How many dogs are here? Are they all German shepherds, like big Cody?
There are 12 organizations like ours in the United States, but we’re the largest guide-dog school in North America. There are 300 dogs here. Some of them are just for breeding. Others are puppies waiting to be placed in homes. Some, like Cody, are guides waiting to be boarded, and some are graduate dogs who are shipped here while their owners are on vacation or going through a medical procedure. Most of the dogs are Labradors, because that’s the breed we’ve had our highest success with. We have yellow Labs, black Labs, golden retrievers and German shepherds here. Have other breeds been tried out, but they failed? Oh, sure. Back in the 1940s and ’50s, we tried dalmatians, huskies …. Recently, we’ve tried smooth-coated collies, but we haven’t had a lot of success, and now we’re thinking about poodles. Pit bulls and boxers have been tested successfully, but their coats aren’t thick enough for extremely cold climates. We ship our dogs all over the United States and Canada, so they have t
