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Guide Dog Instructions
When You Meet a Person with a Guide Dog
- Guide dogs should not be petted or disturbed while working in harness.
Even when guide dogs are not working, do not pet them without first asking for permission.
- If you wish to assist a person with a guide dog, first ask, “May I help you?”
If your offer is accepted, then offer your left elbow. Do not grab the guide dog, the leash, the harness, or the person’s arm.
Doing so may place them in danger.
- Do not feed a guide dog. Guide dogs are given a prepared diet at home, and additional feeding may disturb their work schedule.
Educational Tips
- Guide dogs mean safe travel, mobility, greater independence, and better employment prospects to many people who are blind or visually impaired.
- Guide dogs provide companionship and great emotional support.
- Guide dogs are taught basic obedience, such as “come,” “sit down,” and “stay.”
They also learn to stop at curbs and stairs, to avoid obstacles in their paths and to negotiate streets, crossings, elevators, public transportation, and all the situations a person with sight might encounter.
- Each month, students who are blind or visually impaired come to Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s Residential Training Center for an intensive 26-day course to learn to work with – and care for – a guide dog.
- Follow-up services to ensure that graduate and guide dog are doing well are an integral part of the Guiding Eyes program.
- The cost of breeding, raising, training, and otherwise preparing a guide dog and providing each student with a 26-day training program and follow-up services is in excess of $25,000.
When special training requirements are involved, the cost is even greater.
Yet, there is NO CHARGE to qualified students for the Guiding Eyes dog or the training program.
Guiding Eyes for the Blind
611 Granite Springs Road
Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
Tel: (914) 245-4024
Toll Free: (800) 942-0149
http://www.guiding-eyes.org
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