From Puppy to Purpose: Southeastern Guide Dogs Creates Dogs with a Destiny

By Ruth Lando | April 2022

When Katie McCoy’s eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa, robbed her of her peripheral vision and dimmed her view of the world, she took a leap of faith and joined her life with that of an extraordinary guide dog named Bristol. On that day in 2015, everything in her world became brighter and more hopeful. Katie was able to safely navigate crowds on subways and at George Washington University, where she attended graduate school. She felt much better about not bumping into random people or tripping on obstacles that once loomed dangerously out of sight. 

Katie and Bristol are best friends and inseparable soul mates who live and work together every day from Katie’s home in Sarasota. Bristol gives Katie confidence, independence, and freedom. In return, Katie provides unconditional love, care, and devotion to her four-legged companion.

And it all began when Bristol was a fluffy newborn in the Neonatal Care and Whelping Center of the Puppy Academy at Southeastern Guide Dogs in Palmetto. 

Like the other 250 pups born every year at the school, Bristol is a beautiful example of the art and science practiced by genetics and reproduction experts and veterinarians. Working with a carefully selected breeder colony of elite males and females, and through cooperative breeding with other working dog schools, these pros produce the Olympic athletes of the service dog world. Behind every puppy are generations of the healthiest, smartest, and most loving guide and service canines, predominantly Labrador retrievers. Moms and babies are cared for in serene and immaculate accommodations until the pups are weaned at about six weeks of age. From day two onward, volunteers and staff use gentle touch and stimulation to provide the little ones with their first baby steps toward a lifetime of socialization and positive interaction with humans.

“At Southeastern Guide Dogs, our puppies are not only adorable and lovable, but they are also the foundation of the future for the people we serve,” says CEO Titus Herman. “Their two-year journey—from birth to being paired with someone who needs them—involves science and data, coupled with the expertise of caring staff and invaluable volunteers. When they grow up to be working dogs, they transform the way people with visual impairments, veterans with disabilities, and children with significant challenges experience the world around them.”

Early Education: Play with a Purpose

For the youngest pups, Puppy Preschool is all about play with intention. The specially designed curriculum exposes growing puppies to different surfaces and stimuli, preparing for the day when they may need to be the eyes for someone with impaired vision. When they move on to Puppy Kindergarten at about six weeks, they continue to live, learn, play, and sleep with their littermates, enjoying a planned routine of stimulation, enrichment, and conditioning activities. An outdoor gym gives them room to run and be sweet little knuckleheads, while a puppy splash park offers a cool environment for recess. Until they graduate from Kindergarten and move on to the loving homes of volunteer puppy raisers for the next stage of their journey, their little brains and bodies are challenged and developed in every moment spent in the Puppy Academy. Every dog is groomed to reach its maximum potential. 

Building on the innovations of the early education program and the puppy-raising protocols that follow, Southeastern Guide Dogs creates extraordinary dogs that love people, love to learn, and are ready to work. Guide dogs will help people with vision loss navigate independently and are trained in over 40 skills. Service dogs will help veterans and are trained in 15 to 20 skills. Kids Companion Dogs are skilled companion dogs that enhance independence for children with vision loss, preparing the way for a future guide dog. Facility therapy dogs provide comfort in military medical facilities nationwide. Emotional support dogs benefit veterans and help restore a more active lifestyle. And Gold Star Family Dogs give comfort to military family members who have lost a loved one in active service to the nation. 

And thanks to generous and dedicated donors in the Southeastern Guide Dogs community, recipients never receive a bill for services or dogs.

Puppy Raisers Continue the Magic

Puppy raisers are dedicated volunteers who give their furry house guests the benefits of love, playtime, training, socialization, and real-world exposures. A puppy’s life includes shopping expeditions, trips to the park, playdates, rides in the car, and often lessons in cohabitation with pet dogs, cats, and small humans. The pups learn basic skills and cues and begin to master the foundations needed for a future working dog. 

Why? Because after about a year, these talented canines will return to Freshman Orientation for further assessments and advanced training at Canine University. If they have the health, desire, characteristics, and temperament, they may become a breeder, guide dog, service dog, emotional support dog, a facility therapy dog, Kids Companion Dog, or Gold Star Family Dog. Program graduates go on to transform the lives of people with vision loss, veterans with disabilities, and children with significant challenges. 

No matter what their future holds, every puppy has a purpose. The success of Southeastern Guide Dogs and its mission is tied to the deep and heartfelt commitment of donors and partners. They believe in supporting these dogs and the humans with whom they are paired, and give their time, talent, and treasure to make miracles happen for people like Katie and dogs like Bristol.  

Sponsor a Puppy: A Fun and Easy Way to Help

At Southeastern Guide Dogs, the Sponsor a Puppy program enables puppy lovers to share the joyful journey of the creation of future guide and service dogs. For as little as $19 a month, sponsors—and recipients of a gifted sponsorship—can follow along as a selected puppy matures and trains to become a life-transforming hero. By sponsoring a puppy for themselves or for a gift recipient, Sponsor a Puppy donors help all puppies reach their potential as they develop and learn. Regular Pupdates and photos keep sponsors abreast of the little ones’ personality, growth, and progress for a year.

When a Puppy Finds its Perfect Match

Katie McCoy may not have known Bristol as just a wee nugget, but she knows how impeccably matched they have been as team for the past seven years. They met when Bristol was just 2 and have melded their personalities and lifestyle into one perfect unit. “Before Bristol, it was like living in a cave and I couldn’t figure out how to get out,” Katie says. “But with Bristol, it’s like a skylight opened in that cave, and I was able to follow it out and see the beauty of the rest of the world. Bristol will always guide me out of the darkness. She won’t let me be alone. And she’ll always push me to keep going and move outside of my boundaries. She is love and light.”

With innovative science, consistent education, affectionate care, and professional dedication behind them, every puppy bred, born, raised, and trained at Southeastern Guide Dogs carries the powerful potential to become someone’s “Bristol,” someone’s superhero. And that is a beautiful thing.

For more information on Southeaster Guide Dogs, visit guidedogs.org or call 941.729.5665.