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Guiding Eyes for the Blind is one of eleven accredited schools in the U.S. for training guide dogs &mdash; dogs trained to lead the blind and visually impaired. With its 10 acre headquarters, training center and veterinary clinic in Yorktown Heights, New York, Guiding Eyes also operates a canine development center in Patterson, New York and a training site in White Plains, New York. The school offers a program designed for blind and visually impaired students with additional developmental or physical challenges, such as deafness or seizure disorders. Dogs and staff are specifically selected and receive extra training to enable them to assist these students. Over 1,300 volunteers commit their time and talents to the Guiding Eyes mission. From fostering members of the breeding colony to spending time with the dogs in training to assisting with administrative tasks – each volunteer is essential to the organization's goals.

Background
Guiding Eyes for the blind was founded in 1954 by Donald Z. Kauth in a 19th-century farmhouse Since then it has graduated over 7,300 guide dog teams and placed 32 service dogs in homes with families challenged by autism. Headquartered in Yorktown Heights New York, thirty-five miles north of New York City, Guiding Eyes for the Blind was the first guide dog training school to be accredited by the National Accreditation Council for Agencies Serving the Blind and Visually Handicapped. Guiding Eyes employs more than 140 people who raise, care and train dogs from their own established gene pool and make them available to recipients free of charge. It depends on donations and a community of more than 1,000 volunteers to provide its numerous programs at no cost to all who use them. Guiding Eyes for the Blind was one of the first schools to accept elderly students and legally blind students who have a degree of residual vision.

Guiding Eyes is an internationally accredited dog school with a 50 year plus legacy of providing the blind and visually impaired with superior Guiding Eyes dogs, training, and lifetime support services. In 1966, Guiding Eyes began breeding their own dogs. This helps them to ensure a reliable resource of quality dogs to train as guide dogs. Prior to that time, extensive time and effort was invested in searching in shelters and other sources for adult dogs and puppies. Today, Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s breeding program supplies more than 90% of the dogs used by the school.

The Canine Development Center (CDC) located in Patterson, NY is where guide dogs begin their careers. The first steps are taken to creating a successful guide dog team: breeding, birthing, socializing, screening, and placing high-potential puppies in loving nurturing puppy-raising homes. The Canine Development Center is at the leading edge of advances in canine genetics, breeding technology, and behavioral development. Over many generations of selective breeding, Guiding Eyes has maximized the qualities required for a working guide dog and minimized health problems that could disrupt or shorten a guide dog’s working years. Each year there are approximately 500 puppies bred at Guiding Eyes and half will become working dogs. The training center has also taken the lead in developing a curriculum and training program for those students with multiple disabilities such as deafness or orthopedic problems, in addition to their visual impairment. The Special Needs Program gives selected guide dogs additional training designed for a specific students unique requirements.

In 2007, the Canine Development Center staff engaged in extensive research in puppy training. In 2008, Guiding Eyes launched the Heeling Autism Program, which provides service dogs to children and families with autism. These special dogs are primary for safety, but they also offer companionship and emotional support. In 2009 the staff worked with design consultants to explore how to effectively develop the CDC’S 30-acre property into a one-of-a-kind facility. Guiding Eyes also acquired an in-house Veterinary Magnetic Resonance Machine (MRI) making it the only guide dog school in the world equipped with this technology. In 2011, Guiding Eyes launched its One Step Ahead campaign. This is fundraising drive to raise $8 million to build a world-class puppy training academy on its Patterson, NY property. The new facility and redesigned grounds will comprise a unique campus that will set the standard for guide dog facilities.

Breeding
Guiding Eyes for the Blind provides specially bred Labrador Retrievers, German Shepherds, and Golden Retrievers. The most commonly used breed is the Labrador Retriever. They can be placed in every environment and with any person because they are such a versatile breed. Most of the puppies are bred from Guiding Eye’s own breeding colony located in Patterson New York. They select dogs for breeding. They are bred for health, confidence, love, and temperament. Guiding Eyes for the Blind began their breeding program in 1966. Breeding up particular personalities takes place more slowly and subtly, over time. Through selective breeding, high quality animals have been developed with intelligence, temperament, and natural aptitude needed for careers as guide dogs. Guiding Eyes watches all of their dogs and choose the best two or three for breeding. Because of this success rates are going up and dogs are becoming more confident. The success has to do with the sophistication of breeding colonies, where the guide schools have been able to observe the body and mind of the guide dog.

Puppies are not neutered or spayed until they go back to Guiding Eyes. Once they come back puppies are evaluated and Guiding Eyes keeps the best of the best to carry on their lines an raise future generations of Guide Dogs. The dogs undergo further evaluation, including an extensive medical exam, to determine if they are a suitable candidate for the breeding program. This is a complex process where not just the dog is looked at, but their siblings’ progress and health is considered as well. If it turns out that they are a suitable candidate, then they continue on to Guide Dog training. With careful monitoring, generation after generation, guide schools know how to mix and match parents to get the trait they need. From an early age, experts test each puppy’s elbows and hips, and track which parents produce the healthiest offspring. Genetically, experts have focused their attention on two major traits. One is hip quality; dogs with bad hips will not be used. The second is behavior. Jane Russenberger, senior director of breeding at Guiding Eyes for the Blind in Patterson, NY, has had success in the Labrador Retrievers. In general the Labrador Retriever incidence of hip dysplasia is about 20% and in Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s population it is down to about 2%. Ms. Russenberger believes the success comes in part from sheer numbers. Working with so many dogs has allowed Guiding Eyes for the Blind to take an already successful idea to higher levels.

A study done by Cornell University Veterinary School looked at 1,498 dogs from Guiding Eyes for the Blind. The study was interested in the measurement of hip joint quality. Cornell found a complex generation from a family of Labrador Retrievers. This included 1,236 connected dogs over 17 generations from a particular male dog. The results of selective breeding were evident in the relationship between breeding values and their accuracy. Over half of the Labrador Retrievers were bred at the Guiding Eyes for the Blind facility. Dogs with more accurate breeding values produced more progeny, with clustering of breeding values with higher accuracy indicative of better hip joint confirmation. This indicates that the selective breeding practice of Guiding Eyes for the Blind program are effective in improving hip joint confirmation in dogs. Overall the study confirmed that the selection of dogs for hip joint quality resulted in genetic improvement predominantly in the last 10 to 15 years.

Puppy raising, formal training, career change dogs
Volunteers called Puppy Raisers take 8-week-old Guiding Eyes puppies into their homes. They teach them basic obedience and house manners, and they socialize the pups with everything the world has to offer, including Puppy Raisers are fully supported by Guiding Eyes; the organization pays for all veterinary care and raisers are required to attend regular training classes.

At 16-18 months of age, pups return to Guiding Eyes for evaluation. Many people consider this to be the "college entrance exam." At this time, many dogs enter into formal guide dog training. Other dogs will join the Guiding Eyes breeding colony, and become parents to future generations of Guiding Eyes dogs. Dogs that aren't suited for guide work may be considered for Heeling Autism; others may be provided to other agencies for police work. Finally, dogs that prefer to be family pets are adopted into loving homes.

Blind and visually impaired people spend 26 days at the Yorktown Heights training facility learning to work safely with their new guide dogs. At the conclusion of this training, a graduation ceremony is held in celebration of the new partnerships. Puppy Raisers are invited to meet the people who have received the dogs they raised.


 * Multi-generational fostering

A 2011 multi-generational volunteer dog foster program at Atlantic Shores in Virginia Beach, Virginia, one of the first programs of its type in the nation, brings together qualified retirement community residents and elementary school students. The foster puppies will live with selected senior citizens in the Atlantic Shores retirement community, where the dogs will have early exposure to elevators, sidewalks, ramps, wheelchairs, and sliding doors &mdash; elements that mirror the conditions in the second phase, when dogs receive 18 month formal training. At the retirement community, the puppies will be integrated into normal everyday resident activities and will be featured in special events focused on the puppies. Beginning at age eleven weeks, the puppies will also go out to local elementary schools, where classes will instruct students about the guide dog service and proper interaction with guide dogs. Students will also create their own reporting segments and follow the progress of the guide dogs via in class broadcasts on the schools' television feeds.

Finances
Guiding Eyes is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, funded via private donations. The school does not charge tuition, rather the dogs, training, students' room and board for 26 days and a follow-up support are provided at no cost to the student.

According to Charity Navigator, GEB had income of $19 million for fiscal year 2009/2010 and assets of $50 million. GEB is an accredited BBB organization and has received a 54.57 rating, or three of four possible stars, at Charity Navigator, not meeting criteria for transparency related to the process of determining compensation of the CEO and not meeting criteria for audited financials.

GEB's biggest fundraiser is an annual golf tournament which has been hosted for the past six years by Eli Manning, quarterback for the New York Giants. The tournament was founded by former professional golfer and golf broadcaster Ken Venturi in 1977 and each year awards the Corcoran Cup, named after Fred Corcoran. GEB's founder, Don Kauth, had encouraged Richard “Dick” Ryan to start a golf tournament. Ryan, an attorney, was GEB's board chairman and represented Augusta National Golf Club. Ryan agreed, naming the tournament after his business partner, Corcoran. The golf tournament, sponsored by Entergy, Pepsi and others, has raised over $7 million for Guiding Eyes since its creation in 1977.

Since 2008, Guiding Eyes has operated an e-storefront with Lands End via that company's Business Outfitters division. Customers can order clothing embroidered with logos associated with the dog breeds bred and trained by Guiding Eyes in their work: yellow and black Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds. The artwork was produced by a company in Norwalk, Connecticut, TFI/Envision.

In 2010, Guiding Eyes initiated expansion of its canine development center from 16,000 square feet to 30,000sf in a three-phase $7.8 million construction project. The first phase included a whelping kennel and outdoor work area; the second phase, projected for 2013 will include a breeding and puppy socialization kennel; and the third phase will include a 1,500-square foot veterinary hospital.

Charity Watch rates Guiding Eyes for the Blind a "B" grade.