Guide Dogs for the Blind

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Last night I was listening to Peter White's programme A Dog's Life on BBC Radio4 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association. He summarised the history and I wonder whether the forum can provide any details of the WWI origins.

"During the First World War, a doctor looking after war-wounded in Germany, was called away from a blind man with whom he was walking in the grounds of the hospital. The doctor left his German shepherd with the man and was subsequently so impressed by the dog's behaviour that he decided to start experiments in training dogs to act as guides for the blind."

http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/fileadmin/gdma...ofGuideDogs.doc

One of the early core trainers for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was a Captain Nicolai Liakhoff "a former officer of the Russian Imperial Guard." Is anything known of his WWI service?

[Terry_Reeves]

Interesting subject. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has an entry for him, unfortunately I don't have an on-line account. I'll have a look in the local library next week. If nobody else comes back on this, I'll post any relevant information.

TR

[centurion]

A nice story but in many aspects it may be incorrect. French military hospitals appear to have experimented with guide dogs for the blind in the 18th Century. The first concrete evidence of their use however is in 1847 when Jakob Birrera Swiss citizen published an account of using one for five years. It is believed that they were trained at the Austria Institute for the Blind founded by Johann Wilhelm Klein in 1819.

WW1 with many men being blinded was certainly when  major centres for the training of guide doogs took off with the fisrt major centre being set up in 1916 at Oldenburg followed by Potsdam and then all over Germany with more than 600 dogs a year being trained. This was all led by a Dr. Gerhard Stalling and his methods of training formed the basis for those in use today. Whether or not Stalling was the doctor in the story using dogs to guide the blind seems unlikely have been a sudden inspiration as it was already known and practiced especially in the German speaking world.

[Terry_Reeves]

The question was , I believe, about Liakhoff's service in the Russian Army.

TR

[centurion]

The question was , I believe, about Liakhoff's service in the Russian Army.

TR

No it also included the question "I wonder whether the forum can provide any details of the WWI origins" and that is what I covered so please don't tell me what I can answer and what I can't

[Terry_Reeves]

The question was about Liakoff's WW1 servicea nd WW1 origins. Stop wrecking other people's posts.

TR

[centurion]

The question was about Liakoff's WW1 servicea nd WW1 origins. Stop wrecking other people's posts.

TR

Just answering a question  not wrecking anybody's post

[MartinWills]

Liakhoff was one of two sons of an army office, General Dmitry Liakhov and was born in Odessa in April 1897.

Yes, he served in a Cossack regiment in the Russian Imperial Army; was a member of the Tsar's household guard and was awarded the order of St George for bravery in WW1. By 1920 he was in the anti-bolshevik forces as aide-de-camp to General Wrangel. The white russians eventually evacuated the Crimea in late 1920 and he escaped to Paris via Constantinople.

Building on work done in Potsdam to train dogs for blinded German servicemen a school had been established in Switzerland and in due course (1932) Liakhoff started, with great success, as an apprentice trainer. In 1933 he moved to Wallasey and the nascent British Guide Dogs organisation and never looked back.

He was married to a Russian Princess and died in 1962.

Sadly I can add little more about the work in Potsdam which clearly built on initiatives from before the Great War but like so many other initiatives of the period grew out of a need to provide for war wounded and incapacitated.

[per ardua per mare per terram]

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has an entry for him, unfortunately I don't have an on-line account. I'll have a look in the local library next week.

Thanks for that Terry, I didn't think to look for him there. My local library subscribes to both the hardbacks and online version. They offer it online to all library users via their electronic resources, maybe your local library will offer it in future.

"Liakhoff, Nicolai [Nikolay Liakhov] (1897–1962), pioneer of guide dog training, was born on 17 April 1897 in Odessa, Russia, one of the two sons of General Dmitry Liakhov, an army officer. He joined a Cossack regiment of the Russian imperial army, and was a member of the household guard of Tsar Nicholas II. He was awarded the order of St George for bravery during the First World War, and in 1920 he served as aide-de-camp to General Wrangel, leader of the anti-Bolshevik forces. When the White Russian army was forced to evacuate the Crimea in November 1920, Liakhoff escaped to Constantinople and from there found his way to Paris. In 1925 he married Princess Irina Urusova, another Russian refugee: they had two daughters. He worked in Paris as a taxi driver and waiter before moving in 1930 to Switzerland, where he became a driving instructor."

Anne Pimlott Baker, ‘Liakhoff, Nicolai (1897–1962)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/71948, accessed 21 Dec 2009]

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Thanks also to those who gave details about the work done at Potsdam in WWI.

[TonyE]

The question was about Liakoff's WW1 servicea nd WW1 origins. Stop wrecking other people's posts.

TR

Tut tut, and this the season of goodwill....

Try reading the first paragraph of Per Ardua's original post.

Regards

TonyE

[centurion]

Just heard a BBC Radio 4 programme on the subject (I have a steam wireless installed in my horseless carriage). It confirmed and enhanced some of the stuff I'd already picked up

 It would seem that Klein published a manual on guide dog training. Stalling was based at the Blind Institute at Vienna founded by Klein back in the early 19th century and picked this up and suggested that this be adopted for blind ex servicemen. (So the story about him seeing his dog with a blinded veteran and having a stroke of inspiration is probably just a nice story). The German Government picked this up and by 1917 the first 100 dogs were trained (using army messenger dogs as a source of animal), by 1918 600 dogs had been trained. Whilst Potsdam was not the first training centre, post war it was the centre of such training. This came to the notice of an American dog trainer and breeder based in Switzerland - a Mrs Eustace and she adopted/adapted the techniques in use at Potsdam using Swiss army messenger dogs.

In 1931 two British dog breeders decided to start guide dog training and Mrs Eustace loaned them two trainers. By 1933 they were ready for a full time trainer of their own and Liakhoff transfered to them. His methods were sometimes unusual if not dangerous (and today some would not be allowed on dog welfare grounds). It would seem that the Captain as he was known was a larger than life figure and brooked no criticism.

BTW it seems that the Romans used guide dogs and mosaics at Pompeii show them

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Thank you for providing a summary of the information cotained in the programme. As this is a Great War forum I restrained myself from asking about the Romans, 18th & 19th Centuries and sought details about the WWI aspects.

[JefR]

I must be careful here because I'm not going to answer the precise question that was asked - but if anyone is interested there is a photo of Liakhoff on the Guidedogs For The Blind website.

http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/aboutus/history/

(I read the thread because my wife taught blind children and I was born in Wallasey - I hope that doesn't disqualify me from the thread.)

Jef

[per ardua per mare per terram]

Thank you for that Jef.

[centurion]

Thank you for providing a summary of the information cotained in the programme. As this is a Great War forum I restrained myself from asking about the Romans, 18th & 19th Centuries and sought details about the WWI aspects.

But the implication of the original posting was that guide dogs were a WW1 development so I was merely putting matters in perspective.

[per ardua per mare per terram]

But the implication of the original posting was that guide dogs were a WW1 development so I was merely putting matters in perspective.

Unfortunately you appear not to have read what was written in the original posting:

Peter White ... summarised the history and I wonder whether the forum can provide any details of the WWI origins.

I noted that there was a history of guide dog use before WWI, but decided to focus on the remit of this forum. The work in Germany during WWI appears to have originated or contributed to the widespread use of such guide dogs and I am confining my interest here to more details of that work.

I am also interested in Liakhoff, Nicolai [Nikolay Liakhov] and whether anyone can expand upon his WWI service.

A link to the programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hg8dq

[centurion]

I am more generally worried that one can be attacked for attempting to shed more light on a topic - if this attitude prevails the forum will be stifled.

[bob lembke]

It seems that a good deal of command training for "German Shepards" in the US is in German. A friend who is an animal nut has a US Army veteran war dog and she, who does not know German, gives it (badly pronounced) commands in German, commands that supposedly were used in its training in the US Army. In some cases she does not even know what the German words really are. I don't know where she learned them.

Has this flowed out of the early Austrian and German work? Perhaps the Germans used injured war dogs in its program, which might be sort of a nice thing.

I am surprised that my friend's dog was not put down. It is very large, has bitten people, and my friend, about 70 and probably 100 lbs. (former ballerina), has had her knees broken at least four times by being pulled off her feet by the dog attempting to eat someone on the street, and the dog's medications (anti-psychotics?) cost $300 a month. At any rate, I have seen it obey commands in German. She previously had a 100 lb 100% pure wolf, which was a sweetheart, and would obey very subtle hand commands that the woman would give it. Her neighborhood is very rough and both the wolf and her present beast keep the bad guys well at bay.

Bob Lembke

[Lisa B]

The two children of Nikolai Liahkoff were evacuated to live with my grandparents in Cumbria from 1930 -1931. My grandfather (and his English mother) were forced out of Russia at the same time as the Liakhoffs, and during Nikolay's visits it is reported that my grandfather reclaimed his Russianess and enjoyed speaking the language and dressing in his Cossack uniform. The politics of it all are troubling to me, as the White Russians were unscrupulous and entitled in the extreme. For example Irene, apparantly, expected my grandmother to wait on her. 

Edited 22 April , 2022 by Lisa B

[Mikhail]

Nikolay Lyakhov, From the Cossacks of the village of Razdorskaya of the Don Army. He graduated from the 2nd Cadet Corps and the Nikolay's Cavalry School (but I was not able to find him in the open lists of young officers of the school) in S-Petersburgh. He started the army service as Cornet of the Life Guards  Cossack Regiment at the end of 1917 and didn't have time to take part in the Great War . In the White army he was an ADC of Gen. Wrangel. There are some photos with him (Civil war and emigration period).

Nikolay Lyakhov is on the left.

Here he is on the right as ADC of Gen Wrangel.

Here he seats second from the right in the bottom row.

[FROGSMILE]

Very interesting details and images Mikhail, thank you for posting.

[Mikhail]

On 21/12/2009 at 17:28, per ardua per mare per terram said:

 

"Liakhoff, Nicolai [Nikolay Liakhov] (1897–1962), pioneer of guide dog training, was born on 17 April 1897 in Odessa, Russia, one of the two sons of General Dmitry Liakhov, an army officer. He joined a Cossack regiment of the Russian imperial army, and was a member of the household guard of Tsar Nicholas II. He was awarded the order of St George for bravery during the First World War, and in 1920 he served as aide-de-camp to General Wrangel, leader of the anti-Bolshevik forces. When the White Russian army was forced to evacuate the Crimea in November 1920, Liakhoff escaped to Constantinople and from there found his way to Paris. In 1925 he married Princess Irina Urusova, another Russian refugee: they had two daughters. He worked in Paris as a taxi driver and waiter before moving in 1930 to Switzerland, where he became a driving instructor."

Anne Pimlott Baker, ‘Liakhoff, Nicolai (1897–1962)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/71948, accessed 21 Dec 2009]

To be honest, Nikolay Lyakhov was never awarded the Order of St. George (it's delusion, because as I wrote he arrived to the regiment too late to participate in GW), we can see only order of St. Vladimir 4 class on the photos. I suppose he was decorated during the Сivil war.

More detailed service in the Russian Civil War: Khorunzhy (=Cornet) of L.-Guards Cossack regiment. From Jan. 1918 in the officer's Cossack squad under the Don ataman. In the Volunteer Army. Member of the 1st Kuban ("Ice") campaign in the Partisan Regiment. Wounded 31 Mar. 1918. In the Don army in the L.-Guards. Cossack regiment, from 1918 - Sotnik (=1st Leut); summer 1920 - Headquarters Adjutant. Podjesaul (1920). In exile 1926 adjutant of the Commander-in-Chief Gen. Wrangel. Esaul (=Captain).

 

Edited 11 August , 2022 by Mikhail