Schools
Local Families Prepare Puppies to Serve as Guide Dogs
Watch for the 15 puppies in blue capes around North Pinellas. The pups are learning social skills and basic obedience before they get formal guide dog training.
Sunny is a 10-month-old yellow labrador retriever. Like many puppies she likes to play and run. But you may have seen Sunny at Publix, the mall or even the beach.
Sunny and 14 other puppies wearing blue "Guide Dog in Training" capes are living currently with families from Largo to Palm Harbor. The young dogs are getting ready for life as guide dogs through The non-profit provides guide dogs for the visually impaired.
Sunny even went to school recently. Largo's is having a fundraiser for Southeastern Guide Dogs on May 11. The children learned firsthand about the organization they will be helping through their "Walk for Friends."
Find out what's happening in Largowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
It costs about $60,000 to prepare a guide dog from birth to graduation, which is all done through donations. The dogs go to all 48 contiguous states, Carolyn Hersh said, a volunteer puppy raiser and area coordinator for Southeastern Guide Dogs.
The students learned about guide dogs. The puppies live with families for about 14 months. They learn basic obedience and socialization. Sunny arrived at Hersh's Palm Harbor home when she was about 9 weeks old.
Find out what's happening in Largowith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"They live in the houses as pets, they don't have to have the cape on. In public the cape is on. It's a shield to keep from being petted," Hersh said.
Sunny is Hersh's fifth puppy through Southeastern. How does Hersh love and nurture a puppy for more than a year and then give it back to Southeastern for the formal guide dog training?
"It's always my pleasure to do something to give back to somebody who is going through something I cannot imagine," Hersh said.
In its almost 30 years Southeastern Guide Dogs has matched over 2,500 guide dogs with people whose lives are changed forever. At about age 18 months the dogs begin intense harness training with dog trainers. Once the dogs have learned more than 40 commands and other skills, visually impaired students live and work with their new guide dogs for 26 days at the Palmetto campus.
Helen Arnold who is Southeastern Guide Dogs' Community Outreach Coordinator has had a guide dog for 46 years.
"I can't imagine life without one...I know he (her guide dog Troy) is going to do his job. I don't have to depend on a sighted person or a cane," Arnold said.
Related Stories:
