Local teen trains dogs for the blind

Alexa Kretsch, 17, of Eatontown, poses with Odessa, a golden retriever she trained for The Seeing Eye organization, which is dedicated to raising Seeing Eye dogs for the blind in Morristown. EATONTOWN — After six years of dedicated service, a local teen is being honored for her role in helping to raise guide dogs for the blind.

Alexa Kretsch, 17, of Eatontown, recently received a college scholarship from the The Seeing Eye guide dog training school for helping to raise three guide dogs for the organization.

Kretsch, a freshman at the University of Rhode Island, was one of only a handful of Monmouth County teens to receive a scholarship from the Morristown-based training school.

"It was an honor to get," Kretsch said. "I didn't know about the scholarship until last year."

The Seeing Eye scholarships are only made available to high school seniors who plan to attend college classes and have raised two or more guide dogs.

Kretsch said that she is happy to have gotten the scholarship, but added that it pales in comparison to knowing that her dog is helping out someone else.

"Our reward isn't monetary. It's knowing about the difference we are making," Kretsch said.

Peggy Gibbon, the Linda Feinne-Roth manager of puppy placement for The Seeing Eye, said, "Young adults like Alexa are special because they provide a rock-solid foundation for a Seeing Eye dog's formal training.

"We are delighted to recognize Alexa for her dedication to the puppy-raising program and wish Alexa well in her future endeavors," Gibbon added.

Each scholarship recipient was awarded a $1,000 scholarship from The Seeing Eye in recognition of their commitment in enabling blind people to lead more independent lives, according to Gibbon.

Established in 1929, The Seeing Eye is a unique training school that teaches specially bred dogs to act as guide dogs for the blind. Since its inception, the school has trained over 14,000 dogs.

A lifelong animal lover, Kretsch said she first became interested in raising guide dogs while in eighth grade.

"A few years ago, my mom and I had seen a television special on Animal Planet about a girl who had raised a Seeing Eye dog and the things she did with it, and we wanted to do it," Kretsch said.

After watching the show, Kretsch said that she and her family applied to be puppy raisers at The Seeing Eye.

As a puppy raiser, Kretsch said her primary responsibility was to make her dogs comfortable around large groups of people and to teach them how to behave in social settings.

"Our training is training anyone would give a dog," Kretsch said. "Sit, stay, how to walk on a leash, behave, not jump on people, and as a little extra, we socialize them.

"All we do is obedience and behavior training and make sure that the dogs aren't afraid of strangers," she said.

Puppy raisers with The Seeing Eye generally receive their trainer dogs when they are between 7 and 8 weeks old and return them to the school when they are roughly 15 months old, Kretsch explained.

As part of The Seeing Eye's training program, Kretsch and other puppy raisers participate in group events aimed at making their dogs more comfortable around large groups of people and other dogs.

"Once a year we go to a Lakewood BlueClaws game and the dogs sit in the stands and meet people," Kretsch said.

In an attempt to socialize their dogs with small children, trainers with The Seeing Eye visit local elementary schools, where they teach children about guide dogs and allow them to pet the trainer dogs.

"There are some schools we go to every year where we bring a few of the dogs to the younger kids," Kretsch said. "Afterwards, the kids come up and pet the dogs."

Other group activities include rides on commuter trains and walks around the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown.

During the mall walks, trainers will walk their dogs through the mall's main concourse and up and down sets of stairs, Kretsch explained.

Making future guide dogs comfortable in large social settings is an extremely important part of the puppy raisers' training, she said.

"If the dog is out in the real world with a blind person, they will be running into all kinds of people," she said.

If the guide dogs were not trained to behave in social settings, they could become easily distracted and put their handlers in potentially dangerous situations, Kretsch explained.

While trainers with The Seeing Eye participate in a variety of group activities to make their dogs comfortable with social situations, Kretsch said that a majority of training is done during a puppy raiser's personal time.

As expected, trainers usually form a bond with their dogs that can be difficult to break when they have to be returned to The Seeing Eye.

"It's tough," Kretsch said. "That's been the family pet for the last year, and we are used to having them around."

Yet, despite the relationship a trainer forms with their dog, Kretsch said it makes her happy to see the joy that the guide dogs bring to their future owners.

"It's tough to give them up, but you know it's for a good cause," Kretsch said. "The Seeing Eye has testimonials from [guide dog recipients], and you see that this dog, while a pet to us, is an integral part of this person's life. It's their independence."

During her time as a puppy raiser, Kretsch and her family have raised three dogs for The Seeing Eye.

Her first dog, a black Labrador and golden retriever mix named Whoopie, has been working as a guide dog for a blind woman living in West Virginia for four years.

"Knowing you can make a difference in someone's life, someone that may not have been able to go everywhere and do everything, they can now do that because of the dog I helped to raise," Kretsch said.

While puppy raisers volunteer their time with The Seeing Eye, they do receive a stipend from the organization to help pay for dog food.

Yet, Kretsch explained, many of the puppy raisers spend a good deal of their own money to raise their dogs.

"We still buy them toys and beds, and we do that because we enjoy the program and what we are doing," Kretsch said.

Following their behavioral training, dogs being raised for The Seeing Eye are brought to Pennsylvania State University's Department of Veterinary Science for a thorough medical examination.

Once the university's veterinarians clear the dogs for further training, they are brought back to The Seeing Eye to be taught the skills they will need as guide dogs.

After a dog completes its training, those who helped raise it are invited to a special gathering at The Seeing Eye where the dogs show off their newly learned skills.

During one of her visits, Kretsch said she was astonished to watch a dog that she raised sit at the corner of a busy street, look left, then right and after seeing that the road was clear of cars, guide its handler across the street.

Kretsch said one of the most important skills the dogs learn during their training at The Seeing Eye is known as willful disobedience. When taught this skill, a dog will purposely disobey its handler if it feels they are entering a dangerous situation.

It is because of willful disobedience that a dog will sit at a street corner and wait until the road is clear before they cross, even if their handler tells them to move.

Although Kretsch has raised three dogs for The Seeing Eye, only one of them has been adopted as a guide dog.

The second and third dog she trained were ineligible to move on from their behavioral training to their guide dog training because they were found to be uncomfortable around new people. Kretsch subsequently adopted both of the dogs.

She said all of the work she has done for The Seeing Eye is worth it when she thinks about how she has helped people.

Contact Daniel Howley at dhowley@gmnews.com.