China News Agency, Guangzhou, May 15th, title: Hong Kong trainer: Let more visually impaired people live a more decent life
China News Agency reporter Cai Minjie
There is a special school covering an area of about 400 square meters in Haizhu District, Guangzhou.
The dog trainer wears a blindfold and gives instructions to let the dog lead around obstacles such as boxes and isolation belts.
Li Yuanzhen was instructing the training skills of the dog trainers. "I want to use my knowledge and skills to promote the development of the guide dog business in Guangzhou, so that more visually impaired people can live a more independent and decent life."
May 15 this year is the 32nd National Day of Helping the Disabled.
Visually impaired people are a huge special group in society. For them who cannot see the light in their eyes, guide dogs are undoubtedly the second pair of eyes for the visually impaired. They are their walking sticks and life partners.
Li Yuanzhen from Hong Kong is a guide dog instructor certified by the International Guide Dog Federation and is now the principal of the Guangzhou Guide Dog School.
She liked small animals since she was a child. By chance, she applied to become a foster family of guide dogs, started working as guide dogs, and became an international guide dog instructor.
In 2019, due to the words of the tutor: "Go to a place where the guide dog business has just started, you can pass on what you know and learn", Li Yuanzhen gave up the good job opportunities overseas and chose to guide the blind in Guangzhou. Dog training work, "I want to make the Guangzhou guide dog training model more mature and make it safer for visually impaired people to use guide dogs."
Li Yuanzhen said that as a working dog, guide dogs must undergo strict screening and training before "taking up the post", and every detail of the training is related to the safety of the visually impaired.
The dog trainer should teach them to think, train them to lead the way and find the target ability.
For example, when a guide dog brings its owner home, he must know how to avoid obstacles, find escalators and elevator buttons in shopping malls, find seats in the carriage, etc. "I hope the society can open up more places for guide dogs to train. "Li Yuanzhen said.
In Guangzhou at that time, when the guide dog business started soon, Li Yuanzhen encountered many difficulties. For example, when the dog trainer trained guide dogs, he would encounter a lot of inconvenience and discrimination when entering and leaving public places such as supermarkets and buses.
But for Li Yuanzhen, the biggest difficulty is the lack of mentors.
When every dog trainer goes out to train dogs, the instructor needs to be there for guidance, but she is the only one who has been certified by the International Guide Dog Federation. "Our school has 6 dog trainers, and I spend almost every day on training In terms of the guidance of dog masters, it is imminent to cultivate more talents." Li Yuanzhen said.
"A visually impaired friend once told me that with the help of a guide dog, he can go to school and work independently, and can go where he wants to go. Moreover, the guide dog accompanies him like a family member, which makes him very happy. Satisfaction." In Li Yuanzhen's eyes, guide dogs can bring visually impaired people a more independent and dignified life, which is the motivation for her to persist in this job.
Li Yuanzhen said that although the training of guide dogs is strict, there is no coercive behavior. If the dog fails to meet the standard in the training, he will let him withdraw from the training and find a suitable social family for him. "There was a dog before. He trained dogs with excellent training results, but he could not become a guide dog due to his body shape, so he 'changed his major' to become a cure dog and began to accompany children with autism."
After years of hard work, Guangzhou has become more and more accepting of guide dogs.
Many citizens pay attention to the growth of guide dogs through the "Cloud Adoption" online project, and fund the development of guide dog schools.
"Thanks to the support of people in the society, the problem of our operation has been solved." Li Yuanzhen said.
At present, the school plans to train 18 guide dogs every year that can serve the society, but the number and speed of training are far from keeping up with the demand. This is what Li Yuanzhen and colleagues are trying to solve.
"I hope the society can fully accept guide dogs, and guide dogs in training or work will no longer encounter rejections and obstacles. At the same time, the public can pay more attention to and tolerate the disadvantaged groups around them." Li Yuanzhen said.
(Finish)