Dogs Doing Good – Guide Dogs of America

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Just a couple days ago I received a magazine called Orange County Westways with a title Who Let the Dogs Out? on the cover with a picture of (I believe) Huntington Dog Beach. The main dog on the cover looks like my parents little yellow terrier and off in the background about to tackle a wave is the grown up version of Derby (a full grown yellow lab that is).

Anyways, the cover caught my attention so I decided to flip through th magazine…I think I receive the subscription as a part of my auto club membership.

I quickly flipped to the section on dogs and guess what I saw…a feature on Dogs Doing Good…and guess who the subject was? Guide Dogs of America! Yay! There’s a wonderful picture of a yellow lab wearing the distinctive yellow puppy in training jacket. It reminded me a lot of my puppy in training, Derby.

Here’s a nice shot of Derby working on his training with children.

Back to the article. Westways had some interesting facts about Guide Dogs of America that I wanted to share today.

Guide Dogs of America

57
Joseph Jone’s age when he discovered he was too old to get a Seeing Eye dog.

1948
Year he founded International Guiding Eyes, with the help of the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers, in North Hollywood, one of the only programs without an upper age limit.

2
Number of students and dogs the school could accommodate that first year.

Thousands
Number of dogs trained by the organization (now Guide Dogs of America) in the years since.

Approximately 50
Percentage of dogs trained who end up becoming successful guide dogs.

80
Percentage of dogs (bred and trained at the school) that are Labrador retriever.

Stetson And Derby

Stetson was my first puppy in training. Unfortunately he was career changed (dropped from the guide dog program) and is now my pet (we want to get him into therapy dog training). Derby is my second GDA puppy and if the stats hold true then Derby should make it as a guide (meaning that 50% of the dogs I raised end up becoming successful guides). I know…wishful thinking, but I’m really working hard with Derby in hopes that he will successfully become a guide dog.

If you have any questions about Guide Dogs of America then please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer.

Check out the full article at the Auto Club website.

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