GEB Tour and Graduation

Yesterday I had the great opportunity of touring the whelping kennel at Guiding Eyes for the Blind, located in Patterson, NY. This is where all the new puppies are born and spend the first eight weeks of their lives. When the female brood dogs are ready to give birth (gestation in dogs is 63 days), they are brought to the whelping kennel by their foster family where they will give birth and remain with their puppies until the puppies are approximately five or six weeks of age.
Once the puppies leave their mothers, they begin the early socialization process where they are exposed to different stimuli including sounds and underfootings. There are specially trained individuals who help the puppies at this young age.

After the tour of the whelping kennel in Patterson, we headed over to the training school in Yorktown Heights, NY, for the graduation ceremony. There were several students and dogs graduating; many of the students had returned to GEB for their second guide dog. The families who raised each graduate dog were present at the graduation and the pride they had for their dog was heartwarming. It was so great to see the end product of all the hard work raisers put into the dogs and the mobility these dogs are giving to the students.

After a long day of riding in the car and relaxing in her crate, Frito was ready to head back home.