A visit to a New Jersey fair decades ago proved life-changing for Debbie Scheblein and her family — and at least 21 other people. There, the family watched a demonstration by volunteer puppy raisers and puppies from The Seeing Eye, a nonprofit guide dog school founded in 1929.
“My son, Justin, was nine years old and said that he wanted to do that because he knew a boy in his school who was blind,” she said. “He kept saying, ‘Maybe he’ll get one of my puppies.’ And that was the beginning of our adventure.”
On that fateful day in 1999, Scheblein filled out an application to become a puppy raiser and a few months later, she, Justin and her husband, Joe, started caring for an 8-week-old black Labrador retriever named Ashes.
Their job for the next year was to expose Ashes to as many people, sights, sounds and experiences as possible — taking advantage of the public access afforded to service dogs in training — and to use positive training methods to help Ashes learn basic obedience skills, house manners and to bond with humans.
At around 14 months old, Ashes returned to The Seeing Eye campus in Morris Township, New Jersey, for several months of advanced training with instructors to learn to work as a guide dog for a person who is blind or visually impaired.
“It is very rewarding to know that you take this little puppy — this little ball of fur that doesn’t really know much of anything — and you get them to the point where they can actually help someone who is blind,” Scheblein said. “It’s amazing to me.”
Puppy Raising Becomes A Family Tradition
Even after Justin graduated from high school, Scheblein continued to raise puppies for The Seeing Eye. It can be difficult to give a puppy back to the organization after spending so much time together for 12-14 months, so she likes to immediately start raising a new puppy — and is currently raising her 22nd puppy for the nonprofit, a golden retriever named Isla.
She has help from Joe and their pet dog, Bella, a Lab-golden retriever cross they raised as a puppy for The Seeing Eye. Bella went into the nonprofit’s breeding program and after she retired, the Schebleins had the option to adopt her, and did.
The 7-year-old dog has a calming influence on the puppies, who tend to follow what she does, according to Scheblein.
“If we’re walking along and the puppy’s bouncing around, they tend to slow down because they want to walk next to her,” she said. “They won’t be so rambunctious. If they start doing something silly, she’ll give them a look, or she’ll give them a little growl. ‘Don’t be jumping on me.’ She kind of reprimands them a little.”
The Seeing Eye provides a tremendous amount of support for puppy raisers, from an in-depth manual and behavior consultants who will visit the puppy at home, to monthly meet-ups with other puppy raisers. The family has developed good friendships with many other puppy raisers — another reason why Scheblein loves being a puppy raiser.
“We have a lot of really good friends, and we all help one another,” she said. “It’s fun and you meet a lot of people, but the end product is exciting. You’re helping someone.”
The Seeing Eye 21 Club
In August, The Seeing Eye inducted Scheblein into its “21 Club,” an honor reserved for volunteers who have raised at least 21 puppies for the organization.
The other inductee, Bonnie Moore, is a retired pastor based in Pennsylvania who also started puppy raising after she and her family watched a puppy raising demonstration at a local fair. At the time, her kids were 16, 14 and 8 years old, so their Seeing Eye puppies became fixtures at high school football games.
Moore finds puppy raising incredibly rewarding and loves being able to take the service dogs in training everywhere.
“It’s absolutely fun, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve kept doing it,” she said. “I think it would be very hard for me to have a pet because I’m just so used to taking the dogs everywhere. They go to the bank, they go to the library, they go to my knitting group, they ride the bus with me. I’m retired now, but when I was working, they went to work with me every day.”
The Perks Of Puppy Raising
Being a puppy raiser for The Seeing Eye brings other benefits, according to Moore. For starters, the nonprofit covers the cost of veterinary care and medications like flea and tick preventives. The nonprofit also provides Royal Canin dog food for the puppies, which is shipped right to her door. (Royal Canin is the official nutrition partner of The Seeing Eye.)
Possibly the biggest perk of puppy raising is never having to have a dog die.
“We have to say goodbye, but it’s like sending your kid off to college. You’re excited about what’s coming next for them and the difference they’re going to make in the world,” she said.
She also enjoys the chance to help a puppy learn to bond with a person so that they can become a successful guide dog for a person who is blind or visually impaired.
“When that dog cares so much about that person, they’re not going to let anything happen. They’re not going to let them walk in front of a car or smack their head on a tree branch or fall in a hole because they don’t want them to get hurt,” she said. “So we bond with the dogs and then get them out so they trust people.”
Part of building that trust involves puppy socialization — exposing them to a variety of settings, sounds, smells and even textures beneath their paws so that they feel confident in any situation — and their handler is able to take them anywhere.
“The dog is confident because the dog has walked through a flock of pigeons before, had a siren go off right next to me when I’m walking down the road, heard a motorcycle gang go by, ridden a train, ridden a bus, gone to the movies,” she said. “The Seeing Eye dog is unflappable if they’ve had these experiences and learned that it’s just part of life.”
To preserve the independence and dignity of guide dog handlers, The Seeing Eye doesn’t share specifics about where puppies are placed with puppy raisers. However, puppy raisers hear inspiring stories from graduates about the positive impact of their guide dogs at the annual Seeing Eye Family Day, and can hear general information about a pup’s placement.
For instance, one puppy Moore raised matched with a man who is blind and took a train to work every day with his guide dog, then came home to his family, including a 6-year-old son who liked to play frisbee with the dog in their backyard.
Other potential guide dogs are “career changed” to a better fit. One of her former puppies now works as a bomb sniffing dog in New York, while another searches for contraband with a police department.
Now she’s raising her 21st puppy — a German shepherd named Mazie — and her 9-year-old granddaughter is carrying on the tradition by raising her very first puppy for The Seeing Eye.
Moore feels puppy raising is rewarding work that she’s happy will continue through generations of her family. She’s grateful for such a fun and meaningful way to help others, and for the chance to watch a puppy transform into a service dog.
“You start out with this little puppy who’s peeing on your kitchen floor and 12 months later, you’ve got a dog that’s guiding you down the street,” she said. “It’s amazing how quickly they learn and what they are able to do.”
