This Puppy Party Has A Big Purpose Do You Have the Courage?

Seeing-Eye Puppy raising Party at Chester's Tractor Supply Store

A group of new Seeing Eye Puppy Dog Raisers got together in the big warehouse room at Tractor Supply in Chester.  Their purpose- to make friends in the Seeing Eye Dog Community, and start the exhilarating and somewhat daunting process of spending a year and a half to socialize these new pups, both to other dogs and to small and large groups of people.  If the laughter and camaraderie was any sign of how these new owners were feeling about their adventure, well they were simply gleeful and eager to train and love their new dog so that someone with visual impairment will be able to live a more full and active life. 

He's a puppy now, but look at those feet! "C'mon mom, let's go join the others!"

Giving these dogs top class early training is only a portion of the courage it takes to meet this challenge. Perhaps the greater challenge is knowing that while you and the pup are bonding and learning together, at the end of your year and a half of puppy training you must give the dog back to The Seeing-Eye Puppy Raising Program to finish its formal training. 

Puppies are given to puppy-raisers when they are 7 weeks old. In addition to providing a loving home and care during the year and a half that you have the puppy, you are responsible for giving basic obedience training, taking it for health checks, bringing it to socializing groups such as this one, and taking it to moderately busy places such as shopping malls, sporting events and parks.

There is some help from puppy educators while being a poppy raiser, along with the Program’s leaders and a  County Seeing Eye Coordinator. The Seeing Eye is responsible for the cost of all medical visits and gives the host family a stipend to cover food cost.

If you don’t have the time to be a full-time puppy raiser this organization also welcomes puppy helpers who may be available to assist in care during an emergency or short absence.  So if you want to help but can’t be a full-time puppy raiser, how about calling and applying to be a backup partner.

The Morristown main organization number is 973-539-4425)  Info@seeingeye.org  www.seeingeyedog/raise. Seeing Eye.,Org is now worldwide.

And if you are unable to be a full-time puppy raiser or backup partner, then:

PLEASE DONATE (see link on their website).

How established is this Morristown Seeing Eye Program? It was the FIRST Seeing Eye Dog Program in the United States, established in 1929.

The Morristown Seeing-Eye Puppy Raising Program is well known and has helped provide many Seeing-Eye Dogs in the Northeast. Its headquarters at 1 Seeing Eye Way in Morristown, NJ and is available for Orange County, New York, all of New Jersey (including Rutgers), 14 counties in Pennsylvania, 2 in Delaware and 1 in Maryland.

How awesome it would be to develop a group like this one that is in SW Morris County, which has becomes true community and even has found themselves an area to use as a Training Center. 

973-539-4425  Info@seeingeye.org  www.seeingeyedog/raise.