Whether she is teaching technology to kindergartners or training guide dogs for the visually impaired, Mary Jo Egus sees many similarities between teaching young children and animals.
"It's kind of like parenthood," the Coto de Caza resident said.  "You learn as you go."  Egus is in her seventh year working with Guide Dogs for the Blind Inc., and she said the first hurdle is teaching others how to react when they come in contact with a guide dog.,  Egus and Hatfield, a Labrador/golden retriever mix she is training, travel to the market, around town and even to her technology-center classroom at Serra Catholic Elementary School in Rancho Santa Margarita.  
"I train them to be good citizens," she said.  "To be in situations without nerves and stress."  Egus said she gets the dogs when they are about 8 weeks old and trains them for about one year.  If everything goes well, the dog is sent to San Rafael, where it is matched with a blind person.  The two then undergo extensive training. Egus said.  "You send up this bubble-headed puppy and watch them graduate and see they are devoted with a purpose," she said.
Egus, who is training her seventh dog, said her kindergarten through eighth-grade students who meet the dogs are very well behaved.  Rose Schmidt, director of the school's technology center, said Egus does a great job with both the children and animals.  She said that the dogs serve as a great teaching tool for the kids.  "It's a wonderful way to educate, through the dog,  human limitations and the role the dogs can have," she said.
Sometimes though, dogs, like people, find they are not cut out for certain things.  But here are other ways the animals can give back to those in need.  Egus said her family has a dog named Lass who did not make it as a guide.  She said she takes Lass to visit people who may not have other contact with animals, such as residents of a senior home.
Egus said the most rewarding part of training a dog is the knowledge that it is going to make a difference, that "someday he will be the eyes of that person and give them a new way of looking at life."