Monticello Night at the Cedar Rapids Kernels
June 11, 2010
Lions Club Night at the Cedar Rapids Kernels

January 28, 2009 Express Article "Meet Monti"
MEET MONTI

Lions Club Sponsors seeing eye-dog training

The Monticello Lions Club members met on Monday, Jan. 5 to formally meet Monti, the seeing eye-dog, which the club sponsored last year as part of the Leader Dog for the Blind Program.

That night, the club also donated $500 to the program but it all began one year ago when the Monticello Lions donated the funds needed to start Monti's training. Funding of Leader Dog for the Blind is attributed to three areas: donations from the Lions organizations, individual gifts and endowments interest. Leader Dog receives no state, federal or United Way funding.

Monticello Lion Phil Larabee says that the gesture goes back to the club's motto of service.

Leader Dog for the Blind is a non-profit organization located in Rochester, MI, which has become one of the largest dog guide training facilities in the world. The organization's facilities can house up to 310 dags in training while the Polk residence facility can house up to 24 students at any given time.

Leader Dog has successfully matched and graduated over 13,000 person/dog teams since the school was founded. It is the only institute out of 10 in the U.S. that will train a dog for a person who is both blind and deaf.

Leader Dog has their own breeding stock and does not buy pups for training. The pups are distributed to trainers for their first year of training. Currently, the program has 350 dogs going through their first year of training throughout the U.S.

Inmates at the North Central Correctional Facility is Rockwell City are responsible for training Monti. In 200, this correctional facility began a partnership with Leader Dog like no other in Iowa and possibly in the USA.

Pups are brought to the correctional facility at about eight weeks of age and assigned to an inmate trainer. The dog wortks with their trainer for the next ten months is approximately one year old before returning to Leader Dog for further training.

The trainer's primary goals are to teach the dog basic commands, obedience and socialization skills. The dog goes wherever the trainer does such as work, meals, bed, etc. If the trainer cannot take the pup with him, there are inmates trained to be puppy sitters who will take the dog from time to time. The sitters are taught they are to be an extension of the trainer and must abide by the same guidelines as the trainer.

Pups are fed three times a day when they come to correctional facility and eventually trained to be fed only once per day. Leader Dog requires only Purina Pro Plan is fed to the dogs and at no time is the dog allowed to eat food meant from human consumption. If the dog is allowed to eat food meant for human consumption the animal would gain weight in excess of ideal weight. The extra weight also puts additional strain on the hips, joints and heart of the dog thus shortening their career.

The pups are typically Black and Yellow Labs, Golden Retrievers and German Shepards. Recently Leader Dog started training the American Standard Poodle as guide dogs because the poodle's hair avoids many of the problems some people have with allergies to dog hair.

Only a 60 percent of the dogs will complete this course and go on to assist the disabled. Currently, a dog trained at the Rockwell City facility have a 73 percent success rate. The 10 basic commands include: sit, stand, down, heel, around, stay, come, park, under and leave it.

Once the dog returns to Leader Dog for the Blind, it will go through an extensive physical it will then enter into a four-month extensive final training session to become certified as a Leader Dog.

The final phase of the training is a 26-day training session with the dog and it's new recipient. The student's lodging and housing is all provided at no cost to the new recipient. Once the training is complete between the dog and recipient the dog is donated to the recipient.

HOW TO QUALIFY FOR A LEADER DOG
*Complete the application Process
*Be legally blind
*18 years of age
*Out of high school
*Be of sound mind
*Will use dog for intended manner
*Experienced with a cane

Lions Club member earns award
Monticello Express May 6, 2009

Monticello Lions Club President and Iowa Lions Foundation Trustee Phillip Larabee was awarded the Lions Club International President's Commendation Award at the Multiple District 9 East Central convention held in Mechanicsville March 28. The award was presented by Lions Club International Director Dr. Harold Ott of Boalsburg, PA. Larabee was cited for his contributions as a Trustee to the Iowa Lions Foundation including his work to start, the second in the world, Lions Club International Disabilities Camp in 2011 at Camp Courageous of Iowa. Larabee was also elected to complete the last year of the late Lions Club Past District Governor and Past Council Chair Roger Busch's two-year trustee term.

At the April 19 Iowa Lions Foundation meeting, Trustee Larabee and fellow Lion and Executive Director of Camp Courageous of Iowa Charlie Becker made a proposal on the Lions Club International Disabilities Camp. The proposal received the full support of the Iowa Lions Foundation Board of Trustees. The next step in the process is to take the proposal to Lions Club International Board of Directors. Iowa Lions State Secretary/Treasurer and Past International Director Gary Frey commented he would be working to bring the Lions Club Internationals 2nd Vice President Sidney Scruggs III to Monticello and Camp Courageous of Iowa as soon as his schedule permitted. Once the Lions Club International 2nd Vice President is in town he would tour and hear the proposal on Camp Courageous of Iowa hosting the second in the world International Disabilities Camp and as for his support for this proposal at the Lions Club International Board Meeting.