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Creating steady guidance

With the help of the Coast Guard, trainers prepare guide dogs for sea travel.

By SHADI RAHIMI
Published March 29, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Cleo's wiry legs shook as her long toenails scratched against the metal ramp of a patrol boat, docked at the St. Petersburg base of the Coast Guard.

The ramp swayed slightly. The 8-month-old Hungarian vizsla puppy hesitated, looking back nervously.

"Good girl, Cleo, good girl," said DeEtte Collett, 41, as she led Cleo across the ramp to join 20 other prospective guide dogs who boarded a boat Tuesday for the first time.

The dogs were the first trained by Southeastern Guide Dogs Inc., based in Palmetto, to feel a boat's nonskid surface, sniff the warm salty air and adjust their sense of balance to the gentle rippling of the Tampa Bay waters.

The school asked the Coast Guard to let the dogs board the 110-foot-long boat to expose them to the types of experiences guide dogs might encounter, said Tasha Tully, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

The idea came after the guide dog of a blind patron became agitated aboard a cruise ship, she said.

"When a blind person gets a dog, they have no idea what kind of life they're going to have," said Kim Thomson, 47, a fifth-grade teacher and dog school volunteer who walked a collie named Skipper across the ramp.

"Our job is to expose the dogs to everything possible."

[Last modified March 29, 2006, 01:23:20]