THE "father of Chinese guide dog training" is a 49-year-old animal behavior expert who watched the Paralympics in Athens in 2004 and saw blind and visually impaired athletes from around the world using guide dogs.

Similarly impaired Chinese athletes had none. They managed with canes or were guided by volunteers.

"At the games' opening ceremony, blind athletes from many countries had guide dogs with them, but Chinese athletes had none, so I thought I should make an effort to fill in the blank for China," Wang Jingyu told Shanghai Daily in a recent telephone interview.

And in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, a few Chinese athletes did use guide dogs trained by Wang and others. A condition of winning the Olympics and Paralympics bid was that foreign athletes be allowed to bring their guide dogs.

"People praised the guide dogs' outstanding performance, which was very encouraging to me," Wang said.

Wang, a native of Shanghai, runs China Guide Dog Training Center in Dalian, Liaoning Province. It's the first and only specialized center; other training is carried out by a police dog training center in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.

A new "class" of three dogs graduated in late January and have been put to work in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Jiangsu and Liaoning provinces. All are working well with their human companions.

The dogs are free, but training costs more than 100,000 yuan (US$16,155).

Altogether Wang and his team have so far trained 36 dogs, mostly Labradors and golden retrievers, sent around the country to 10 provinces and cities.

But today there are no more than 30 working guide dogs in China, which has 5.5 million people who are totally blind; the total number of people with all visual impairments is 13.5 million.

Why are there so few guide dogs?

China doesn't have a lot of affection for big dogs and many people are fearful of them, though small dogs are becoming very popular pets and Tibetan mastiffs have become status symbols.

China also lacks appropriate facilities for big dogs. They are often banned from public transport and venues. Big dogs are not permitted in central areas of Shanghai and Beijing. Stray dogs and rabies remain problems around the country.

"As a new concept in China, guide dogs still need time to be fully accepted by Chinese people," Wang said. "We believe that people will be more understanding toward guide dogs in the future."

He said the national Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons is very supportive of guide dogs and several provinces and cities have passed regulations permitting guide dogs to enter public venues and transport.

Still, guide dogs are often not allowed, he said.

"We need to make people aware that guide dogs are harmless and helpful," said Wang. "Accepting guide dogs actually is showing love to disabled persons."

Long training

Training takes 18 months to two years. Puppies are sent to a volunteer family (no children under age six) for socialization, bonding and some basic obedience training. They return to the center when they are one year old. Then it's time for intense skills training. Finally they are introduced to their human companions and work together at the center. Then person and dog go home together. Then there's another trial period.

Wang and his wife still take care of puppies.

Wang, who always loved animals since he was a child, spent nine years in Japan to study ethology, animal behavior, at Hiroshima University. He holds a PhD in animal behavior.

"Zoology in Japan is much more advanced than in China, so I decided to study there," he said. He worked as an animal keeper while doing research."I often saw guide dogs on the streets in Japan at that time, but I never saw them in China," he said. An idea started to form. Then there came the 2004 Athens Paralympics, and Wang became determined to help visually impaired people in China by introducing them to guide dogs.

When Wang returned from Japan, he worked as a researcher at the animal experiment center of Dalian Medical University, where he still works today.

In fall of 2004, after a lot of research and searching, Wang bought three Labrador retriever puppies that he believed had the potential to be guide dogs. He named them Stone (Shi Tou), Fluffy (Mao Mao) and Lulu. He raised and trained them in his living room.

"At that time I had no funds, no technique, and I had to bite the bullet and do everything on my own," he said.

They were naturally rambunctious, playing, biting, barking and scratching. Wang taught them obedience bit by bit. When they were a year old, he sent them to the animal experiment center and professional trainers. Wang fought the urge to visit them, because the dogs would become too attached to him and have difficulty bonding with their future owners.

At the center, dogs are trained to walk in a straight line, avoid obstacles, find a destination and find a seat. They must be patient, stable, brave and determined so they don't overreact in emergencies.

Guide dogs only eat dog food - no snacks or human food - and they can't play with toys, because both food and toys could distract them when they're out working on the street.

All of Wang's first three puppies graduated and went to work. Stone showed some aggressive tendencies in emergencies, however, and had to be withdrawn as a guide dog and sent to a family as a companion animal.

In 2006, Wang established the China Guide Dog Training Center at the animal experiment center. For breeding, he bought a golden retriever bitch named A Luo. Labradors and goldens make good guide dogs because of their stability and mild temperament.

Not all puppies make the cut. Trainers reject the ones that are too slow or too smart. No puppies that bite. If someone extends a hand and the puppy immediately licks it, that pup is eliminated. A potential guide dog should think before approaching and sniff before licking a hand.

The criteria is quite strict, and follows international criteria.

At the beginning lecturers from the medical university assisted in training, and then volunteers came to help. The government donated 100,000 yuan to the center.

For nine years the center struggled.

In 2008, guide dogs trained at the center finally made their way to the Beijing Paralympics with the athletes.

"I wasn't there, but I received many e-mails from the users as well as foreign visitors," Wang said.

Lucky was the guide dog for track and field athlete Ping Yali, who was a torch bearer in the opening ceremony. Lucky almost never made it because he had been captured by a dog hunting team when he first reached the Dalian center before training.

In 2007 he was seized by urban management officers ordered to capture strays and control rabies. Big dogs like Lucky were on the hunted list. He was caged over night and probably would have been killed, but the training center and the Dalian Disabled Persons' Federation rescued him.

Lack of funds

The center's biggest problem is insufficient funds. The central government has not made additional investment. The university donates free space and facilities. Wang raises the rest through donations.

"The trainers have a rather low salary and carry on because of their pure passion," Wang said. "Meanwhile, we still need more funds to expand the center and train more trainers. We always welcome donations."

The center has more than 300 volunteers who clean cages and facilities, and bathe the dogs.

Facts about guide dogs

The concept of guide dogs was proposed in 1819 by Johann Wilhelm Klein, a blind educator, in Vienna. He published a book on guide dog training, but his ideas were not embraced until after World War I.

Thousands of German soldiers lost their eyesight during the war and the guide dog idea took hold. Dr Gerhard Stalling opened the world's first guide dog training school.

The guide dog cause was not promoted in China until 2000. When Beijing was bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games, the organizing committee promised that guide dogs would be able to come to China for the Paralympics. At that time China had no laws or regulations on guide dogs.

Today, guide dogs in China come from both the China Guide Dog Training Center founded by Wang Jingyu and the Nanjing Police Dog Training Center.

There are only estimated to be around 30 guide dogs in China.

A national law taken action in 2008 recognizes the right of visually impaired people to use guide dogs and says that the dogs are permitted in public transport and venues. But across the country, guide dogs are barred by buses, subways, stores, markets and other public venues.

Several provinces and cities have adopted new disabled persons' rights laws, which allow guide dogs onto public transport and venues as long as users and dogs obey the rules. The situation hasn't changed much, however, because of the general lack of knowledge about guide dogs.