course, but they have to stay focused like the puppies do,” he said.

“And it’s an important part of our mission here because we like to make sure that everybody is welcome at the Calgary Philharmonic so helping these dogs in training to learn how to do that for their owners eventually is really important to us that we’re very accessible and the Calgary Phil belongs to everyone.”

Learn more about the CNIB program here: Volunteer with CNIB Guide Dogs | CNIB