[ March 04, 2020 ] On February 27th, The Jasper Lions Club welcomed Teri Smith, a volunteer with Southeastern Guide Dogs. She is a Puppy Raiser in that she volunteers to raise a puppy from about 10 weeks old for about a year. During that time, she does basic training to get the dog ready to begin intensive training at the Palmetto Florida campus to become a guide dog for those visually impaired or to become a service dog for military Veterans.

If you have a visual impairment or have a disability as a result of military service, you can apply for a dog and find out if you qualify. There are about 8 training schools in the United States. Southeastern Guide Dog is the ONLY one in the Southeast!

Southeastern Guide Dogs are provided FREE of charge to those qualifying to receive one. They receive NO federal funding! Lions Clubs and generous people all around the country help support them.

The organization was founded in 1982 and is located in Palmetto, FL near Tampa. They place over 150 trained dogs with deserving individuals every year. Anyone in the United States can apply to receive a dog from Southeastern Guide dogs. They breed, raise and train Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers, and Goldadors which is a combination of both.

At this time, they have about 300 Puppy Raisers in 7 states and they need more. You need to live in one of those 7 states where they now have Puppy Raisers. Good news, Georgia is one of them! You must pass a background check, attend 2 classes a month at the training center in Marietta with the Atlanta Puppy Raiser group and hardest of all---give the puppy back after raising them for about a year!

We really enjoyed having Teri at our meeting and learned so much about this wonderful program. She would love to visit any of the other civic clubs or interested groups in the Atlanta area. Teri lives in Ball Ground, GA so is locally available to organizations here. Please contact guidedogs.org or call 800-944-3647 to learn more about Southeastern Guide dogs. If you are interested in having a speaker for your organization, please contact Teri at tncsmith@me.com.