Skip to main content

#LightTheWorld: Helping Others to See



  When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,  And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.”
John 9:6–7
Today's #LightTheWorld topic:  Jesus Helped Others to See, and So Can You.  When I read this topic, I knew immediately how I would participate, and I imagine that if you've been reading my blog for a while, you could guess, too. 

Photo:  Black lab guide dog puppy Willow


Though I am not actively raising a guide dog puppy at the moment, I am still involved with the local puppy raising club, and highly recommend checking out www.guidedogs.com.  Guide Dogs for the Blind has puppy raisers in the following states:  Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington.  However, the clients who receive working guides are not restricted to those western states.  I love the fact that the guide dogs are provided at no charge to the blind recipients.  In fact, there is no charge for any of the services; the clients' transportation to the campus for training is also provided, for example. 

The number one objection I hear from people about raising guide dog puppies is, "I could never give them up." Yet most of these people are parents, whose children do grow up, do move out, and do go on to pursue careers.  Having a guide dog puppy leave my home is much like sending a child to college.  I missed my children when they left home, but that didn't keep me from raising them! 

Photo:  We send Reno back on the puppy truck, and pick up Drexel

Raising a guide dog isn't a decades-long commitment; the puppy arrives at about 8-9 weeks old, and stays in the home until it is about 14-18 months old.  At that point, it returns to the campus of Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the raiser can either receive another puppy right away, or take a little break from raising.  The responsibility of puppy raisers is to socialize the puppies and teach basic obedience.  The puppy clubs train the puppy raisers. No experience is needed to become a puppy raiser--just willingness to learn and follow protocol.

Photo:  Guide dog puppy Deedee walks in sand

Here is a short video from Guide Dogs for the Blind about puppy raising:


Of course, there are other ways to be involved with Guide Dogs for the Blind besides raising a puppy. I encourage you to visit their website and see what you could do! 




Pin It

Comments

  1. Guide Dogs for the Blind is a good fit for today's topic. God Bless all those who have a role in raising and training the puppies.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Conversations are so much nicer when more than one person does the talking. :-) Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts; I'd love to hear from you!

Popular posts from this blog

Ten Things of Thankful: Autumn Edition

It's autumn time, one of my favorite times of year.  I just couldn't leave this weekend as a one-post weekend.  

Ten Things of Thankful: Last Two Weeks

  Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, as viewed from an overlook I apologize for not commenting on your blog posts this past week; John and I took a vacation to Yellowstone National Park, leaving behind our computers and, to a large extent, cell phone service. We escaped the outside world and just spent time in nature. Though we have friends near Yellowstone (who we love to visit) we made this trip just about us, so please forgive us if we were nearby and didn't stop by. The crowds were minimal (though we did mask up whenever we passed someone on the trails) and we spent our days hiking, taking photos, and watching geysers erupt. Today, we are back home and back to work, and, in the case of my computer, back to old shenanigans like not letting me import my photos. (I was able to add the above photo by using blogger on my phone, but that isn't my preferred method.) I want to write about Yellowstone and have photos I want to share, but will leave that for another

Monday Mentions: Equate Crutches

Have you ever needed crutches? I hadn't, until a week ago.  I'm pretty sure I strained a muscle while running a half-marathon.  (That sounds kind of cool, doesn't it? I'm not actually that cool; the last time I strained a muscle it was from carrying too many shopping bags at once.) In any case, I found myself in need of some crutches. I sent my husband to the store to get some. Photo: A pair of crutches leans against a wall  Not that crutches are all that complex, but because I hadn't used any before, I wondered if I could figure out how to adjust them to fit me properly. I shouldn't have worried. John came home from Walmart with their generic store brand of crutches, complete with instructions. First, I needed to take out a long bolt that went through the hand grip. Then I needed to find my height range, push down two metal pieces, and slide the crutches until the little metal pieces came up in the hole near my height range. (Having two people for this