Louie the SEGDI Puppy

As some of you already know, we "Puppy Camped" a few Smooth Coated Collie puppies for Southeastern Guide Dogs last year. (You can see them in the photo section to the right of the screen.) In Puppy Camping, we keep the guide dog puppy for two weeks. This serves several purposes. It gives the Puppy Raiser a break from the stresses of raising a guide dog puppy. It gets the puppy used to working for a different handler. It gives us a chance to get an independent evaluation of the puppy. And finally, it gives us an opportunity to trouble shoot any problems the puppy may be having.

Since I am pretty familiar with the behavior of herding breeds, I was asked to Puppy Camp the Smooth Coated Collies who were being raised by the Georgia Puppy Raiser group. Louie is pictured at left. We just recently got word from Southeastern Guide Dogs, Inc. that Louie has been career changed. Seems he liked to chase motorcycles. . . not exactly a desirable trait for a guide dog!

Louie has been placed with an employee of the Dan Marino Foundation, who has an Autistic son. Louie will go to work with her and visit with the kids , one on one. He will then go home with her and be a companion to her Autistic son. When they initially met, Louie was great. They fell in love with him the minute he walked in the door! Louie was placed as a therapy dog.

I want to send a special THANK YOU out to Louie's Puppy Raiser, Jennifer, who did a fantastic job with him. She learned a lot, and always worked so hard to ensure that he turned out well. It warms my heart to know that Louie will be out there helping a lot of people as a direct result of her efforts. NICELY DONE, Jennifer!!