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. Tired TeacherDecember 3, 2016 at 10:01 PM

    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

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...
4 comments
Read more

Ten Things of Thankful: Live from Oregon, part 2

stock photo of old computer monitor When I was 10 or 11, I remember sitting next to my dad in our living room and reading computer code to him as he entered it into an Apple computer. We would finish the exercise and he would hit enter (or was it "run"?) and wait expectantly for the green type to appear on the screen. If we were lucky, the whole conversation would occur. Most often, there would be an error either in my dictation of the code, or in the typing of the code. We would then go painstakingly back through the lines, character by character, to find and correct the error. After what seemed like hours (and might have been), we would succeed and the computer would finally run the entire program. It was magical! My dad designed and built an earth-sheltered, passive solar home decades before solar panels were commonplace. He also was on a 9-month waiting list for a Prius, when hybrids were not seen on every street.  While my dad is definitely on the cutting edge of technol...
5 comments
Read more

Ten Things of Thankful: Oregon Edition, Part 3

  A western bluebird, sitting at the base of a house window, looks inside Thanks (1) to those who have sent well-wishes for my mom's recovery. Her wrist is healing up nicely. I met a friend from high school for lunch this past week. It was so nice to have a chance to visit with her for a couple of hours. She is one of those friends who it doesn't matter how much time has passed, we can pick right back up into meaningful conversations. Lunch ended all too soon, but I'm so thankful (2) for her, and I'm thankful (3) that she reminded me of the importance of reaching out to others.  Being in my parents' home this week, visiting with a long-time (I'm not saying old!) friend, and with Mother's Day tomorrow, my mind naturally reflects upon the women in my life. I'm thankful (4) for an incredible mom--a gentle woman who taught and loved and guided us (and still does.) I'm thankful (5) for grandmas who were different in their personalities but united in their...
3 comments
Read more