Heroes with Paws

A Look at the Life of Hard-Working Dogs

By Wendy Lyons Sunshine
February 2021

Southeastern Guide Dogs

Southeastern Guide Dog puppies leave their litter at 10 weeks of age and go live with a volunteer host family. A year later, the pups return to the Palmetto campus for formal training. These carefully bred and raised Labrador retrievers will become guide dogs, service dogs, and skilled companion dogs for people with vision loss, veterans with disabilities, and children with significant challenges.

The organization is dually accredited by both the International Guide Dog Federation and Assistance Dogs International. Amid COVID-19, guide dog and service dog training and classes have continued with social distancing protocols in place.

Sarasota K9 Search & Rescue

Sarasota K9 Search & Rescue has a single mission: assist public safety officials in finding missing persons, human remains, and crime scene evidence. 

The organization’s more than two dozen volunteer members and dogs (“K9s”) respond around the clock, 365 days a year, to requests from local, state, and federal law enforcement.

Depending on their specialty, K9s may certify through the North American Police Work Dog Association, National Association for Search & Rescue, and the Georgia K9 Tactical Tracking Trailing Program. The certification process typically takes one year, at minimum.