Want to raise a guide dog? Guide Dogs for the Blind is looking for temporary homes for about two dozen puppies that will be placed with Portland-area families in mid-May.
Volunteer puppy raisers socialize and teach basic manners to puppies from ages 2-15 months. Once the dogs are 15 months old, they return to the Guide Dogs for the Blind campus in Boring for formal training as a guide dog. Potential puppy raisers must live within 75 miles of the nonprofit’s Boring campus.
Dogs that successfully complete training are provided free of charge to clients of Guide Dogs for the Blind who are blind or visually impaired.
Those who foster puppies work to raise “confident, resilient puppies with good manners,” according to the Guide Dogs for the Blind website. They are asked to provide plenty of socialization for their dogs by taking them to work, school or out and about in the community.
Six-month-old puppy "Lourdes". Puppies from the local chapter of Guide Dogs for the Blind took a preview ride on the MAX Orange Line from Portland to Milwaukie, June 18, 2015, getting acclimated to new sights and sounds that will help them become service dogs. Kristyna Wentz-Graff/Staff LC- The Oregonian/Oregonlive.comLC- The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com
“What we’re looking for is someone who wants to open their lives to having a puppy, and is able to take that puppy with them and socialize that puppy to all of the people, places, things, noises, all the things they may experience when they become a guide dog for someone who’s blind or visually impaired,” said Sarah Blevins, director of puppy raising for Guide Dogs for the Blind. “We’re looking for someone who can really integrate that puppy into their own life, whatever that life looks like. We have people with families. We have families with youth. We have retirees. We have people from all walks of life.”
Puppies in the program are Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers and a cross between the two, all bred at the Guide Dogs for the Blind facility in San Rafael, California.
Puppy raisers are responsible for providing food and toys for puppies, but Guide Dogs for the Blind covers all veterinary care, leashes and training equipment.
This group of dogs and families will be the first Oregon cohort in the nonprofit’s new hybrid puppy raising program, which offers online training options for people with busy schedules.
Guide Dogs for the Blind has volunteer puppy raisers across 10 Western states. The traditional program has required weekly “puppy club” meetings and monthly club outings. This new model replaces most of those in-person meetings with online trainings and webinars. It still includes three in-person workshops over the 13-month span.
“We recognize that people are really busy, and they have a lot going on in their lives, and that doesn’t work for everyone,” Blevins said. “We’ve really looked at all the ways we can expand our program and meet people where they are.”
At age 15 months, the puppies return to the Boring campus, where they will begin formal training as guide dogs, a process the nonprofit affectionally calls “sending them off to college.”
"Winchell," a 13-month-old black lab rests during the train ride. Puppies from the local chapter of Guide Dogs for the Blind took a preview ride on the MAX Orange Line from Portland to Milwaukie, June 18, 2015, getting acclimated to new sights and sounds that will help them become service dogs. Kristyna Wentz-Graff/Staff LC- The Oregonian/Oregonlive.comLC- The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com
“It is not easy to return a dog and have them go back to become a guide dog,” Blevins said. “We kind of tease that a little 8-week-old puppy is the best way to wipe away your tears.”
It’s true. Most puppy raisers opt to take in another puppy once their charge leaves for “school.”
“We’ve been here for 80 years, and we have people who have been raising for us for decades,” Blevins said.
Puppies that don’t graduate as guide dogs or trained companion dogs are sometimes available for adoption as pets. In those cases, their puppy raiser families are given the opportunity to adopt the dog.
Puppies in this cohort are expected to be delivered to their approved raiser families on May 11. Those interested in raising a puppy should attend an introductory meeting March 23 at the Boring campus, or virtually March 28 via Zoom. Register to attend the introductory meetings at guidedogs.com/volunteering/puppy-raising. For more information, email ipuppy@guidedogs.com.
-- Samantha Swindler covers features for The Oregonian and Here is Oregon. Reach her at sswindler@oregonian.com.
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