An Oceanographer’s Guide
Adventures of a blind oceanographer and her seeing eye dog
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City Dog

Posted by Britt Raubenheimer 
· Monday, July 11th, 2016 

Hugger in the gazebo along the nature path, waiting patiently while I use my bird song app to try to identify the NJ bird that’s been taunting me with an unknown song.

Hugger in the gazebo along the nature path, waiting patiently while I use my bird song app to try to identify the NJ bird that’s been taunting me with an unknown song.

Yesterday Hugger and I went to NYC. It was packed, partly owing to the protests that were occurring near the Port Authority, where we parked. As usual, Hugger zipped through the crowds, weaving right, then left to get around a group, seeing free space and surging forward to take the lead, but always stopping at the down curb to wait for my signal to cross. She seems to thrive on being busy.

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 Three photos of Hugger playing fetch with her kong in the free run area. She has learned not only to bring it back, but to put the kong in my hand, or touching my feet. Hugger moves fast! I took about 100 photos to get a few with her in them - one of the instructors helped me throw out the photos with only artificial grass, tails, ears, or walls.


Three photos of Hugger playing fetch with her kong in the free run area. She has learned not only to bring it back, but to put the kong in my hand, or touching my feet. Hugger moves fast! I took about 100 photos to get a few with her in them – one of the instructors helped me throw out the photos with only artificial grass, tails, ears, or walls.

At AGU this fall, even with 20,000 people exiting meetings at the same time, we will have no problems finding seats for lunch. Hugger will make sure we’re at the front of the line.

She also was calm as could be on the subway. The crowds were thinner here, but its loud underground, and I always get a bit nervous trying to hear what’s going on around me. It’ll be great to have Hugger there to keep me settled, though I think its usually supposed to work the other way around.

I’m excited to see how she does in the lower key “country” environment. She doesn’t get distracted by dogs, and completely ignored the horse-drawn carriages in the city, so I expect she’ll do great. Also, I received her “puppy report” this afternoon, and it sounds like her puppy raiser exposed her to every environment, including cities, buses, trains, subways, museums, hospitals, plays, sports games, music events, and rural areas (also including the penitentiary – I hope I don’t have to rely on that experience, smile).

Today is a day off, which we started by enjoying the leisure path (and stopping to try to identify the bird songs), and playing with her kong in the free run. A good start to a relaxing day (despite the 5:30am wake-up call, smile).

About Britt Raubenheimer

Britt driving a small boat, with electrical engineer Bill Boyd (SIO) giving instructions (5 deg right, oops now a little left, ….).

Britt driving a small boat, with electrical engineer Bill Boyd (SIO) giving instructions (5 deg right, oops now a little left, ….).

Britt Raubenheimer is a senior scientist at WHOI, studying the processes along our coasts, including the effects of storms on water levels, flooding, and erosion, and the effects of waves, tides, and winds on sediment transport, pollution, and groundwater behavior (see the PVLAB website). She lost her vision suddenly in 2003 owing to optic nerve atrophy, and trained with her first Seeing Eye™ dog in May 2005. As an employer, WHOI actively considers how we can assist employees with disabilities to be successful! In this situation, WHOI has provided Britt [and others in a like situation] with salary support to enable her to take time to train with her guides.

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