The Good Shepherd Service Dogs

The Good Shepherd Service Dogs Training guide and service dogs to help people regain their independence. I apprenticed for four years under a Seeing Eye guide dog trainer in the early 70s.

I have been training guide dogs off and on ever since. I trained a service dog for someone not visually impaired for the first time in 1980. I now train both guide dogs and various other types of service dogs.

01/18/2025

It's coyotes mating season. Pets, especially in urban areas, are at risk from coyotes attacks. There are two reasons the attacks are worse in urban areas. 2. There are a higher concentration of pets in urban areas. 2. There are a higher concentration of coyotes in urban areas. Yes. There are more coyotes living in urban areas, than in either rural or wilderness areas.

10/26/2024

This is a widespread problem with guide and service dog teams everywhere.

10/26/2024
10/25/2024

There was a problem with the go fund me site and we've and Gilles is canceling it and going to use another platform.

Sorry for any trouble this may have caused.

10/22/2024

I was looking over some old training videos. Here is one of me doing blindfold training at the transit center in SierraVista AZ. This youngster is named Ranger. I was training him as a guide dog. The video starts with Ranger guiding me along the line of bus bays. He brought me to the correct bus. The driver had extended a ramp, and Ranger brought me to the end of the ramp and stopped. I felt for the edge, then gave the "forward" and we went up the ramp inside the bus. The ramp is scary.

I later explained to the driver that using the ramp is harder for someone blind, or wearing a blindfold, to get on the bus, than it is to going to the bus door and up the steps with a railing to hold to. The ramp is open on the sides and has no railing. If you don't walk straight, you can fall off the side of the ramp. It does have a low lip which works to keep a wheelchair from falling off. But it won't stop someone walking from falling. But Ranger saw to keeping me straight.

Sorry for the blurriness of the video. This was taken on a flip phone with a mediocre camera.

10/21/2024

This video was taken in 2020. It shows me in Blindfold being guided by Ranger towards a bus. Ranger stops at the bottom of the bus ramp. I feel for the ramp with my foot. Feeling that I am in the right spot, I praise Ranger and go forward onto the bus.

10/10/2024

Saoirse, with her German Shepherd guide dog Leader, and a Lab puppy, practicing stays at a park in SierraVista AZ.

We had to change locations several times because of active africanized bees. Something had the bees agitated.

10/10/2024

Saoirse and her guide dog Leader doing an off leash recall.

Leader is left on a stay while Saoirse follows voice directions to get to the requested distance. She stops when directed and turns to face the direction she left Leader at. When she calls him, he runs eagerly to her bypassing an adolescent Labrador without a glance.

10/10/2024

No training, but cuteness abounds.

Dog Training In the Dark with Saoirse Kraft
10/09/2024

Dog Training In the Dark with Saoirse Kraft

No training, but cuteness abounds.

10/08/2024

It's been a while since I wrote an update. Mainly because after losing our breeding dogs last April in the Williams wildfire, we've had no puppies to relate the development, testing, raising and training of. The litter which was 2 weeks old at the time of the fire developed physical issues from the styrene gas they were exposed to. They were rehomed to loving homes. We had other puppies donated to us, they turned out to be unsuitable to be service or guide dogs, so they were rehomed as well. Currently, we are doing owner assist training. And if anyone needs us to provide a trained service dog or guide dog, we will have to search out a promising dog or pup. Hopefully this will change in the near future. More on that in a later post.

We have been struggling to come back. Money is tight and there are so many expenses we have to juggle. We are very close to dropping all the balls. Now on top of needing to do a lot of work on this property, our car needs some care as well. We are going to be doing a fund raiser to help with these much needed repairs and unavoidable expenses.

Leader, Saoirse's guide dog, has become very intuitive. They (Leader and Saoirse) have become a very good team. They are doing difficult traffic work, handling unanticipated obstacles, there are several places memorized which Saoirse has given a name to for Leader to go to by name. He still likes to play his game of finding the most expensive vehicle in a parking lot when told to find the car. He looks out for better routes such as finding a route which has less up or down steep stairs which Saoirse has difficulty with.

Pilgrim took a long time to recover from the trauma. But he is nearly back to his old self. Pilgrim is a precise worker. While Leader is more intuitive. Not that Pilgrim shows no Intuition. Just that he is not quite as intuitive as Leader. It was nearly a year after the fire before he was ready to work again. But when he indicated he wanted to work by going back and forth from his harness and me, I gave him a try. As soon as I let him get the harness on, he focused on the guide work. He hadn't forgotten anything and worked like a dream.

We have plans for interesting content which we will be posting about in the near future. So as they used to say on TV, keep tuned for further developments.

Address

Bisbee, AZ
85603

Telephone

(520) 335-7073

Website

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Videos

I was looking over some old training videos. Here is one of me doing blindfold training at the transit center in SierraVista AZ. This youngster is named Ranger. I was training him as a guide dog. The video starts with Ranger guiding me along the line of bus bays. He brought me to the correct bus. The driver had extended a ramp, and Ranger brought me to the end of the ramp and stopped. I felt for the edge, then gave the "forward" and we went up the ramp inside the bus. The ramp is scary. I later explained to the driver that using the ramp is harder for someone blind, or wearing a blindfold, to get on the bus, than it is to going to the bus door and up the steps with a railing to hold to. The ramp is open on the sides and has no railing. If you don't walk straight, you can fall off the side of the ramp. It does have a low lip which works to keep a wheelchair from falling off. But it won't stop someone walking from falling. But Ranger saw to keeping me straight. Sorry for the blurriness of the video. This was taken on a flip phone with a mediocre camera.

This video was taken in 2020. It shows me in Blindfold being guided by Ranger towards a bus. Ranger stops at the bottom of the bus ramp. I feel for the ramp with my foot. Feeling that I am in the right spot, I praise Ranger and go forward onto the bus.

Saoirse, with her German Shepherd guide dog Leader, and a Lab puppy, practicing stays at a park in SierraVista AZ. We had to change locations several times because of active africanized bees. Something had the bees agitated.

Saoirse and her guide dog Leader doing an off leash recall. Leader is left on a stay while Saoirse follows voice directions to get to the requested distance. She stops when directed and turns to face the direction she left Leader at. When she calls him, he runs eagerly to her bypassing an adolescent Labrador without a glance.

This video is Saoirse and Leader going from my car towards the front of the Safeway store. They start beside the car in the parking lot. I'm parked in front of a sidewalk which runs along the side wall of the store. They follow the car to the hood and Leader stops at the curb of the sidewalk. Saoirse balances with her left hand on his withers to step up the high curb. She confirms with me which way to turn, gathers up the harness handle, and proceeds to go to the entrance. When they reach the end of that wall, they turn left and out of view.

This is a video of Saoirse and Leader going to Safeway. They walk around a corner and pass the rows of shopping carts outside the store, and turn left at the end to get to the front of the store. They need to make another left to get to the doors. Turning right would bring them to other stores and businesses.

These are the two saddle puppies. First to the fence is Luca, aka Dragonheart, then is Titan.

Here is a video of the three puppies which were donated recently. The one that came to the gate first is Luca. He will be registered as Nagala's Dragonheart. The other saddle puppy is Titan which will be registered as Nagala's Titan. The black puppy is Dubh. Haven't decided on registered name yet.

Shadow and his partner loading into a vehicle with his mother's supervision.

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About The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd is a guide dog and service dog private training school. I, Joy Van Veen, train and provides guide dogs and other service dogs to those in need. The dogs come from my own training program, donations, purchased from reputable breeders, and occasionally from rescues. I breed German Shepherds but train various breeds. I am a private trainer but do offer a generous sliding scale as well as a 20% discount for veterans. Puppies or adolescents are occasionally available as pets.