Sometimes he thinks he's a lap dog.
Before we left the Seeing Eye last week (Wow! Have we been home a week already?) our instructor read me Harper’s “puppy profile.”. Each person who volunteers to raise a puppy for the Seeing Eye is asked to write up a little report. You know, to let us in on what our dogs lives were like before we met them. Here’s an excerpt:
Harper was attending classes at my university (including attending the graduation!), going on buses and trains, attending other club meetings, university equestrian team shows with 20+ horses, a trip to the airport — going on a plane but not taking off, emergency vehicles, malls, stores, fairs, the beach (his favorite), on a boat, in pools, overnight charity events, elementary school presentations, a retirement/recovery home, soccer, football, and hockey games.
Whew! Harper is one well-traveled dog – he did all that even before he was a year-and-a-half old! And yes, you read that right: he was raised on a college campus: he’s a Rutgers grad! An article on the Rutgers University Seeing Eye Puppy Raising Club web site describes these generous students who volunteer their time to raise puppies for us.
To truly stop and spend a few moments observing the volunteers of the Rutgers University Seeing Eye Puppy Raising Club, you’re struck too by their obvious affection for and commitment to their charges – cute, adorable puppies with names like Elroy, Yankee, Harper, and Oz.
Did you read that? The article mentions Harper! What a sweet little puppy he must have been – imagine the attention he got on campus! College students at Rutgers have been providing a welcoming home for Seeing Eye puppies since the year 2000, when the Rutgers chapter of the puppy raising program began. After leaving the Seeing Eye breeding station, seven- or eight-week old German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, and crosses of these breeds are placed with puppy raisers until they are 16 to 18 months old. Raisers train the puppies in basic obedience, house manners, how to walk on a leash, and expose the dogs to real-life situations they might encounter once placed with a blind person like me.
But back to Harper’s puppy profile. His puppy raiser said Harper loves squeaky toys, so we knew to give him some of those when he came home to Chicago with me. She also said that he loves being talked to in a sing-song voice, so just imagine how much I sing to him now! My favorite part of Harper’s puppy profile:
He is the coolest dog I’ve ever had. His personality is a great combination of independence and affection.
Amen to that. THANK YOU, Harper’s puppy raiser. And thanks to all the other wonderful, generous volunteer puppy raisers out there. You are our heroes.
I can all ready see you and Mike in your Rutgers University sweatshirts.
Ha! Hadn’t thought of that. Wonder what Rutgers colors are?
And did you notice that he already did “elementary school presentations” when he was still a puppy? He’ll be all set for your rigorous schedule this Spring.
Our first elementary school visit is scheduled for January 6 already — wish us luck!
What a great thing for those college students to spend time doing….and love hearing about Harper, the cool dude!
I don’t want to even *start* counting all the selfish ways I wasted time during my own years at college! It truly is a generous way for these college kids to volunteer their time, its hard work raising a puppy and then just imagine, giving the puppy up when he’s a year old. Thank you, thank you, thank you to *all* puppy raisers, whether you are a retiree raising them at home, a family raising them as part of a 4H project, a single adult giving your all to a pup, or a college kid – THANK YOU. Interested in raising a puppy for the Seeing Eye? More info at a post I wrote earlier:
http://bethfinke.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/why-some-seeing-eye-puppies-dont-become-seeing-eye-dogs/
I’m open to dance song suggestions — please know Harper and I are partial to tunes with pianos involved, *especially* love ’em if there is a piano AND a Hammond B3 playing together. Any suggestions, readers? We’re all ears!
Bet Harper was a real party animal at Rutgers.
Party animal! Love it!
Didn’t Rutgers give an honorary degree to Ralph Nader?
Will let Mike Knezovich handle this one…
Oh, nice holiday spirit, Siobhan.
I wish my college collaborated with a guide dog przgram to raise puppies. I am a junior at Carroll University and have a guide dog named Gilbert. He is so adored by students and professors that I have been asked by several people if they could take Gilbert home with them (smile), and even more have told me Gilbert brightens their day by reminding them of their dogs back home. If more colleges allowed students to raise puppies, it would not only ease the homesickness and loneliness of college for students living far from home. It would also be an excellent educational experience for not only the puppy raisers, but the campus and surrounding community. Way to go Rutgers!
Yes, hooray for Rutgers and for Rowen University and University of Delaware, two other colleges with Seeing Eye puppy raising programs.
What a wonderful gift. Sounds and looks like you are best friends already. Merry Christmas.
Thanks! Can’t think of a better gift for the holidays…
Just fyi: the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers colors are, well, scarlet (bright red) and white. Harper should mos def wear his alma mater’s colors! He’s an east coast guy!
Harper has wiggled his way into my heart already. I hope to meet him in the New Year!
Oh, I think Harper would look divine in scarlet and white. And you’re right, he’s an East Coast guy –born and raised in NJ. Poor guy is wondering how the heck he ended up in Chicago! He’s adapting well, though, and slowly but surely wiggling his way into many, many hearts here.
Looking forward to visiting you on our next trip to NY. We’re scheduled for Long Island in March…
As I read this again, I wondered if they carefully chose which student received the puppy named “Yankee”. Hopefully it wouldn’t be going home to Atlanta! It also struck me how amazing that puppy profile is…..really I think I was such a loser of a college student compared to this puppy raiser. Not only making the commitment to raising a puppy but going to club meetings, all of those games, etc, etc. Wow.
I agree! We are supposed to stay anonymous to our puppy raisers, and they are not supposed to let us know who they are. This is a Seeing Eye policy I like, it avoids having the puppy raisser or the Seeing Eye dog user feeling beholden to each other. That said, I am secretly (well, I guess, not so secretly now that I am admitting it here!) hoping that whoever Harper’s puppy raiser is, she gets wind of this blog post and all the positive comments, just to reinforce what a terrific job she did. THANK YOU, puppy raiser.
Or Boston.
These comments about the name “Yankee” are making me think, hey, maybe I’ll devote an entire blog post to how they name the puppies, and what can happen if a guide dog user gets a dog with a name that just doesn’t suit. Example: a man in my December class works at a VA hospital and was once given a dog named…Nixon. “I knew I couldn’t face those Vietnam vets with a dog named that,” he told me. He changed the dog’s name to Dixon. .
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