Sea dog: canine companion helps her sightless partner enjoy a cruise

Cruise Travel, May-June, 2002 by Pam Kane

Meet Erin ("Island Dog"), an experienced canine cruiser. Erin's partner is Bernadette Winkler, known as Bunny. Bunny lost her sight in her early 40s and made a determined decision to have someone like Erin in her life. They have been together as a team since February 1999.

We met Erin at a pre-cruise pool party where a large and rowdy group was assembled in Ft. Lauderdale, anticipating a week at sea on Celebrity Cruises' Millennium. Almost all of us in our group of 70--we'd met on a cruise-related board on the internet--knew that Bunny is blind (she uses special voice-recognition software to cruise the internet) and that she has a guide dog. None of us knew quite what to expect.

Bunny's daughter, Theresa, introduced Erin--a petite, perfectly marked German Shepherd--to us in "play" mode, so we could talk to her, pet her, and toss her favorite toy, a tennis ball. When Erin, wearing her work clothes--a harness--came back onto the pool deck with Bunny, she was all business. Even the most dedicated revelers watched in awe as Erin deftly navigated Bunny around people, chairs, coolers, and rapidly filling trash cans.

The next day, the buzz spread through our group with the speed of people lining up to get on the first tender. The Millennium crew, in anticipation of Erin being aboard, had decided to make special arrangements for this special passenger. Crew-members had hopped off the ship, found a nursery, and returned with flats of sod and Bermuda grass to make a "lawn" for Erin on the balcony of Bunny's cabin. (It's not widely known, but helping dogs are always with their partners; lacking this special knowledge, the ship's joiner [carpenter] had constructed a beautifully crafted, spacious doghouse in anticipation of four-footed passengers.)

When the lifeboat muster was called, there were Bunny and Erin. Erin was sporting a natty yellow lifejacket. We soon learned one of Erin's special signals for Bunny. When a "friendly" was nearby, Erin lashed Bunny's legs with her busy tail.

One of the challenges of the cruise for most people is trying to find your cabin after you've left it for the first (or 20th) time. Not so for Erin. Bunny issues the command words, "Find room," and Erin unerringly guides her home. Erin knows where the elevators are and the command "Find elevator" to start the journey.

Guide dogs (or dog guides, which is considered to be more politically correct) aren't found at the local kennel, but they might be found next-door. Puppies--usually German Shepherds, Labrador and golden retrievers--are carefully selected then placed in a home that's been "vetted" for appropriateness. The puppies are loved, socialized, and grow until they are about a year old.

The wait for a partner dog can be a long one, fraught with interviews, medical tests, and waiting. Bunny waited almost a year for Erin, and had to learn to use the "white cane" before she could even apply. Nor is the cost insignificant: It can range up to $40,000, but there are "angels" who regularly contribute so that those of lesser means can have the gift of four-legged sight.

On our Millennium cruise, Bunny was taking a brief respite in a quiet lounge. A lady approached her and asked if it was permitted to pet Erin. "Of course," Bunny said, and gave the words that told Erin the lady was a new friend. As they chatted, it turned out that the woman was a regular contributor to The Seeing Eye, but had never met a Seeing Eye dog before. In closing, she promised--now that she had actually met people whom she'd helped--that her next year's contribution would double.

The term "Seeing Eye" dog is a registered trademark of The Seeing Eye Inc. of Morristown, New Jersey, where Bunny first met Erin. Some dogs choose their life partners; others are assigned by staff personnel. The training program is intense, lasting several weeks, with the goal that the blind person and his or her partner are perfectly bonded and work in complete harmony as a team. Bunny and Erin went out to dinner at fancy restaurants, learned how to use public transportation together, and how not to trip over each other in revolving doors. To this day, Erin loves revolving doors. Bunny left her white cane behind the day she and Erin left the Seeing Eye institute.

The Seeing Eye has trainers on call 24 hours a day in case they are needed. Cruising isn't covered in the training, so it was up to Bunny to work out the details with Erin. They took their first cruise together on Thanksgiving of 1999 and have just kept on sailing.

It's a little more difficult for Erin to take a cruise than it is for a two-legged person, even though she doesn't need a ticket or a passport. What she does need, at the very least, is a veterinarian's good health certificate, also certified by the USDA, issued 14 days before boarding. Depending upon the ports-of-call, she may need a lot more: A rabies shot within the last year, flea/tick medicine applied by a vet within 14 days of visiting the country, and individual importation permits issued by the specific islands before arrival, to name a few items.