Nine specially trained Labrador retrievers graduated yesterday from the Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s training program in Yorktown Heights in Westchester.
And no one was more proud of the dogs than the volunteers who’d raised them from puppyhood.
What does it take to be a volunteer puppy-raiser? “Almost anyone who is committed to and capable of raising a healthy, confident puppy in a safe environment can be a raiser,” says Bill Badger of Guiding Eyes, which has been supported entirely by donations since 1954.
Requirements include reinforcement of the basics (sit, stay, down, greeti🥂ng without jumping); daily exercise and socialization of the dogs; crate training; responsibility for food and incidental expenses (leashes and toys)൲.
Volunteers must also attend𝓀 twice-monthly classe♐s in Katonah, N.Y., between quarterly evaluations, and, of course, be experts in providing TLC.
After completing anꦡ⛄ application and interview, raisers are matched with pups between 7 and 9 weeks old that show promise as future guide dogs.
After the dogs have matured – usually between the ages of 13 and 22 months – Guiding Eyes transports them to its headquarters in Yorktown Heights for a training test.
The dogs that successfully complete training – which takes four to six months – make it to the graduation ceremony. Those that don’t are adopted by the people who raised them or by eligible adopters on Guiding Eyes’ three-year waiting list. (Mayor Giuliani’s yellow lab, Goalie, is a Guiding Eyes release-dog that didn’t make the cut because she had cataracts.)
“It’s the best thing I do,” says Lorie Beers, the chief operating officer of the Manhattan marketing and advertising firm STC Associates, of her experience raising a female black lab named Kipper.
Beers was inspired to get involved with Guiding Eyes after overhearing a conversation between a blind man an𓄧d his friend on the subway.
“He was talking about how his dog had changed his life,” she recalls, “and how he had so much more independence. And it was really amazing to watch him and the dog work together on the subway.”
Wearing a blue-and-white vest that distinguishes her as a “pup in pre-training,” 9-month-old Kipper goes everywhere with Beers: on the subway, to restaurants, to Starbucks, to the office, on airplanes (“She rides at my feet,” Beers says).
At her office in the Flatiron district, Beers says, “Kipper sleeps under my desk, where she has her toys and a blanket.”
As for Beers’ co-workers, they couldn’t be more thrilled to have Kipper as their office mascot.
“Kipper has become a big part of our office culture,” she says. “The mailman stops by to see her, and our clients are disappointed if she’s not there. Everybody in my office is engaged in the program, and they help walk her.”
Pups in training must be leash-walked as often as every four hours, and they’re taught to “get busy” – an official Guiding Eyes euphemism – on voice command. (The blind are not exempt from the city’s cleanup law, and neither are puppy-raisers.)
Visits to the dog run are not recommended for these pups, so raisers organize supervised play dates with dogs that aren’t likely to teach bad habits to their Guiding Eyes charges.”
She loves meeting and greeting new dogs,” Beers says, “which is a big challenge.”
But the raiser’s biggest challenge is letting go when the time comes.
That’s what NYU professor Lynne Kiorpes and her daughter Nicole discovered when a yellow lab named Chancellor left their home to continue his training at Yorktown Heights; he graduated yesterday.
“They warned us that it would be tough to give him up,” says Nicole, 17. “And it really was.” Adds her mom, “It’s bittersweet, because you’re real proud of the work you’ve done to help the dog be somebody’s companion.”
“It will be heartbreaking for me to give Kipper up,” Beers admits, “but it’s such a joy to know that she’s going to be somebody’s eyes. That keeps you focused on the task at hand.”
She’s rooting for Kipper to succeed.
“She’s amazingly smart,” Beers says, sounding every bit the proud mom. “She’s got all the raw material to do this job.”
Still, if things don’t work out as planned, Beers has a plan B: “We will probably take her back if she’s released.”
For information🎉 on Guiding Eyes for the Blind, call (914) 245-4024 or visit .