Day 1 - Meet Barbara!

This is Barbara. She's a yellow Labrador Retriever born on January 9th, so she turned two months old today! She's still small, only ten pounds, but she'll grow quickly.

Barbara has become a temporary member of my family. Why temporary? She's being raised for the organization Guiding Eyes for the Blind to become a guide dog. All of the puppy raisers for the organization are volunteers.

For about 14-16 months, she'll go through her pre-training with me. She has to learn how to behave around people and other animals, house manners, and commands. When she returns to Guiding Eyes at the end of her time with me, she will hopefully go into their training program to become a guide.

She will be the first dog I've ever raised, and I'm looking forward to the challenge.

All I knew before today was that I was receiving a yellow Labrador Retriever from the "B" litter. Guiding Eyes for the Blind names all of the puppies in a litter starting with the same letter. The first litter of the year is the "A" litter and it goes alphabetically from there.

Barbara was the puppy assigned to me, and so our project begins!

When she arrived here a few hours ago, she met the two cats she'll be living with. They aren't sure what to think of her yet, but she's fascinated by them. They're Siamese cat littermates (siblings from the same litter), and they're a little over three years old now.

I plan to share Barbara's progress as she begins her journey to become a guide. Every day, I'll post at least one photo of her to show how fast she's growing, and share a little bit of what she and I are doing in her pre-training.