When Gretchen Fisher Orr, a guide dog trainer for Fidelco in Bloomfield, brought 2-year-old Bentley in for a presentation at the Waterford Public Library Nov. 12, she stressed the fact that guide dogs are not a magic cure-all for the blind.

“The person is all about how to get from A to B,” she said. “The dog is all about wherever we are, making sure we’re safe.”

To do this, guide dogs like Bentley, a German shepherd, are trained for “intelligent disobedience.” They trust their handlers to go the right way, but if that person tries to step in front of an oncoming vehicle or down an unexpected flight of stairs, they will ignore the commands to avoid a dangerous situation.

Before they get to that point in their training, however, they have to be raised by volunteers. Puppy raising programs, like those offered through Fidelco or a local chapter of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, are critical for providing blind people around the United States and Canada with a working companion.

The journey from puppy to guide dog starts with strategic breeding. Jim Hazlin of Gales Ferry, whose wife Valerie is the regional coordinator for Guiding Eyes for the Blind in eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island, said about one in 20 dogs in the general population might graduate and become a guide dog, but special guide dog breeding programs increase that likelihood to one in two.

“That selective breeding they’re doing focuses especially on making sure that they’re going to have a high probability that that dog graduates,” Hazlin said. Breeders also have to select dogs that are not prone to skin problems, hip dysplasia, and other health problems that could prevent them from working.

The Hazlins are currently raising a yellow Labrador retriever named Teddy, and they also raised his mother Dolce, a black Lab.

Most guide dogs are Labs like Teddy and Dolce, but German Shepherds are another common breed. Julie Unwin, chief operating officer of Fidelco, said the organization works exclusively with them because they are a true working breed with the stability, intelligence, and desire to work for eight to 10 years.

Both organizations begin placing puppies in homes when they are eight weeks old, and they meet for regular training sessions until the dogs are about a year and a half old. At that point, they are brought back to the organization headquarters for the more intensive guide dog training, so graduates are about two years old when they are paired with a blind person.

During the puppy raising portion of training, dogs are taught how to interact with new people and situations in order to properly guide their future handlers. When they have their harness on, they cannot just run up to a person on the street to say hello, and they have to be able to “get busy” on command, especially if they are going to be inside for an extended period of time.

“Raisers are the ones who are responsible to produce a well-mannered dog,” Hazlin said.

Fisher Orr said dogs are also taught to lie down quietly when they are in public places like libraries or restaurants, walk down the sidewalk in a straight line, and stop at the edge of curbs before crossing.

The in-home portion of the training is a large part of Guiding Eyes for the Blind’s program because it prepares them so well for the intensive portion. Even if the dogs don’t graduate, they often end up as service dogs for people with autism or working with the state police, and Fidelco also donates dogs to the state police.

A lot of people who raise a puppy as part of a guide dog program return to raise others – the Hazlins have raised 12 since 2002 – and many recruit other raisers.

Judy Liskov, librarian at the Waterford Public Library, said she fostered a puppy named Buddy who eventually became a service dog through a different organization based in Massachusetts. She invited Fidelco to do the library presentation to demonstrate the great work they do.

“It really is an amazing, amazing process,” she said. “The impact that these dogs can make on the person who is involved in the training or the person who is the recipient of having this companion for hopefully for the life of the dog is just an amazing story.”

More information about raising a puppy can be found on the Fidelco website, www.fidelco.org, and the Guiding Eyes for the Blind website, www.guidingeyes.org.

a.hutchinson@theday.com

Twitter: @ahutch411