As promised,here is the trip report prompted by
this thread.
I finally got see the flier for this thing, and now it makes a lot more sense. Hosted by
Guide Dogs for the Blind, this event was being held at the
Foundation for Blind Children.
It did not start at 11:30 as I was originally told, but at 9am. They had a Learning class, then at 10 a discussion about having a guide dog, at 11, a lunch, and at 11:45, the luncheon and puppies show up. We didn't have to be there until 11:30, but we wanted to go a bit early, so planned on leaving a bit before 10.
Picture Disclaimer: My poor wife did not come out good in these pics, but she let me put them up anyways, so mind yer manners.
Ready to go!
The place was 40 miles away for us, further than I thought, so we didn't get there until 10:30 or so.
The initial view:
That doesn't look too impressive. Oh wait, it's around back:
There were about 200 people there I would guess. The doggies, they are everywhere! Apparently they had a ton of dogs in training or retired for everyone to pet, walk, etc:
Here's the first dog we meet, and the obligatory only picture of me you get:
My daughter could not decide whether to be more interested in the dog, or the baloon the dog was "wearing." No idea why my wife has such a weird look on her face:
Super cute puppiage:
More cute puppiage. The dogs start officially training at about 6 months old, and their training goes from 1.75 to 2.5 years before they are reay to be guide dogs. This one looked slightly younger and was likely there to get used to being around people:
This is Song. Song is a retired guide dog that now acts as a therapy dog for children with reading disabilities. They read to the dog instead of to a person, and I guess it makes them more comfortable. Hey, whatever works:
My daughter brushing Song:
This one had a thing for my son. Here we learned that they have two primary classes that trainers need to take, plus they do weekly meetings:
The real work going on in the backround, as a wheelchair bound patron is introduced to their dog:
Have no idea who this child is, just a cute pic:
Obligatory "my daughter is super cute" picture:
Too many black lab pics, so obligatory other doggie pics:
The lone prisoner. No one ever explained why this one dog was locked up with all these other dogs roaming,not to mention all the people willing to pet dogs. What torture:
As fun as petting many dogs and learning about this was, as an event, it was a disappointment. The puppy truck didn't show up! It was running very late, so they decided on a skeleton crew to stick around. It turns out you didn't even get to interact with the puppies. There were a number of blind children/people that were going to get guide dogs. Two people were assigned to each blind child and stood on each side of them. The blind child would get a puppy from the truck, spend a few minutes with it, then hand it off to a trainer to begin it's training. The job of the volunteer was to make sure the blind child didn't drop the puppies, let them get away, etc. The main reason the whole event was going on was not for us to do any real work, but because my wife's bank was a major contributor to the Guide Dogs for the Blind, so this "event" was set up as a thank you/fun thing for the bank employees.
A futher out shot as some people started leaving:
I was disappointed that we weren't really doing anything useful, and how disorganized the whole thing was, but the kids had a blast petting all of the dogs, and it was educational, so overall, it was worth it.
Ray