Community Corner
Pups Meet Trainers At Guide Dogs For The Blind In San Rafael
Guide dog puppies met their puppy trainers Saturday during "Bone Voyage Day" at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael.
SAN RAFAEL, CA – With a gentle wag of her tail, Curry — a 10-week-old Labrador/golden retriever mix — was placed in the arms of her puppy raiser at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael Saturday.
Named for – who else? – Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors, the puppy will live with Sarah Guthrie of Oakland for about a year learning to sit, stay and heel. Then she'll return to Guide Dogs for the Blind for an additional three months of training.
At that point, Curry and the 14 other dogs who met their puppy trainers Saturday will be ready to assist visually impaired individuals.
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Founded in 1942, the guide dog training facility provides the dogs, and their veterinary care, for free to its clients.
"My father was visually impaired, though he never had a guide dog," said Guthrie as she cradled Curry. "He passed away two years ago. I'm doing this in his memory."
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The puppy trainers, some of whom have done this for decades, stood in a line holding their new charges Saturday, known as "Bone Voyage Day" at the nonprofit. An audience of around 300 people clapped and cheered as the dogs were placed in the volunteers' arms.
"When I first applied for a guide dog, I was going for a mobility implement," said Maia Scott, a visually impaired artist who lives in San Francisco.
Scott, an avid hiker and traveler who has visited Ireland, Italy, England and France, said, "I also ended up with guides who showed me so much about life."
She has had three guide dogs; the animals' working lives usually last eight to nine years.
The artist, who is waiting for another guide dog to be assigned to her, said one of her dogs, Selma, "taught me about being in the moment and feeling joy."
The school is the largest guide-dog training facility in North America, with two 13-acre campuses, one in San Rafael and one in Boring, Ore.
It has provided dogs to 15,000 people in its more than 70 years of existence, according to CEO Chris Benninger.
The school operates on a $38 million budget, funded through private donors. The nonprofit breeds about 900 puppies a year and trains and graduates around 300 teams of dogs and their clients annually.
– Bay City News Service
