The Seeing Eye

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The Seeing Eye, Inc. (TSE) is a guide dog school in the United States, located in Morristown, New Jersey. It was founded in 1929, making it was the first guide dog school in the country. The term "seeing eye" is also sometimes used as a general term for guide dogs, but this is not correct. Seeing Eye is a trademarked name. Only dogs trained by The Seeing Eye, Inc. in Morristown, NJ can be called Seeing Eye dogs.

1 History of The Seeing Eye
2 The Dogs and Training
3 See Also
4 References

[edit] History of The Seeing Eye

Dorothy Harrison Eustis, an American dog trainer living in Switzerland, was experimenting with German Shepherds' working ability. While there, she visited a school training German Shepherds to lead blinded World War I veterans. She wrote an article entitled "The Seeing Eye" about the school to The Saturday Evening Post, which appeared in the November 5, 1927 edition, after which she was being contacted by a blind Tennessean man named Morris Frank, requesting she train a dog with him. This effort eventually evolved into the Seeing Eye organization in Switzerland and America. ^[1]

[edit] The Dogs and Training

Most Seeing Eye dogs come from the Washington Valley Breeding Center located in Chester, New Jersey and are primarily German Shepherds, Labrador Retrievers, or Golden Retrievers. Some dogs are donated. TSE will also occasionally train Labrador/Golden crosses, Boxers, or other breeds and mixes.

Puppies are raised by volunteers, primarily 4-H members, who are responsible for the dogs' basic obedience training and socialization until they are 18 months old. Formal training at the Seeing Eye campus lasts four months, where they learn advanced obedience and skills such as pulling in harness, stopping at curbs, and "intelligent disobedience" to keep themselves and their handler from danger. Afterwards, they spend 20-27 days training with their future human partner before they are formally released.