A Dog With 'A Job to Do'
Students learn about Pilot Dogs
(Article in The Wheeling Intelligencer, March 18, 2006, by Michelle Blum, Staff Writer)

A group of Warwood youngsters had a special visitor in their classroom Friday as a reward for their hard work and generosity.

The kindergarten students were visited by Winston, a guide dog, and the man for whom he works, Scott Summers of Fairmont, WV.

Summers was to have lunch with members of the Warwood School's LEO Club later in the day.  The younger students took part in a challenge with members of the LEO Club.  In all, the studdnets at Warwood School collected more than $150 for the Columbus-based Pilot Dog program, said kindergarten teacher Chris Doty, who also is the LEO Club's adviser.

Doty said the pennies collected by the younger students out distanced the donations from the older students.  As a result, the kindergarteners will be treated to a pizza party in the future, she said.

Doty said the Warwood Lions Club is sponsor for the LEO group, which is an acronym for Leadership, Experience and Opportunity.  The 30-member group of sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students, she said, takes part in a variety of community service projects.

Also during their visit to the Northern Panhandle, Summers and his wife, Bonnie, will be taking part in the Lions Club District Convention being held this weekend at Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center.

Bonnie Summers said the collected funds will be put to good use.  She said the purchase and training of a dog as well as its handler costs about $7,000.

Scott summers, who is blind, told the students of his relationship with his dog, Winston, both on personal and working levels.  He said Winston is the fourth dog he's had over a 25-year period.  Winston, he said, was trained in Columbus.

Winston sat quietly beside Summers in the classroom, at times crossing his front paws.  At Summers' command, Winston sat up and shook hands with him.  The students got a thrill when at the end of the presentation they had the opportunity to pet Winston, who quietly accepted the love from the young students.

But he told the students they should always ask a guide dog's handler if it can be petted if they come across one in the future -- especially one wearing its working harness.  Petting, Summers said, can lead to distraction for guide dogs, whose main purpose is keeping the people for whom they work safe.

"He has a job to do.  He loves attention, but if you're petting him, and he moves over to you, he's not doing what he's been told to do.  When this happens, I've got to correct him.  That's not fair to Winston." he said.  But Summers said he barely has to use corrective measures with Winston.  "I usually just have to tell him he's been bad," Summers said.

With the students singing "Happy Birthday" to Winston, Summers noted the dog recently celebrated his ninth birthday.  "He's getting up there but he still acts like a puppy," Summers said.

Winston, he said, usually walks into his harness when he brings it out.  When Winston sees summers out of the house alone, "he gets upset because he knows I'll get in trouble." he said.

Summers said Winston goes everywhere people can -- restaurants, airplanes, grocery stores and public buildings.  The dog, he said, knows his right from his left and stops at curbs, steps, and doors.  "How many dogs do you know that can go up an escalator? he said.  "Winston can."  But elevators can be a bit tough for guide dogs to find because of the construction of the doors.   "If I hear the elevator, I will tell him to go in.  I have to know a little about where I'm at so I can tell him where I want to go"  he said.

Pilot Dogs Inc. is a non-profit organization chartered in Ohio in 1950.  The organization is geared to training both guide dogs and their blind masters, according to printed information on the organization.