Super Dogs to the Rescue! 418 How a Local Great Causes Nonprofit Fall’S Fashion Produces Some Must-Buys of the World’S Hope, Change Best Guide Dogs

Guide to Giving

Super Dogs to the Rescue! 418 How a local Great Causes nonprofit Fall’s Fashion produces some Must-Buys of the world’s Hope, Change best guide dogs. & Tomatoes: A Sarasota coalition brings justice to the fields

SARASOTA MAGAZINE | GUIDE TO GIVING 2014 1 A New Breed of

SUPERHEROA Palmetto nonprofit is now producing some of the best guide dogs on earth. Adam Davies sniffs out the story.

To donate or get involved with Southeastern Guide Dogs, visit guidedogs.org or call (941) 729-5665. p hy t kim longstree/ Dog S treet Pet Photogra

2 SARASOTA MAGAZINE | GUIDE TO GIVING 2014 AS SEEN IN

am sitting uncomfortably in an What ensues is an absolute bacchanal for sale. They aren’t vamping for adoption. un-air-conditioned building of face licking, tail wagging, lap bounding, And although you can take one home with on a remote, 35-acre campus in and all-around gamboling and merriment. you for a weekend—more on that soon— Palmetto in a circle of 20 other The puppies—only six weeks old—frolic none of these dogs will ever be owned people. We all have an eager, with each other, nibble on fingers, attack by anyone in this room, for these are not portentous look—we could be shoelaces, pee exultantly in unexpected normal puppies. Ihere for a yoga retreat or a cult’s bonding places, and get cuddled, embraced, tick- These young Labs and golden retrievers exercise or maybe a round of mixed-age led, nuzzled, babytalked, and adored. A and mixes are genetically elite; they are hokey pokey, but we are not. We’re here for yellow Lab slathers a little blond girl into elect; they are fated for greatness. They something rarer and much more thrilling. uncontrollable giggles. A black Lab, biting have been bred in a state-of-the-art The motley crew—elderly people, parents, down on a length of braided rope, plays canine laboratory to be the healthiest, high schoolers, one bemused writer and tug of war with a little boy. Three other most intelligent, most loyal, most patient, kids galore—are all unified in adrenalized puppies get a running start and stampede most super-heroic dogs anywhere in excitement. To express it in the emotional across the room until they slide splay- this country. mathematics of the many goggle-eyed legged into my lap. And in the corner After two years of highly specialized children in the room, the giddy anticipa- one independent-minded fellow gnaws training, they will become graduates of tory vibe is like Christmas morning times on the plastic sheeting around one of the Southeastern Guide Dogs, and they will Disney World times every birthday we’ve bench’s legs that has already been chewed spend every day until their retirement ever had, and then, just when it seems like so often, and so ardently, that it is almost helping people—from the visually im- no one can stand it for one more second, a completely degloved. paired to veterans to the elderly or injured door flies opens and the madcap, bum- This jamboree isn’t a promotion by a or depressed—with the most important of bling, downy-soft puppies rush in. pet shop or a breeder. These dogs aren’t all tasks: recovering their lives.

SARASOTA MAGAZINE | GUIDE TO GIVING 2014 3 Southeastern Guide Dogs is the brainchild of Dr. Harris Silverman cally matched to them; and if a graduate and Robert Miller, who co-founded the nonprofit in 1982. Since then the organi- handler has a problem of any kind with zation has matched more than 2,800 dogs with visually impaired handlers, bringing them a guide dog, someone from Southeastern freedom, mobility and dignity they could otherwise never have known. And starting in will fly out to their home and help both 2006, its Paws for Patriots initiative has placed service dogs with veterans with visual dog and handler work through it. impairments or PTSD and brought dogs to help veterans in military bases and hospitals The cost to the dog’s handler for all of such as Walter Reed, Quantico and Camp Lejeune. this care and training? A mind-boggling zero dollars. Each dog costs about $60,000 to produce, and their Happily, with nearly $25 million in total assets, Southeastern Guide Dogs can afford training is a sophisticated two-year process that requires it. But astonishingly, that money has been the exertions of trainers, scientists, medical staff, accrued not by any kind of grant-writing or governmental aid but entirely by donations. caretakers and volunteers. The secret to their fund raising, Silver- man says, is that people like to donate to It’s impossible to calculate the number from all 48 contiguous states, are thor- programs that are financially solid and that of lives that Southeastern has improved or oughly screened by admissions officers, accomplish real and tangible success. even saved, but here are some factoids that and those who are approved are assisted “Well, that,” he says, “and this.” illustrate the scope of their philanthropic by a matchmaking service that includes Then he holds up a brochure with a pic- efforts: Each one of these dogs costs individual in-house visits to determine ture of a beatific golden retriever puppy. roughly $60,000 to produce; their training what kind of dog would best fit their life- And Silverman is not kidding. These is a sophisticated two-year process that re- style, temperament, and physical needs; dogs are so irresistible that sometimes quires the exertions of trainers, scientists, these student handlers then come to the just an image of one is sufficient to pry medical staff, caretakers and volunteers; campus in Palmetto for a 26-day training funds loose from donors who weren’t even applicants to become handlers, who come course with the dog who has been specifi- thinking about donating. A few years ago, hotos by Jennifer Vare by p hotos Jennifer Vare

Staff veterinarian Dr. Kevin Conrad checks golden retriever Penny’s eyes. Opposite: Geneticist Rachel Goldammer places semen straws into a canister that will be stored in the cryopreservation tank for future breeding; the new $1.75 million Margaret and Isaac Barpal Veterinary Center.

for example, Isaac Barpal, an engineer room complete with cryogenic storage The rest of the campus gives a divided who developed one of the first hybrid preserving literally millions of dollars’ impression, however. Some of the build- electric vehicles and was instrumental worth of doggie DNA, male and female ings, like the student dorms and the puppy in the creation of San Francisco’s BART breeder wards, a treatment/recovery/ICU center and the CEO’s office, which is in the transit system, was riding his motorcycle center, a quarantine room with a special former kitchen of a house, are aging and in down the highway when he saw a puppy ventilation system to provide negative air need of refurbishment or replacing; others, on a billboard promoting Southeastern. pressure so no contaminants or germs like the Keith G. Hirst Canine Assessment Charmed and curious, he pulled off the can escape, a surgical center with positive Center, are brand-new and purpose-built. road, checked out the campus, and, suitably air pressure for the opposite reason, and But wherever you go the attitude is one of impressed, he offered—bang, just like that, a canine lounge that functions as a love focus and discipline and activity. with the why-not caprice of a man making motel for dogs who are slated to procreate Staff in sporty blue polo shirts stride a detour to pick up a gallon of milk at the au naturel. This particular room is kept purposefully about, volunteers avidly store—to pay via matching funds for a “dirty”—uncleaned—for three days after walk dogs on martingale leashes, tour state-of-the-art veterinary center. copulations so as to create the aphro- groups go by in delighted flurries, and Opened in 2013, the $1.75 million Mar- disiacal funk that encourages dogs to everywhere you look are dogs. Quite a garet and Isaac Barpal Veterinary Center mate—but otherwise the whole place is few of the 110 employees bring their own is a 6,000-square-foot medical Xanadu characterized by gleaming Apple comput- pets to work, and if you combine them chock-full of cutting-edge technology. ers, pouty elegant orchids, leather couches with Southeastern’s official wards, there There is an examination room with tables and glossy polished surfaces, producing a can be as many as 200 dogs on campus on hydraulic lifts, an ophthalmology lab, feeling much less like a veterinary center at one time, yet somehow they are never a genetics and reproduction procedures than a concierge-grade medi-spa. underfoot. And strangely they produce almost no noise. You’d expect the place Jennifer Vare BY P HOTOS to be a Thunderdome of barking and howling and humping, but that is not the case. True, the dogs chorus a bit at feeding time, and in the puppy center you’ll hear some playful yipping; but if you were to gather together 200 human teenagers and 200 dogs and measure their manners with a decibel meter, these dogs would win, paws down. How does Southeastern do it? How do they take animals renowned for behavior that includes dining upon their own feces, chewing supposedly unchewable objects and leg-humping guests at dinner parties, and turn them into such gentlemanly squires? According to CEO Titus Her- man, one part of the answer is, simply, its employees and volunteers. “We just have the best people,” he says. He could be referring to Rachel Gold- ammer, a geneticist who in only six years of selective breeding has reduced the rate of hip dysplasia from an average of 50 percent to a startling, nearly miraculous 3 percent and decreased the average puppy mortality rate from 15 percent three years ago to 1.5 percent. Then there is Karen Mersereau, who assesses the dogs after they come back from their “puppy raisers” (volunteers who take the pup- half the story. The other part, of course, is sistence (will a puppy disengage with pies into their homes to teach them basic the dogs’ remarkable training. a food-stuffed kong to engage with a manners and trust) to decide the kind of human?) and patience (will it still engage work for which a dog will be best suited. Over its 32 years, Southeastern’s with a human after being ignored for 15 Or perhaps Suzy Wilburn, who lost most training regimen has evolved into an seconds?) and resilience (is it unruffled of her vision after she was diagnosed with exacting system that recalls in many ways by a motorized snowman that sings an Stargardt disease at age 27 and who works the training of Spartan boys. From the annoying tune?) and social interaction now alongside her Southeastern guide highly advanced genetic science that goes (will it greet a breed of dog it has never dog, Carson, as the head of admissions into breeding every dog to the meticulous seen before?). In their quarters and play and graduate services, deciding which training, these animals are literally made pens they have toys dangling overhead applicants are best suited for dog owner- for their jobs. to encourage them to see things from ship. (About 40 percent of applicants are Their training begins only three days a human perspective—so they can be accepted.) Or perhaps Jacqui Garvey, who, after birth. aware of low-hanging branches or other being in charge of the puppies from birth They learn to trust the people who feed impediments that might pose a risk for until 10 weeks old, might just have—and and handle them. They must accustom their handlers—and they are routinely this is not hyperbole—the best job in the themselves to noises, various surfaces confronted with startling objects that they entire world. and environments, and distractions. learn to understand or negotiate, such as But the workers here, despite their dedi- They are encouraged to investigate the mirrors and surfaces of different textures cation and boundless enthusiasm, are only unknown. They are assessed for per- and teeter-totters and ledges with drop- offs. Then of course there is that “puppy being trained on campus. They will learn a familiar sidewalk, for example, and a hugging,” to help socialize the puppies. a lexicon of over 40 commands, ranging new pothole or other danger suddenly ap- After only 10 weeks, they are able to sit, from directional signals like “forward” to pears, the guide dog must know to move go down, and walk more or less coop- things as arcane as “find my keys.” They in front of the handler and sit, blocking eratively on a leash, and they are given will also have assessments to measure their progress. names—an honor available to any sponsor things like their social tolerance (will Wanting to see for myself the ac- willing to part with $5,000. Then they are they let you fiddle with their ears or mess complishments of these young canine sent out to live with their puppy raisers for with their teeth?) and physical sensitiv- students, I decide to take advantage of the next year and a half. During this time ity (does the harness change the way the Southeastern’s many volunteer programs the dogs will learn the routine matters of dog behaves?) and attentiveness (are they to do some dog walking. (Other opportu- being a dog. They become acquainted with distracted by the presence of other dogs?). nities include signing up for half an hour’s a home, a family, other pets, yards, side- But perhaps most important of all, this worth of puppy hugging, becoming a walks, stairs, squirrels, traffic, you name it. is when they learn “intelligent disobe- puppy raiser, or even applying to borrow, At about 16 months the puppy raisers dience.” Most highly trained dogs are like library books, puppies or adult dogs must return their charges to Southeastern expected to follow orders, and although for the weekend.) I have a neighbor who Guide Dogs—a tearful event that is as- guide dogs will certainly follow orders feels about Labradors roughly the way suaged by a celebration that acknowledges that make sense, they must also be able to most people feel about oxygen, so together the gravity of the dog’s destiny—and then know when to override a command. If a the two of us drive to Palmetto and check they spend their next four to six months visually impaired handler is walking down ourselves out a dog.

Opposite page, from top: Southeastern staffers perform a cardiac assessment on a dog; a mother and her litter, some of the 250 or so puppies born each year on campus. This page, Jacqui Garvey, who oversees the puppies from birth to 10 weeks of age, cuddles some of her charges. Jennifer Vare

SARASOTA MAGAZINE | GUIDE TO GIVING 2014 7 Ours is TK, a muscular yellow Lab “Stop noshing on those flowers.” And later guide dog for anyone, and I say so to the whose skull is wide and thick and heart- propriety urges me to say, “Could you not volunteers when we return him. shaped like a viper’s. A volunteer familiar- lick yourself there for quite so long and And in fact, not every dog at South- izes us with the rules—among them, we with quite so much slobbering joy?” eastern is slated to become a guide dog. must walk with the dog to our left; we The pulling is what startles me most. Those that aren’t deemed suitable for must carry a “busy bag” to clean up any TK is like an Iditarod sled dog with road being matched with a visually impaired excretions; and the sole command we rage, straining against the leash so hard handler—if they have a “lizard distrac- are allowed to give is “sit.” After about 10 that the suffocating constriction of the tion,” say, or are too olfactorily oriented or, like our TK, they have a medieval torturer’s enthusiasm for separating limbs It’s a measure of how lofty the guide dog calling is that from bodies—can instead take up service as a therapy dog for a veteran with PTSD, out of 10 dogs schooled at Southeastern, only four will or perhaps as a sniffer or arson or ambas- pass every hurdle to become guide dogs. sador dog. Some dogs aren’t right for any of these roles, however, and in that case they are slated for adoption. First dibs feet of our walk, however, I realize that I collar makes his breathing labored and go to their puppy raiser; then the dog is will need a much larger, and more drill- wheezy like an old refrigerator. The pres- made available to the public. The very best sergeanty vocabulary to deal with TK. The sure is so intense that I marvel that he dogs are destined to become breeders. first command I’d like to utter is, “Do not doesn’t pass out from asphyxiation—or It’s a measure of how lofty the guide dog pull on the leash so hard that it yanks my yank my arm off. I do admire his zeal, but calling is that out of 10 dogs schooled at neighbor out of her flip-flops.” Another is, I can’t imagine our TK making an unlethal Southeastern, there will be one breeder, p hy KIM LONGSTREET / Dog S treet Pet Photogra Jennifer Vare

Above: Guide dogs must learn to walk in harness in a variety of situations, from a pier on Anna Maria Island to busy downtown Tampa. Opposite: Two children are inundated with affection at one of the popular “puppy huggings,” which help socialize the dogs.

two career-change dogs, three that go in Tampa Bay, hikes in Peru and competes initiative, helping other veterans reclaim to adoption, and only four that will pass in triathlons. their lives. every hurdle to become guide dogs. Then there is Mike Jernigan. A Marine All the handlers have boundless love All across the country, men and women who lost both his eyes and almost half his and gratitude for the dog that led them are leading lives of independence and cranium in Iraq, Jernigan had 30 surger- out of darkness. As admissions director purpose thanks to these astonishing dogs. ies; his wife left him; he was so wracked Wilburn told me: “If I were given a chance The stories of the impact they have are with PTSD and depression that he says he to have a surgery that could totally restore inspiring—and legion. “drank a fifth of Johnny Walker a day and my sight but would require me to give up A former minister who lost his vision basically took off all of 2006.” my dog, it would be no contest. I would and says he moved into assisted living in Then he heard about Southeastern. not get the surgery. I’d keep Carson.” Florida just waiting to die now has his own Jernigan says his dog, Brittani, inspired place and travels the country giving moti- him to go back to school. He graduated Contributing editor Adam Davies just completed vational talks. A retired Army officer who from USF, remarried and now works for his second appointment as writer-in-residence lost her sight to a virus she contracted in a nonprofit for war veterans in Dallas. at New College of Florida; he’s won a number of Iraq became so depressed that she refused And he counts high among his accom- awards for stories for this magazine, including to go out of the house, but thanks to her plishments helping to establish South- for “Best Feature” from the South Florida Society black Lab George, she now races sailboats eastern’s pioneering Paws for Patriots of Professional Journalists in 2013 and 2014. Name: Gibson Home: Sarasota, Florida Age: 8 weeks Education: Preschooler, Southeastern Guide Dogs Profession: Guide dog (in about two years) Studies: Behavior 101; Command .1 Favorite Activity: Standing, stretching, circling, then sleeping Hobbies: Still under development (check me in six months) Attributes: Calm intelligence, eagerness to learn Destiny: To serve. To enable. To delight.

You’d never guess it now, looking at this little ball of frenetic fur, that his destiny is to grow up to become a life-affirming hero. But with your help, that’s exactly what can happen. Thank you, Gibson. The gifts you will give someday are beyond measure—and will be exactly what one deserving person needs to live, thrive and achieve their fullest potential.

Find out how you can help at GuideDogs.org Name: Gibson Home: Sarasota, Florida Age: 8 weeks Education: Preschooler, Southeastern Guide Dogs Profession: Guide dog (in about two years) Studies: Behavior 101; Command .1 Favorite Activity: Standing, stretching, circling, then sleeping Hobbies: Still under development (check me in six months) Attributes: Calm intelligence, eagerness to learn Destiny: To serve. To enable. To delight.

Find out how you can help at GuideDogs.org