Hardware Store Manager Raises Puppies to be Future Leader Dogs

The sign outside a local Highland hardware store advertises "Gill-Roy's Got It!" Inside you can find everything from plumbing, electrical and repair items -- and an adorable Labrador-Golden Retriever puppy.

Eric Cloude, manager of Gill-Roy’s Complete Hardware, has been raising puppies for Leader Dogs for the Blind for the last 10 years - and he uses the store to help socialize and train them. 

"We've been very successful with it," Cloude said. "It's a win-win situation for everybody. They customers enjoy it. The employees like it. They do socialize very, very well and I train them. I bring them to work here everyday with me." 

Cloude said he has families call up the store ahead of time to ask if they have a dog there. 

"The kids will come in and play with the dog while mom and dad go shopping," he said.  

Cloude's current puppy is just nine weeks old. He let the store employees name her Piper after "pipe," since they work in a hardware store. 

Piper is the fifth dog Cloude has raised and all have been labs except Piper, who is a lab mix. 

"They'll lay right down by the door here, and then they'll walk with the customer around the store," he said. 

Cloude and his wife keep the dogs for one year, then give them back to Leader Dogs for a five-month intensive training program. They are then matched with their new owners. 

Cloude's first dog didn't make it through training, so he and his wife adopted her.

"She's been hunting birds for me ever since," he said laughing.

Even though it's hard giving the dogs up after raising them and forming attachments, Cloude said its worth it. 

He actually corresponds with two of his dogs' new owners, one living in South Carolina and the other in Costa Rica.  

"When you drop them off, it's always tough," he admitted. "But they're with their owners 24/7. You and I can't do that. They are also trained to do a job with their owners, which they do. And we all know labs love to please their owners. Number one, they're doing their job, number two, they're with their owners constantly. They've got it made. I can't complain about that. So I can sacrifice that."