Honor a Guide Dog

Did you know that September is National Guide Dog Month? It’s also National Blueberry Popsicle Month, Fall Hat Month, and National Square Dance Month – among others – but let’s focus on our four-legged friends.

National Guide Dog Month was established in 2008 as a fundraiser for nonprofit guide dog organizations accredited by the International Guide Dog Federation.

There’s even a connection to “Eight is Enough,” the 1970s-era family drama. Actor Dick Van Patten visited Guide Dogs of the Desert, where he was blindfolded and experienced how guide dogs assist blind people. He was thus motivated to raise both awareness and money for the cause, which he continued until his death.

Guide dogs may seem like a modern invention, but their use may date back centuries: There are depictions on the wall of a house buried in Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 AD that show a blind man being led by a dog.

A once-popular verse alphabet called “A was an Archer” includes the line “B was a Blind-man/Led by a dog.” Guide dogs are also mentioned in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Aurora Leigh” and even in Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” which contains the line “Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, ‘No eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!'”

Service animal training schools were first established in Germany during World War I, but it wasn’t until a decade later that the first guide dog school was established in the United States. There’s even a local connection: Philadelphia native Dorothy Harrison Eustis, who was breeding and training German Shepherds in Switzerland, helped found the school, now located in Morristown, New Jersey.

Today, the Labrador Retriever is the most commonly trained breed of a guide dog, although Golden Retrievers, Standard Poodles, German Shepherds, and Golden Retriever/Labrador crosses also are used.

Those who use guide dogs will attest to their benefits, as they give the blind confidence, security, and friendship, with many describing the animal as part of the family.

So, the next time you see a guide dog, tip your hat to him/her – but also remember that they are working animals, so don’t distract them or treat them as a pet.