Man's Best Friend

Having just gotten a new puppy, I figured what could be more appropriate than writing about my volunteer activities involving dogs. This post is a bit different as it involves two different volunteering activities as well as my hopes for future volunteer opportunities.

The Causes:
When I was a young thirteen year old, I had to decide what I wanted to do for my Bat Mitzvah project. This was the first big volunteer project I took on, so it's a great one to end this blog on to come somewhat of a full circle.

My Bat Mitzvah project involved The Seeing Eye. The Seeing Eye is an organization that raises dogs to then be trained by professionals to become dogs used by blind people. The goal of the organization, which was founded in 1929, is to give people who are blind a type of independence they never experienced before.

The Seeing Eye depends on volunteers to raise the dogs before having their official training back at The Seeing Eye facilities. During the year or so that the foster family has the seeing eye puppy, they are supposed to attend monthly meetings and other puppy club activities, house train the dog and teach it basic commands, and bring it places with them to experience lots of different types of experiences and locations. The purpose of this is so the dog isn't scared of anything once it becomes a seeing eye dog for a blind person. Eventually, the dog returns to The Seeing Eye and has its official training before going to a blind person.

Photo By: Sangudo

The other organization I volunteered at, more recently, was The National Greyhound Adoption Program. Founded in 1989 the program aims to find loving homes for ex-racing greyhounds. Most of the greyhounds come from Florida, but some are sent to the rescue center from other organizations. In addition to finding homes for the greyhounds, the organization makes sure the dogs are healthy. They also educate the public about how to take care of greyhounds and about the issues racing greyhounds face.


What I Did:
For The Seeing Eye, I did not raise a puppy. Instead, I puppy sat. Puppy sitting is simply watching a puppy raisers puppy for them when they are going on vacation. I ended up watching quite a few puppies. In order to be allowed to watch them, I had to attend the club's monthly meetings to learn basic training commands, how to treat the dogs, meet the dogs, and meet the raisers.

One of the Puppies I Watched: Wilbur

When actually watching the dogs, I treated them as though I was raising them. The dogs with me had to follow the normal rules for seeing eye dogs and still needed to be introduced to new situations. For that reason, I brought the dogs with me most places I went. For example, on Black Friday once I was puppy sitting so I took the dog to Target. It was a really interesting experience for both me and the dog who had to pay attention on the busiest shopping day of the year.

For the National Greyhound Adoption Program, I went to the shelter and walked the Greyhounds. Walking the greyhounds give them a chance to get some fresh air and be with people, rather than just sitting in a cage all the time. This is helpful for the dogs' socialization with people and other dogs, making them a better candidate for adoption.

What I Learned:
Both of these volunteer opportunities made me realize why dogs are man's best friend. All of the dogs I puppy sat or walked were sweet in their own way. The dogs just wanted to be loved and I was glad to be able to do that.

Puppy sitting made me realize how smart dogs are. Witnessing a puppy be able to change from all play to work mode in just a few seconds made me appreciate their intelligence. Humans always assume we are the only ones able to truly think, imagine things, and make decisions. After spending time with such intelligent dogs, that are trained to make decisions for people who can't see, I wonder how accurate this is, probably not very.

Photo By: SkyWideDesign

I also learned about making sacrifice for others. The people raising seeing eye dogs are doing so knowing they will have to give the puppy back in just a short year. Giving the puppy back is not easy to do but they do it because they know how great the dog will ultimately be for someone who can't see. The puppy raisers understand selfless acts. I strive to be able to see where I can be more selfless to help someone who really needs it.

When walking greyhounds, I realized how important it is to treat dogs properly. A lot of the greyhounds were mistreated as racing dogs. These mistreated dogs need to learn to trust people again and learn to be able to interact with other dogs again.

Seeing others, dogs or humans, in a worse condition than yourself helps you learn how you must be thankful for what you have and should help others who aren't as fortunate.

In my case, seeing the dogs in this shape make me appreciate my puppy and makes me want to make sure I treat her very well, even more so than I normally would.

My New Puppy: Charlotte

Reflection and The Future:
Writing this blog helped me realize why I love volunteering so much. I love being able to help others, as most people who volunteer do, but I also really enjoy the lessons that come out of volunteering. Seeing others in different conditions and learning how to do other things has made me able to connect to all sorts of people while learning really interesting things along the way.

In the future, I plan to continue volunteering in a variety of ways. I plan to focus more on opportunities related to my major, Biology- so probably medicine, to learn lessons related to my major as well as about life. However, I also plan to continue volunteering in other areas to continue growing as a person and seeing life from different viewpoints.