Learning about guide dogs with the One Happy Hangout crew

Members of One Happy Hangout Place invited a member of the Guide Dog Foundation to learn how to interact with service animals this month.

Bill Schneider, a puppy raiser for the Guide Dog Foundation — an organization focused on providing guide dogs and training to people who are blind or have low vision, free of charge — visited One Happy Hangout Place to teach their members the rights and wrongs when interacting with a guide dog at their building located on Grand Ave. on Dec. 6.

Schneider said he got involved with the Guide Dog Foundation in 2012, when he was looking to find a way to help out people, while spending time with puppies. Schneider said he met Angela Lucas, founder of One Happy Hangout Place, at a local gym, where he brings his guide puppy, Sophie.

Lucas invited Schneider to bring his guide puppy in training, Sophie, to teach her members the best ways to interact with a guide dog, and train Sophie to perform her services in a distracting environment.

“If the dog has a vest on, should you touch it or not? They got an interactive lesson on those rules,” said Lucas. “Once the service vest came off, they were allowed to play with Sophie.”

Lucas said learning about guide dogs prepares the organization’s members on how to interact with a guide dog when in public. For example, Lucas said if they find themselves in a mall and see a guide dog, they’d know not to touch or interact with the dog while it performs its duty.

Lucas said the members of the Hangout crew found the dog cute, and enjoyed learning to interact with service animals. She said they learned the inherit danger that comes with touching a dog or other animal, without permission from the owner. After an hour of interacting with Sophie, and learning to respect guide dogs while they are on duty, Schneider took off her vest, and the members of the hangout crew had their chance to pet and play with Sophie.