While the buzz around Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and the rest of the Today Show team is certainly contagious and generating a collective “Awwww” all around the country, Marilyn Evey, a Commercial Lines Supervisor at the Avon Dixon Insurance Agency, a member of the Shore Bancshares community of companies in Easton, and her husband, Scott will smile as they watch Today’s Guiding Eyes puppy, Wrangler begin his journey to become a guide dog for Guiding Eyes for the Blind. They can relate! Guiding Eyes for the Blind pup, Casper came into their lives last July as an adorable little yellow lab fur-ball, who now tips the scale at 80+ pounds!
Casper is such a lucky dog, as he has been able to go to work with Marilyn since arriving in Delmarva. He is one smart boy and the experiences that he has had as part of the Avon Dixon team are invaluable in preparing him for his future work as a guide dog for a blind or visually impaired person. “We have tried to get him settled into a daily routine at work. Typically, in the morning he will go around the office with me while I complete my morning duties. Then, it is back to my desk to settle down for a bit and maybe a good nap for him. Lunch time is full of different visits around Easton to provide Casper with new experiences. Then, we head back to the office for an afternoon meeting or he follows me as I complete additional tasks and then settles as I work,” said Marilyn Evey. “I wouldn’t be able to do this without the support from Avon Dixon and my co-workers. Accompanying me at work provides a variety of socialization experiences essential for building a future guide dog’s reference library – and will ultimately help the puppy make a profound difference in someone’s life.”
As puppy raisers, Marilyn and Scott Evey are providing a safe and loving home environment for Casper and they work really hard to instill good house manners and to socialize him to all the kinds of things that Casper will need to be comfortable with when he is a guide dog. That includes city and highway traffic, blowing fans/hair dryers/vacuum cleaners and the like. They also attend weekly puppy training classes on Tuesday evenings with other puppy raisers to fine tune Casper’s skills and to ensure that he will be successful when he returns to Guiding Eyes at around 16-18 months to begin his formal harness training. Casper also has regular socialization outings to area businesses and big box stores where he is building his confidence around loud noises, crowds of people, strange under footings, shopping carts, etc. Casper and Marilyn also meet up with other local Guiding Eyes pups and raisers to practice working in the presence of dog distractions. As puppy raiser Marilyn says, “it really does take a village to raise a guide dog pup. This time around other Guiding Eyes pups is invaluable. It teaches them proper dog etiquette which they must have when performing as a Guide dog.”
Guiding Eyes is one of the world’s leading guide dog schools, providing thousands of blind and visually impaired people with specially bred and trained dogs that grant them dignity, freedom and independence since they were founded in 1954. The organization’s volunteer puppy raisers are critical to ensuring that Guiding Eyes is able to carry on this mission. The Guiding Eyes for the Blind Delmarva Region is actively looking for new puppy raisers in the Mid-Shore area to give a Guiding Eyes pup the start that he or she will need to become a guide dog. “Knowing that you are raising a puppy for a person you have not even met yet, and that puppy will give the person independence and open up doors they may have never thought to go through, is priceless and heartwarming,” said Marilyn. Orientation classes for new raisers will be held late March through mid-April. To learn more contact Ellen Higgins at [email protected] or 410 991-5662 or visit guidingeyes.org.
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