Juniper is SO STINKING CUTE!
I’ve written before about the Seeing Eye Puppy Raising Program. Juniper is the ninth puppy to grace our doors. He was born Nov 29, 2015, so he is six months old. He arrived at seven weeks as a little ball of fluff. He’s a pure yellow lab, so it goes without saying that he’s friendly, playful, eager to please, and hungry all the time.
At about nine weeks old, he mastered the “sit” command. More recently he has learned “rest” (equivalent of stay) and “down” (lay down; hard to teach a puppy to be in a submissive position). He’s (mostly) housebroken, and pretty well behaved about twenty three hours a day. We’re working on that last hour.
In the puppy raising program, our principle objectives are simply to love the crap out of the puppy and provide maximum exposure. We don’t actually train these dogs (other than basic commands); the real harness training happens later at The Seeing Eye where they perform miracles. But to properly prepare the pups for their future career as a guide dog for a blind person, they need to be prepared for most anything that might come their way. That’s where exposure comes in.
Some of the exposure opportunities we try to provide include:
- Taking the puppy to work every day
- Walking up stairs of different surfaces
- Elevator rides
- Sporting events
- Shops & stores
- Road noises
- Other pets and animals in the wild
- People of all sizes, shapes, colors, and volume levels
- Crowds
- Buses and trains
Here’s some photos of Juniper so you can see why we all love him!
