Madison-based 4-H club raises puppies for Seeing Eye
Members of the 4-Footed Leaders 4-H club, who raise puppies for the Seeing Eye, pose for a picture during a meeting in Madison. (Photo: Alex Lewis)
By Katelyn Farago
MadisonChatham This Week
Martha Bardin began raising puppies for the Seeing Eye in 1966.
Today, she is rearing her 28th dog for the group and teaches other volunteers how to prepare these special pups for a life of service. She is the "shepherd" of the Madison-based 4-H club, 4-Footed Leaders.
Designed to offer support and guidance to volunteers raising guide dogs, the club meets twice a month at the Presbyterian Church of Madison to socialize the pups and engage them in some training exercises. Bardin goes over some of the basic obedience skills during the meetings and exposes the dogs to some of the distractions they may encounter while serving their owners.
When the dogs are about 15 months old and have learned basic obedience, the Seeing Eye picks them up from their foster families and brings them in for more intensive training. Eventually, if they pass their examinations, the dogs are placed with a visually impaired owner.
The club of about 20 members also takes field trips to get the dogs accustomed to different places they will visit with their owners, including the mall, the airport and parades.
"We try to take them everywhere," Bardin said.
The puppy raisers typically don't get to see the dogs again, but they receive letters from the Seeing Eye, updating them the dogs' training progress or where they will be living with their new owner. And every August, the Seeing Eye hosts a picnic for the puppy raisers at which students who have guide dogs speak about what the dogs have done
for them.
When asked how she copes with sending her foster dogs back to the Seeing Eye, Bardin simply said: "You push them out the door, and then you pull another in."
Member Bonnie DiCola of Boonton Township is raising her 11th guide dog — Bailey, a 4-month-old German shepherd. It never gets easier to let them go, she said, but she knows they're going on to make a difference.
"I cry every time," she said. "(But) we're changing one life at a time."
DiCola, who is a nurse in the Montville school system, brings Bailey to school with her. The puppy visits the special-education classrooms, eats in the classroom every day, goes out to play with students during recess and joins them on class field trips.
But DiCola said Bailey is still expected to adhere to all of the rules, and everyone at school makes sure he follows them. Unlike many family pets, Seeing Eye dogs like Bailey cannot sleep on the bed, sit on the couch or answer the call of nature during a walk.
"You have to be very strict," she said. "We don't let them do anything they're not going to be allowed to do later in life."
Bailey has had a few transgressions, however. A kindergartner temporarily lost her mittens to Bailey one day after swinging them as she walked. Bailey grabbed them from her, DiCola said, but quickly returned them after the kindergartner put her hands on her hips and demanded he drop them.
Stacy Neul, 14, of Summit is raising her first Seeing Eye puppy — Isaac, a 14-week-old German shepherd. She had asked her parents to let her raise one for about three years, but the experience has been a little more difficult than she expected.
"I didn't expect there to be that many rules," she said, explaining that it is a challenge to keep him off the bed and other furniture, especially since her two family dogs do not have to abide by those rules.
Despite those challenges, Stacy said, she has enjoyed volunteering to foster him and would like to raise another puppy for the organization.
"It's going to be really sad when we have to let him go, but I know that he's going to be a really great Seeing Eye dog," she said.
Claire Dempsey, 10, of Morristown also is raising her first puppy — a 6-month-old Labrador named Winter.
"It's really something nice to do for someone else," she said.
Her father, Peter Dempsey, said he thinks the program is a great experience for children because they quickly realize when they sign up that there is "no quitting, no day off." And since Winter sleeps on the floor next to Claire's bed, "there's no sleeping in," he said.
"I think it's great for her to be responsible for something," he said.
Kathy Pile of Berkeley Heights expressed a similar sentiment. With her husband and four children, she is raising Sendero, a 12-week-old Labrador. She said she thinks it will be a good way for her children to learn about responsibility and believes it will be a sacrifice for them to give Sendero up.
But it may not be her children who have the most difficult time saying goodbye. She said her husband already has told her that he plans to leave the house for the day when it's time for Sendero to go back to the Seeing Eye.
For more information about 4-Footed Leaders or any other 4-H clubs, contact the Morris County 4-H Office at 973-285-8300, ext. 3, or 4hmorris@njaes.rutgers.edu.
OTHER MORRIS COUNTY 4-H CLUBS MEETING LOCALLY
Amazing Artists, Morristown
Herpetology, Morristown
Edible Engineering, Landing
Radical Rocketeers, Mount Olive
Woodworking, Randolph
Nature's Keepers, Rockaway Township