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NORTH WEBSTER - Ordinarily, getting a puppy would not cause such a commotion.
But this is no ordinary puppy.
Katie, a German shepherd born Dec. 17, is in training to be a Leader Dog. And her foster mother, Daphne Yoh, is a teacher at North Webster Day Care Center.
As a "puppy raiser," one of Yoh's main responsibilities is to "socialize" Katie. "She needs to be able to go anywhere a blind person would go," Yoh said.
So every day Katie goes to work with Yoh - and the kids at the day care center couldn't be more pleased.
The parents and students in Yoh's class of 10 4- and 5-year-olds are now fans of the puppy, and each morning Yoh and Katie make the rounds of all the classes.
While Katie is now quite comfortable with all the kids, Yoh said she was a little worried at first.
"The first day here, she screamed," Yoh said, chuckling, last week at the center. "The first night at home, she screamed. She had just been taken away from her seven brothers and sisters, and she doesn't just whine, she screams."
After that first day and night, however, Katie adjusted quickly and now appears to take the noise and activity of the day care center in stride, napping peacefully while the kids romped, talked, laughed and played around her.
Yoh takes Katie everywhere she goes, and Kosciusko County residents may soon get used to the sight of Katie walking on her leash with her official "Leader Dog in Training" bandanna.
Katie has been to church, Wal-Mart, Bob Evans, Arby's and other places with Yoh, and she said, "This dog is amazing." She said at restaurants Katie immediately lies down under the table and goes to sleep. The first time at church, Yoh said, Katie waited until during the first prayer to whine and bark, but she's been quiet and well-behaved since then.
Federal law requires that trained guide dogs be allowed to accompany their owners everywhere, but that law does not extend to puppies in training, Yoh said. Though she calls ahead and explains the situation and gets permission wherever she goes, businesses still don't have to let her bring Katie in, though most do.
"The manager at Marsh said he would rather have her come in now and get used to the store and the people instead of waiting until she was a guide dog and coming in for the first time and freaking out," Yoh said.
Because Leader Dogs aren't allowed to relieve themselves while they're in harness, Yoh also must train Katie to wait to go until she is told to "go park."
And that's only one of the items on a list of do's and don't's that accompanied Katie to Yoh's house.
Leader Dogs are held to a higher standard because they must be comfortable, confident and welcome in all sorts of environments and situations. What other puppies may do, Katie cannot: She can't be on furniture, can't be fed from the table, can't ride in a car with her head out the window, shouldn't be teased and is not allowed to growl or snap at people or other dogs.
Yoh is even discouraged from throwing a ball for Katie to catch - Leader Dogs can't get in the habit of chasing balls when the dogs are on the job, Yoh said.
Katie also must get used to walking on different kinds of surfaces and using conveyances like elevators, Yoh said.
A "puppy counselor" in Fort Wayne checks with the Yoh family once a month to see how the training is going and to offer suggestions about any problems or concerns.
After living with Yoh and her family (which includes Yoh's husband, .... and their two older dogs) for a year, Katie will return to Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester, Mich., where she will receive more intensive training and will be evaluated. If she makes the cut as a Leader Dog, Katie will be paired with a blind or a blind and deaf person, who will live with her for 25 days at the school in Rochester so they can train together.
If for some reason she is not selected as a Leader Dog, Katie still can be used for search and rescue or for breeding purposes, though she will be spayed if she becomes a Leader Dog.
Yoh said she knows it will be hard to give Katie back next January, but she also knows it's for a good cause.
"I love her as much as I love the other two, but I know there's something different," Yoh said.
Still, she's already applied for another puppy as soon as Katie is gone, and that will be just fine for the kids in her day care class, who named themselves "Katie's Kids" and take turns feeding her and making sure she has water.
"Anybody can do this," Yoh said. "It's just my way of giving back."
