My Nonprofit Reviews

My family is currently raising our sixth puppy for Southeastern Guide Dogs. We are definitely hooked, and Southeastern is the only organization we would want to raise for. Raising guide dog puppies, especially for the blind, is a big responsibility and it comes with big rewards. The school sees that we have everything we need to make raising for them a great experience. It starts with a great puppy gift bag/backpack at puppy pickup, followed by gorgeous photos of our pups at six weeks. They make vet visits a snap with their contract with our local vet that allows the school to be billed directly (no small thing!). We have so much help all along the way through bi-monthly meetings, manuals, videos of all the training, help from field trainers that will come to our home to work on problems, and an area coordinator that will come pick us up in the middle of the night to help us take a pup to the vet if need be. They show great concern for us when our dogs go back with their "In for Training/Guide Dog U" program all aimed at comforting the raiser through a difficult time. They follow up with news, training reports, and more great photos of our adult dogs while in training . The school makes sure that Puppy Raiser Day is a great day as we meet the blind person that gets matched to our dog—the most rewarding day of the year! They provide us with a brunch, a chance to see our dogs at work, and time to get to know the person that gets matched to our dogs, and of course, more pictures. And even though the staff do many Puppy Raiser Days throughout the year, it feels as though they are experiencing it for the first time with us.

I was also lucky enough to have an opportunity to attend an area coordinator conference for two days. I was one of ten fortunate people that got to spend the night in the new student dorms (awesome). In addition to being another great informative program, with great food, I was pleasantly surprised with a deeper understanding of the wonderfully helpful, kind, and non-judgmental attitude of everyone at the school in general. From their incredibly kind treatment of the dogs to their "people are just doing the best they can" approach, I felt such a sense of belonging and so proud to be a part of an organization that thinks like this.

I've had other volunteer jobs in schools and church, but nothing can compare to the wonderful dogs, the people at school, and the people we meet along the way all because of Southeastern Guide Dogs.