Guiding Eyes holds open house at senior center

WARWICK — Learn to raise a guide dog.
On Thursday evening, Oct. 4, Guiding Eyes for the Blind held an open house at the Warwick Senior Center. The subject was: “Learn to raise a guide dog.”
Guiding Eyes, headquartered in Yorktown Heights, is an internationally accredited, nonprofit guide dog school providing the blind and visually impaired with Guiding Eyes dogs, training, and lifetime support services.
Puppy raisers receive their pups at eight or nine weeks of age and begin attending weekly classes at the Warwick Senior Center.
New commands are taught at each class and outings are planned to a variety of businesses to make sure the puppies can follow commands no matter how distracting their surroundings.
Visitors who attended the Thursday evening open house had an opportunity to speak with Guiding Eyes staff and meet a half-dozen local guide dog puppies like “Brinkley.”
Local residents may also see a “piggy bank” style dog statue outside local businesses like Fetch Bar and Grill, 48 Main Street.
The small donations collected by “Emma,” the Yellow Lab replica, help defray the cost of Frontline and Heartworm medications for puppies being raised by volunteers to become Guide Dogs for the blind and visually impaired.
All donation dogs are owned by Guiding Eyes for the Blind and loaned out where needed.
For information about becoming a guide dog puppy raiser call Nicole Guite at 845-230-6406.