Ithaca College students train future guide dogs

There are many ways that visually impaired individuals navigate around the world, including guide dogs. Ithaca College’s chapter of Guiding Eyes for the Blind is an organization that allows students to become involved in this process. Those raising the dogs can assist in training and preparing the dogs for the real world.

Some of these training efforts transform into successful guide dogs, but other dogs after the process do not become guide dogs. Instead, due to health conditions or temperament, dogs in this particular standing take on alternate careers.

Guiding Eyes for the Blind is a nationwide, but primarily East Coast-based, organization in the United States that connects volunteers to dogs and helps people train the puppies. An estimated 155 puppies nationwide graduate and become guide dogs each year and are given to people with vision loss for free. Volunteers come from both the general public and through programs on college campuses. As of Oct. 7, Ithaca College’s chapter has 12 puppies on campus.

On campus, students can volunteer to be a sitter or raiser. Sitters can take a dog temporarily out of a raiser’s hands and can assist in training. Anyone who wants to be a raiser must be a sitter for at least a semester. Raisers take the puppies with them to class, around campus and to different training courses that can range from learning how to get on and off the bus to distraction training. 

The work that volunteers place into their dogs has helped IC’s GEB chapter aid some dogs in being matched to a handler; out of a total of 116 recorded dogs between 2002 to present day, 32 became guide dogs and were matched to handlers, or approximately 27.5%. In the organization’s data collection, there are some gaps in the years recorded. Nationally, an estimated 30% to 50% of dogs trained pass and become guide dogs. 

Seniors Kendra Atstupenas and Ella Meoli, co-presidents of IC GEB, said they balance their school life alongside co-raising their dog, Wendy. 

“I know my co-raiser has a job where she can bring Wendy, so she can go with her there,” Atstupenas said. “Co-raising makes it easier. But even sitter wise too, it’s pretty manageable because you can control how many hours a week you have a puppy or the dog.” 

The campus-based chapter’s ultimate purpose is to help move a dog through standard guide training to prepare them for their In For Training evaluation. During this process, a dog’s skills are analyzed by workers at GEB, along with its health. Some aspects of a dog’s demeanor that are examined during the IFT are their capability to adapt to new locations and stimuli. The majority of dogs that take this test are between 14 and 18 months old. If a dog passes, they move on to more formal training, including familiarizing them with harnesses, which many individuals who have guide dogs use. As of Oct. 8, seven dogs from IC have taken and passed their IFT exam and moved on to harness training. While exact national numbers for dogs that take their IFT exams are difficult to find, dogs pass their IFTs prior to working. As of June 2024, there are a reported 5,821 guide dogs working in the North American region. 

Some of the common challenges the dogs sometimes faced included people and animal distraction and dealing with energy. While training is able to work out some of these quirks, in a day-to-day setting, dogs have to acclimate quickly to environments to properly protect their handlers, and the pair must be able to communicate with efficiency. 

In spite of challenges and the long process of training a dog, the raisers often form bonds with their puppies. Junior Sydney Hogue, who has been with her dog Yellsea since August 2024, said that even with the ups and downs of interacting with the world and dealing with uninformed pets and people, the connections formed with the dog, alongside knowing that they will help someone, make it worth it.

“She really is my best friend, and it’s just like you would with a human best friend,” Hogue said. “I’m just really excited to see what she does in the world. She’s gonna grow up to be really important and influential puppy.” 

The ultimate goal of working with these dogs is to connect them to a handler. In 2017, it was reported that nearly six million individuals in the U.S. had vision loss and an estimated one million had some form of blindness. 

Ju Hyeon Han, assistant professor in the Department of Music Performance, has been a handler of her dog, Giada, for 11 years; she was connected to her dog through the organization Guide Dogs for the Blind. Over the course of their time together, Han said her dog has taken a hit by a car, fended off other dogs and more to keep Han safe. To allow herself and her dog to work in tandem, she said she compels people to be aware of guide dogs and to ignore them. She said it is best to give the dogs space and to keep other pets under control.

“You wouldn’t go and interfere with someone’s oxygen [cylinder] or wheelchair,” Han said. “So why would you interfere with a guide dog?”

Han said that sometimes her dog disobeys her to keep her safe if there is an obstacle in her path. Her dog can also indicate she needs a moment to settle down after a specific event or shift. Han said she greatly appreciates the relationship and communication she has with Giada. 

“This dog, her love of me and her love of the work, has given her the resilience and the determination to overcome these adverse events,” Han said. “I just feel fortunate and the fact that we’ve been together for 11 years, [the] average working life of a dog is between six to eight years, so that the fact that I’ve been given another three and she’s still working, it’s such a gift.” 

While any raiser or sitter would hope that their dog would pass the IFT, some are marked out due to health reasons and some dogs simply do not have the correct temperament for the job. Certain health conditions that can halt the process include hip or elbow dysplasia, congenital heart disease and progressive retinal atrophy. 

GEB can help connect dogs to alternate career paths, like being a detection dog, a service dog that helps those with other medical or psychological needs or, in some cases, they can help with breeding because GEB breeds their own dogs. Some alternate career paths that IC’s dogs have taken include working with people with autism, private roles at government agencies and state police roles.

If the dog does not pass the IFT, raisers or primary raisers have the first opportunity to adopt these dogs. If a dog’s primary or secondary raiser passes on this offer, the dog can be available for public adoption. 

For dogs that do pass the IFT and are eventually given a handler, time with their raiser is complete. While some handlers or raisers choose to completely move on, some maintain some contact through messaging, postcards or other means of communication. While detaching can be emotional, Jillian Conlon ’25 said it can open doors for someone else. Her dog she co-raised alongside another IC and Cornell student, passed his IFT in November 2024 and became a guide dog in May. 

“They are forever your puppy but at the end of the day knowing you helped someone gain autonomy and be more independent is an amazing feeling,” Conlon said via direct message.