Alberto Villalba, from Teruel, and Rosario Belzunces, from Sant Adrià de Besòs (Barcelona), were not born blind. The first, who is 31 years old today, lost his sight and hands at 22, when he was cleaning a garage and a grenade from the Civil War exploded on him. The second, 61, discovered at 27 that she had retinitis pigmentosa, a hereditary disorder that today is responsible for her visual impairment. Both are free. They have guide dogs.
“They are not dogs, they are our eyes, our freedom,” they explain. Alberto’s miracle is Xabat, a black lab. Rosario’s is Nora, a labradoodle or labraniche, a cross between a Labrador and a giant poodle with great added value: they are usually hypoallergenic specimens (they do not cause allergies to people who are intolerant of their fur, like Gemma, Rosario’s daughter). Xabat and Nora’s trainer was Elisenda Stewart.
Eli, as she likes it, is a legend in the canine world and one of the best instructors of the ONCE Guide Dog Foundation. The school of this institution, in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), is under construction to try to double its capacity and reduce waiting lists. The process of selecting, breeding and training the specimens is so meticulous that new applicants must wait between four and five years.
Rosario didn’t wait that long for Nora. She is not a new applicant and in that case the deadlines are reduced to months. She had and still has Daira, 12, retired and sick, which costs her a fortune in drugs. “My apartment is small and before Nora’s arrival, ONCE asked me if I would return Daira. “We’d better cut off an arm,” my husband (José) and I answered.” Daira, who saved his life, will always be one of the family. Like Nora.
They are priceless specimens. ONCE invests a minimum of 31,000 euros in each one and delivers them completely free of charge. At the Boadilla del Monte school, inaugurated in 1999, some 3,800 dogs have been trained. 90% are Labradors, but also Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds and now Labraniches. There are nine guide dogs of this breed in Spain (two are in Catalonia and one is from Rosario).
More than 140 guide dogs are awarded each year. Currently there are a thousand active and 400 people on a waiting list that is constantly growing and is expected to reduce with the expansion of the facilities. The ONCE Guide Dog Foundation beats thanks to hearts like that of the biologist Raquel Blesa, who has been working at this school for 25 years, looks in the mirror of Eli Stewart and has gone through all the departments.
Raquel, 49, started fresh out of college as a kennel keeper and trained as a trainer, supervisor and instructor. The school, she explains, has carefully selected 60 breeding specimens, between males and females, in search of puppies that come close to perfection. “Balanced and willing to please.” The mothers give birth between cotton wool in the center of Boadilla del Monte.
The litter will remain together for a month and a half, until the first vaccination, when the puppies will go with a voluntary foster family for their socialization. They will wear overalls (“future guide dog”) and will get used to going to schools (they are homes with children) and frequenting shopping centers and public transport. They will also learn to control their sphincters and eat only when given a whistle command.
When the cadets are one year old, they will return to school for their final training, which is carried out in two phases and in real environments, both urban and rural. Orders such as looking for (a door in the subway, in an elevator, in a room), marking (a curb, a staircase, a fence…), right, left or straight will be part of his life. They are not four-legged GPS. Their humans must guide them and know how to orient themselves.
It is not enough to be a member of ONCE to qualify for one of these animals. They are not pets or therapy dogs. Not all visually impaired people can have one. Someone sedentary, who does not know how to move with a cane, would not take advantage of all the possibilities of autonomy of this resource. They have to be users like Alberto Villalba, the first blind person and double amputee in the world with a guide dog.
The lack of hands and vision did not discourage Alberto, who conspired to be “the same as he was before the accident.” His girlfriend, Bea, and his family, the blood family and the ONCE family, gave him the final push. Before having Xabat, it took him an hour and a half to get to the gym in a small capital like Teruel. He had problems with the prosthetics to manage the cane, but he had the itinerary engraved in his mind…
A special harness and the extraordinary conditions of Xabat, enhanced by the trainer Eli Stewart, now allow Alberto to complete the same journey in less than half an hour. Xabat, explains Raquel Blesa, also an instructor, “is a gem: he knows how to stay very still while they put on the harness and, unlike most of his people, he doesn’t demand pampering. Or he demands other cuddles, those that his human can give him ”.
“Many citizens, captivated by the beauty and selflessness of these beings, cannot resist the temptation to caress them or give them sweets. No, please!” pleads Raquel, who remembers that they are working and should not be distracted. Labradors also have a small big problem: their excessive gluttony and their tendency to gain weight. Being overweight is one of Daira’s problems, Rosario Belzunces’ retired dog.
“Some time ago, in a hotel in Navarra, the cook presented us with a gift that was as well-meaning as it was inappropriate: a boneless chicken! We thanked her a million times, but we told her that Daira was already very obese at that time and needed a very special type of diet so that her size would not get out of control,” explains Rosario, who took years to convince herself that she was an ideal candidate. for a guide dog.
Now she has a disability pension, but Rosario has been and is very active (as a young woman, before the retinitis pigmentosa manifested itself, she was a volunteer for the Red Cross, a yacht skipper and an ambulance driver). Never for. She continues to be part of the ONCE executive in Catalonia. She for years sold coupons (those very coupons that, among other things, allow guide dogs to be delivered at no cost).
He toured the city. He worked in kiosks in Poblenou, on Passeig de Gràcia… And since he had some remaining vision (in reality he only sees lumps without definition), he believed he was not entitled to a canine guide. So until one day he fell on the subway stairs and was out for nine months. That allowed Daira to come into his life some time later. And Daira has amply rewarded her. Obedience is embedded in the DNA of these animals…
But training also allows what ethologists call intelligent disobedience. One day Rosario wanted to cross a road. The acoustic signal from the traffic light told her that it was green, or so she understood it, who told Daira “straight, straight.” But Daira did not flinch. Rosario insisted and the dog offered even more resistance. At that moment, a lady came running: “Don’t come in, don’t come in! A tram is coming!”
Rosario knew it right then. They weren’t a human and a dog. They were a unit, as the ONCE Guide Dog Foundation longs for. A perfect assembly. Two beings who love each other, need each other and help each other. Daira has accepted Nora’s arrival without jealousy, with relief. She has a hard time walking and, when she does, without her harness, she continues to stop at the curbs and protect Rosario. Her eyes, her freedom.
