Jacob, our almost four-year-old Golden
Retriever, was born at the Seeing Eye kennels in Morristown, New Jersey
and was raised to be a Seeing Eye dog but do to a condition where he
seemed to be prone to ear infections he was not put into service as a
guide dog. In the past our children and we had raised 7 dogs for the
Seeing Eye through the 4 H program and 3 were put into Seeing Eye service
in various parts of the country. The dogs are put in a family
environment for a period of approximately 16 months and then they go back
to the Seeing Eye for final training and placement with a blind person.
When we were ready recently to adopt a dog
(in the past we had kept 3 of the dogs which we raised that were not put
into Seeing Eye service), we applied to the adoption even though their
waiting list is quite long - usually about four hundred or more at any
given time. We put in our application that we wanted a dog that
could be trained as a Therapy Dog and since the Seeing Eye person that
decided upon the placement was very familiar with and supportive of the
Therapy Dog Program, we were moved up on the waiting list. Jacob has
been with us now for about a year and a half and just became certified as
a Therapy Dog. As the Seeing Eye saw, he loves people - particularly
children and we hope he will do well in the Therapy Dog Program.
