OUR GUIDE DOG

The Bear and I are now volunteers for Guide Dogs. We are “puppy walkers” which means that we get a 6-8 week old puppy and raise her for about a year – until she’s ready to begin training to be a guide dog for the blind. Our job is to give her a happy, loving home and complete the initial training process. We’ll teach her to live as part of a family and household, to respond to basic commands like “sit” and “come,” and how to walk like properly on a leash. We’ll also teach her a few guide dog specific things like how to “go” on command and how to focus when on a leash walk.

Her name is Laura (we didn’t get to name her) and she came to live with us on July 14th at just seven weeks old. She’s a pudgy, happy Labrador/Golden Retriever baby and we already love her. It’s going to be a fun year! It’s a lot of work and takes plenty of time, but we are looking forward to the experience. It will be so hard to see her go, but we know that she’ll go on to do wonderful things for someone.

I’ll be keeping a blog to document her experiences over the next year. You can visit her on her blog here. I hope to update the site at least once per week. I’m sure she’d love for you to visit!

Our newest little family member, Laura:

Don’t you just want to squeeeeeze her?