Meet Recon, my family’s newest Seeing Eye pup. He’s a male black Labrador retriever and the fourth puppy we’ve raised for the Seeing Eye. The Seeing Eye is a non-profit organization that breeds, raises, and trains puppies to serve as guide dogs for the blind and visually impaired.
We got him on July 1 and I spent most of the week with him thanks to some well-timed vacation days. He’s doing well; he loves following us around and loves to coming bounding toward us when we call him. Housetraining is going well; we’ve had a few accidents, but that’s to be expected. He’s sleeping through the night, which is a tremendous help.
Like Olaf, Hank, and Bob before him, we’ll have Recon from age 7 weeks through 14-to-16 months. When goes back to the Seeing Eye, he’ll get a physical and — if he passes — start his advanced training to be a guide dog for the blind.
Between now and then, our job is to teach Recon basic obedience and introduce him to the world. We’ll take him to work, to hardware stores, to the local farmers market, heck, even the movies so that he can have as many experiences as possible.
As for his name, that’s not our doing: the Seeing Eye names all the puppies. Recon’s litter mates are Richard, Roger, Rosalita, Rebecca, and Reva.
If you’re interested in the puppy raising program, you can check out our club website or learn more at the Seeing Eye’s website.
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Our new Seeing Eye puppy, Recon, hanging out in the backyard. Credit: Ken Newquist.