See This Puppy? Live in Bergen County? Blind Adults Need Your Help

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — The Seeing Eye, a nonprofit organization that provides dogs to help guide the sight-impaired, says that they are "actively recruiting puppy raising volunteers in Bergen County."

What does a "puppy raiser" do?

People or families who volunteer for this job will help raise the puppies for a year, as they prepare to train to become seeing eye dogs.

Right now, 17 families in Bergen County are training the puppies to someday accompany a person with blindness, the organization said. But they need more in the area.

They have made more than 18,000 matches between Seeing Eye dogs and people who are blind in the lifetime of the organization, they said. And they couldn't have done it "without an army of volunteer puppy raisers."

They work with people who are blind from all over the United States and Canada.

"These dedicated volunteers are the ones responsible for fostering our puppies for approximately one year," they said, "while providing love, care, obedience training and social exposure during the early stages of these dogs’ lives."

They said they're seeking volunteers in other counties in New Jersey, too.

Right now, they said, more than 100 "graduates" in New Jersey, meaning sight-impaired people who's gone through their program and learned how to use their dog to lead more independent lives.

The Seeing Eye was founded in 1929 and is based in Morristown. For more information on puppy-raising, click here.