This is one of the most highly trained working animals people ever meet.

Guide dogs provides safe mobility and independence to people who are blind or visually impaired, allow them to navigate their community along busy city streets, on public transportation, through crowded aisles at the grocery store. These dogs will guide the handler around obstacles, indicate road crossings, locate objects such as stairs, doors and elevators, indicate curbs and changes in elevation, retrieve dropped objects.

A guide dog must know to disobey any command that would put the handler in danger. This ability, called “intelligent disobedience”, is perhaps the most amazing thing about guide dogs – that they can balance obedience with their own assessment of the situation.

Training of a guide dog takes from six to ten months.