Students are raising puppies that will later be returned to the guide dog school for further training and then placed with visually impaired persons from throughout the United States and Canada

Lemoore FFA members raise and socialize Labrador puppies for the purpose of becoming guides for the blind. After an application process, members receive 8 week old puppies. For the next 14-16 months each student is financially, physically and emotionally responsible for their puppy 24/7. Students don’t know the life style of the puppy’s future blind master, so it is imperative that the pup be exposed to as many different life experiences as possible. Puppies live with the students and their families. Pups come to school daily and return home in the evenings. Socialization include trips to the mall, church, shopping, public transportation, restaurants, entertainment venues, any place a blind person may go in the course of their day. At the end of the socialization period, pups are returned to Guide Dogs for the Blind for formal training. If the FFA member has done their job well, the actual guide dog training can be done in 6 months. When a dog is placed as a guide, the FFA member and family is invited to a graduation ceremony to present the dog to its new partner in life. Lemoore FFA had 8 out of 10 dogs graduate this year as working guides. We are currently raising 10 puppies. On the day that the dog graduates, the dog is valued at $35,000.00. There is never any charge to a blind person for the dog, training or veterinary services. Lemoore FFA raisers and their families completely donate their time and financial resources to this project.

As of this date we have had 38 puppies go through our high school FFA program - last year we had alone we had 12 puppies returned for training. 10 puppies graduated as working guide and one puppy was picked up by Dogs 4 Diabetics for further training and placement as a diabetes detection dog.