It’s a dog’s life
Professor Michael Vitale and Rhys
There is no denying that Australians love their dogs and Dogtober is the perfect time to celebrate all things pooch.
Even within the corridors and lecture theatres of Monash, the pitter patter of paws can be heard as Director of the Monash Asia-Pacific Centre for Science and Wealth Creation, Professor Michael Vitale takes his dog for a walk.
For the last few years, Professor Vitale has been involved in training a number of four-legged friends to become assistance dogs for the vision impaired.
“I was walking across the University campus one day and I saw a blind student with a dog. It immediately stuck me that training would be a great way to get a dog. Since then I have worked with both Guide Dogs Victoria and Seeing Eye Dogs Australia. Both do fantastic work to help those with a visual disability live a fulfilling life,” Professor Vitale said.
Students have quickly become accustomed to the presence of a dog in the classroom, even if their snoring can sometimes be a slight distraction.
“Generally speaking, all of the dogs are very well mannered but there have certainly been odd occasions when they have misbehaved. I’ve learned to just cease talking, stop them doing whatever they are doing, and then simply carry on.”
The training undertaken by Professor Vitale involves teaching basic obedience commands (such as "sit", "stand", "wait" and "stay") through to more destination work such as finding the office, or finding the coffee.
“I spend a few hours a day working and walking with the dogs. When we don’t have one I still spend that time exercising so they really don’t take up any extra time.”
Currently, Professor Vitale is in the midst of training the very calm and gentle Maisie, a one-year-old yellow labrador from Eye Dogs Australia.
Professor Vitale is incredibly committed to the training processes, even taking it upon himself to teach one of his dog’s Chinese.
“I knew that one of my dogs Rhys was going to be sent to Taiwan as the country’s very first Guide Dog, so I asked one of my Chinese students to teach me how to say sit, stay, come, etc. I came across a group of Chinese tourists is a city park one day and showed them what Rhys could do. Every one of them had a try and I’m sure their major memory of Melbourne is the dog who spoke Chinese,” Professor Vitale said.
Dogtober is an initiative designed to create awareness of the importance of Assistance Dogs within the community and to encourage people to lend a paw.
To find out more visit the Dogtober website.