Guide Dogs for the Blind

I take a "functional fitness" class at my gym on Monday and Wednesday mornings. It's a combination of yoga, stretching, weight training and whatever else the instructor feels like doing to us. People come and go, but there's a core group who have been there for the last few years. We don't see each other outside class, but know each other by name and it's nice to see familiar faces early in the morning.

Some of these faces are sweet canines, because one of the women in class is a volunteer puppy raiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind. She has each puppy for about a year, and as part of their training they go just about everywhere with her, including church. She always brings them to exercise class, where they become the mascot. They are beautiful dogs with quiet dispositions, but she is also a wonderful teacher: kind, firm and consistent. So within a week or two, even the youngest ones are sitting quietly or sleeping while 15 or so people roll around on big balls and do other weird things.

Marilyn usually only has one at a time, but right now she's overlapping a new puppy with the more mature one. The baby in the picture is the daughter of her last lovely dog called "Sunset" who left a year ago. When the dogs leave the raiser's home and start advanced training in Oregon, occasionally an exceptional one like "Sunset" is chosen for breeding. This in an honor to the raiser, who then has the option to take one of the new puppies for the next year.

I admire Marilyn for doing this, because not only is raising a dog for a blind person a generous thing to do, puppies are a lot of work! I've really enjoyed learning about this great program from her.