Photo Courtesy: CVUSD
Don Lugo High School students take time out of puppy rearing for a holiday photo.

Courtesy of CVUSD

Chino– Don Lugo High Future Farmers of America students are raising five puppies for the Guide Dogs for the Blind organization.

The new pups – Zedrick, Zee, Waldorf, Baloo, and Frito – will be trained in basic obedience and socialization until they are about 14 to 17 months old. Then they will be returned to Guide Dogs for the Blind for further training.

Training the dogs will be Don Lugo FFA students Abigayle Monroe, Stephen Ryan, Sarah Aispuro, Emily Sevilla, and Viviana Jara. Don Lugo FFA member Lizette DePaz is the school’s Puppy Raising Campus Volunteer.

Last fall, Don Lugo agriculture teacher Ashley Doyle said she would like her students to raise puppies for the Guide Dogs for the Blind program.

“These little ones will be spending their first few weeks down in the Agriculture science lab,” Principal Kimberly Cabrera said of the young canines.

Don Lugo students Melissa Legg and Brianna Cabrera, Principal Cabrera’s daughter, are finishing their training of pups Quest and Quinn for the program. As individual trainers, Melissa and Brianna received their pups in January.

Don Lugo teacher Audrey Rohrer, who has trained several Guide Dog puppies and included them in her classes for socialization, is currently training puppy Paddington.

“They will have the puppies 24/7 for about 14 months,” said Ron Chrisman of Guide Dogs for the Blind. “During that time students, in addition to providing housing and obedience training, will teach the pups how to behave appropriately in public. When the pups are 14 to 17 months old, they are recalled to our San Rafael, California or Boring, Oregon campus to begin formal harness training. Our professional trainers will teach the dogs how to guide a blind or sight impaired person. Our job as Raisers is to prepare the pup to receive that training. When the dog successfully completes training, it is matched with his or her future partner. The Puppy Raiser is invited to attend a graduation ceremony where they meet their pup’s blind partner, and officially present the new guide dog.”

Chrisman said the dogs are placed all over the United States and Canada, and sometimes internationally. He also said guide dogs are placed at no cost to their sight impaired partners.

For more information on the program, visit http://www.guidedogs.com.