Students in the Calais School’s ESY program learned all about the Seeing Eye and its mission at a special presentation at the school earlier this month.

Marty Nusbaum of Dover, a long-time Seeing Eye Dog Trainer, and his dog Friday, a special ambassador for the Seeing Eye, visited Calais July 14. Mr. Nusbaum spoke about the years he spent training 20 Seeing Eye puppies including Friday. He explained that Friday had a health issue, so he did not become a working Seeing Eye dog, but instead works as an ambassador visiting schools and different organizations to represent the Seeing Eye. Friday is 6 ½ years old.

Many blind people need a Seeing Eye dog to assist them, Mr. Nusbaum explained to the students. “Blind people cannot drive,” Nusbaum said. “They use trains and taxis.”

The Seeing Eye mostly trains Labradors, golden retrievers and German shepherds as Seeing Eyes dogs, he said. “We experimented with poodles, but some people are allergic to them.”

A typical training session for a dog is three and a half weeks, he said.  “Training a dog is a lot of work,” he noted.

“The dog is always on your right side,” Mr. Nusbaum told the students. He also passed around Friday’s Seeing Eye harness, which is metal and covered in leather.

Mr. Nusbaum, a former employee of the Seeing Eye, told students “I take puppies everywhere, even to my nephew’s bar mitzvah.” That is because Seeing Eye dogs, when they are working, also need to be able to go everywhere.

The presentation was one of the many special programs ESY students enjoy at the program at the school in the summer.

Following the presentation, ESY students had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Nussbaum individually or in small groups and meet Friday, a Labrador retriever. Friday rolled onto his back so students could scratch his belly. “He is a character and a half,” Mr. Nusbaum said of Friday.

Mr. Nusbaum has participated in the Seeing Eye’s outreach program for 25 years. The Seeing Eye does not receive any government funding, he noted. Teacher Maryann Braen and a couple of students presented Mr. Nusbaum with a $150 donation for the Seeing Eye raised at Calais as part of the Pennies for Puppies/Dollars for Dogs program, an educational and philanthropic opportunity for organizations to partner with The Seeing Eye to advance its mission of helping people who are blind live and travel more safely and independently using Seeing Eye dogs.

It costs the Seeing Eye $65,000-$70,000 to train a puppy, Mr. Nusbaum noted. Each year The Seeing Eye matches about 260 guide dogs in an intensive 25-day training program at The Seeing Eye’s Morristown campus.

Calais students are familiar with working with dogs since Calais offers an Animal Assisted Interventions program where dogs and their handlers assist students with everything from speech and language therapy to counseling, reading, occupational therapy and social skills.

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