Our Foundation is looking for volunteer puppy raisers for ten little Labradors. You can take an eight- week-old puppy home in the middle of July. This relationship can lead to a lifelong friendship with a wonderful dog who will help his/her visually impaired owner.
Szellő gave birth to her ten puppies a month ago, the six male dogs and four female dogs are all yellow. Our mother dog takes care of her first litter, feeds, and cleans them nicely.
Puppy raisers give a chance
We expect thirty puppies to be born this year in the breeding program of our school. This relatively large team is needed because on average 40-50 visually impaired people are waiting for guide dogs from us. When the puppies reach the age of four weeks, and if weather permits, they spend a significant part of the day in the garden. It is good to play together, eat and have a big sleep on the soft green grass.
According to our professional program, puppies stay with their mothers until 8 weeks of age. They live in the homes of volunteer puppy raisers only after that. In the family, they get and give love, in addition, they learn to adapt and become familiar with the man-made environment, use vehicles, and learn basic obedience. This important knowledge is the basis for the training of guide dogs, which is carried out by the foundation’s specialists after the students leave the family nest provided by the volunteers.
“Our foundation prepares all volunteer puppy raisers for the task, we hold puppy meetings every month, deal with the questions that arise, and help overcome any obstacles. So, it is not necessary to be an experienced dog owner to become a volunteer puppy raiser, it depends much more on the need to absorb new knowledge and to accept the advice and requests of our trainers. It is also important that the dog has a place in the applicant’s life (to take him/her to work, and school, and to spend a lot of time with him/her in his/her free time). The good news is that our program is also popular among retirees, as they have a lot of time. We work with about 60 people in our volunteer
puppy-raising program, we like to be together and are happy that friendships are born. Now we warmly welcome applicants who can take an eight-week-old puppy home from Szellő’s puppies in the second half of July” – said Piroska Komondi, professional manager of Baráthegyi Guide Dog School.
The costs will be covered by the Foundation
We provide quality food, vaccinations, health care, and equipment for the puppies, and the puppy raisers do not have to spend money on this. A common question is whether a raised dog should be released “forever” after one year. Of course not, the relationship is not broken even when the guide dogs start their life with a visually impaired owner, rather a life-long friendship begins.
We are looking for applicants who would like to raise the „eyesight” of a visually impaired person. We ask applicants to make a final decision about their application only after reading our article on how to raise puppies.
