Fidelco is an organization that breeds and trains seeing eye guide dogs in Bloomfield, CT. The organization was founded by Charlie Kaman. Charlie is an engineer and inventor of many helicopter parts and the ovation guitar. They have about 100 dogs in training. They live with foster parents until they are about 14-18 months old. The dogs then go through about a 6 month training to learn their skills as guide dogs. Both Ben and I had a lesson on what it's like to be blind and guided by the dog. The trainer took us through a small obstacle course with cones, barriers, turns and crosswalk steps. The number one rule is to stop when the dog stops. For me, it felt like he was walking too fast but that's mostly because I'm not used to moving with no sight. I love dogs and these are the most behaved, ready to please dogs I've ever seen.
We also enjoyed a tour of the kennel and demostrations. We watched the CT State Police K9 unit and dog obiedence demo.
Ben and I really enjoyed our day at Fidelco.

# posted by Curt @ 7:05 AM