If you’ve been inside Cleveland Sight Center, you understand the importance of guide dogs. These service animals help members of the blind and visually impaired community navigate their surroundings confidently. But how do they know what to do? It takes a community of volunteer puppy raisers to do so.  

“Without puppy raisers, we wouldn't have guide dogs,” said Macy Nauman, a regional puppy instructor for Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Cleveland.

Puppies born in breeding facilities run by Guiding Eyes for the Blind spend their first eight weeks at that special facility and then will be placed with a volunteer puppy raiser. After living and training with the puppy raiser for approximately a year and a half, the dog will return to the Guiding Eye’s facility to finish their advanced guide dog training.

If you are an animal lover and want to make a difference for the blind and visually impaired community, puppy raising might be the perfect volunteer opportunity for you! Puppy raisers through Guiding Eyes for the Blind become a part of the Guiding Eyes family, with all expenses related to medical costs covered, and puppy training classes provided. Macy emphasizes that raisers have a community of helpers they can reach out to for support.

“We teach you along the way, as you're raising a dog,” said Macy. “It's a team effort. You're not just left on your own to do it.”

If being a puppy raiser seems like too much of a commitment, a puppy sitter is the next best thing! These volunteers will be part of the group, come to class, get to know people in the guiding eyes community and watch the puppies when their raisers travel.

One special program unique to Guiding Eyes is their “running guides” program. They train dogs to help blind and visually impaired people prepare for races. This program is for people who like to run marathons, 5Ks and other races. The dogs do not run marathons, but they can help people train at shorter distances!

When you’re out in public and come across a service dog, the dog may have received training through a variety of different guide dog schools, but regardless of where they came from, you should be on your best behavior and not distract them while they’re working!

In the case of Guiding Eyes, their puppies wear blue jackets when they’re in the learning stage. In this stage, and this stage only, if a community member came up and asked the raiser to pet them, they might get a yes, unless the dog is not in the right headspace for it. When they are working guide dogs and wearing the standard leather harness, the answer will always be no. It’s important to just ignore them. Don't make eye contact (which is hard because they are so cute) because they are working dogs! We don't want to interrupt or distract them because they have an important job to do.

CSC is thankful for Guiding Eyes for the Blind and all the organizations that train guide dogs for the blind and visually impaired community.