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Puppy People
Imagine taking a lovely puppy into your family. You love and train it through its first year, knowing
that at the end of the year, you'll have to give it up. That's just what puppy raisers do. Puppy raisers raise
guide dogs for blind and very weak people.
When a potential guide dog puppy is about eight weeks old, it goes to live with a family, sleeping inside
the house as a member of the family. It's fine if the family has lots of children or other pets, since a guide
dog needs to learn how to behave no matter who or what else is around.
The puppy raiser's duty is not to turn the puppy into a guide dog, but to make the dog a well-behaved
family member. That means someone must spend special time with the puppy, playing with it and training it.
Guide dogs take blind people into a complex world. There are many interesting things that could keep
the dog from working. The puppy raiser helps the puppy become socialized, or well-behaved in groups, by
giving it the chances to experience lots of new environments and praising it when it stays quiet. Visits to the
park, shopping centre, and bus stop are all very helpful field trips for the puppy. Since guide dogs may have
to travel in cars, buses, planes and boats, puppy raisers try to give their puppies useful experiences of this
nature too. Many puppy raisers even take their puppies to work with them.
Although the puppy raiser is not responsible for training the puppy to be a guide dog, the puppy can
be taught orders which can be easily understood. Everyday training classes teach the dog such easy orders
as "Sit," "Down," and "Stay." The one order the puppy is not taught is "Heel," because a guide dog stands in
front of the trainer, not at the trainer's side.
Dogs love to eat, but it is important for future guide dogs to learn to eat only from their own bowls.
They can be easily attracted by smells of food and something they can see while they are working, so there
can be no asking for food at the table and no things from strangers.
When the dog is between a year and eighteen months old, the puppy raiser's job is over. The dog is
now ready to do its real work. The family members have given their time and care to the dog. When their
work is done, they always feel sad to give up the dog they have loved so much.
They can do it only because they know someone else needs the dog more than they do.
1. puppy 小狗 2. raiser 饲养者 3. potential 有潜力的
4. behave 行为举止 5. complex 复杂的 6. socialized 合群的
7. praise 表扬 8. responsible 负责的
1. A potential guide dog puppy goes to live with a family because _______.
A. people love to have them
B. it needs someone to look after it
C. the family can teach him guiding skills
D. it has to learn to become well-behaved
2. The meaning of "Heel" in the 5th paragraph is "_______".
A. Follow me
B. Stay with me
C. Walk beside me
D. Stand in front of me
3. As puppy raisers, they shouldn't _______.
A. feed the puppy at the table
B. take the puppy for field trips
C. praise the puppy when it behaves badly
D. teach the puppy some easy orders
4. According to the text, to raise a puppy guide dog, you have to _______.
A. know a lot about blind people
B. take the dog to work with you
C. give the dog a lot of time and care
D. have many children and other pets
