Guide dogs for northern Alberta will now be trained in Edmonton with the opening of a BC & Alberta Guide Dogs office in the capital city. The organization has been operating in Edmonton for four years thanks to the Royal Canadian Legion Devon Branch donating space. The new facility at 4904 87 St. NW was thereby named the Devon Training Hall in honour of the legion and will allow the organization to better meet demand in Edmonton, according to director Mike Annan. “I get maybe 50, 60, inquiries every month for service dogs just in the Edmonton and surrounding area,” Annan told reporters on Thursday after a grand opening. “We can have people come here, we can get our dogs trained, we can get our puppy program running.” BC & Alberta Guide Dogs is accredited by the International Guide Dog Federation and Assistance Dogs International. It trains and provides dogs for free to people who are blind or have low vision, who have autism, and veterans and first responders with operational stress injury (OSI) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – such as Blaise, an OSI dog now working with Edmonton Police Service. “From the second I get him out of the car in the morning, walking up to the building, he’s greeting people. They’re coming up to him, whether they’re ending their shift or they’re starting it,” said Blaise’s primary handler, Const. David Klein from the reintegration unit. “Blaise has that ability to help soothe someone, calm someone, whether they know it or they don’t. I’ll also use him within my reintegration work, where he’ll use pressure therapy to help relax people before we go and do some work together – or if they’re ramped up and we’re coming back, I don’t want to send them away in a state of emotional distress.” Each dog’s training and certification takes about two years. The Edmonton facility will be staffed by three service dog instructors and will also run a volunteer puppy-raising program. Longtime volunteer Judy Robinson is raising Rosie, one of the program’s first two puppies, until she’s about 18 months old. “The first month is pretty rough. It’s like having a baby in your house,” Robinson said. “It’s a good thing I’m retired because I don’t think I could do it if I was working.” Having puppies leave her home to move on to the next level of their training and service is also difficult, but so impactful, she noted. “There’s definitely an attachment, but I think of it like I’ve raised two sons. They’re off in the world.… They’re helping somebody. And that’s what you want to be doing – is giving back.” BC & Alberta Guide Dogs was founded in 1996 and expanded to Alberta in 2002 with an office in Calgary. It will be looking for volunteers for the Edmonton facility. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Darcy Seaton
