Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Come To Our Holiday Open House

Kick off December by bringing the family to hang out with guide dogs this weekend!

Southeastern Guide Dogs opens its campus five days a week for puppy huggers and dog walkers, but Saturday is a great opportunity to learn all about Southeastern and our superb dogs because it is Open House! You may be asking how is Open House different from any other time you can come to the Palmetto campus. Well, there are a number of activities going on Dec. 8 that don’t normally occur.  Volunteers will be leading guided tours, filling guests in on the history and inner workings of Southeastern.  While readers of this column have gotten an inside look at what Southeastern does, the tour will give you a chance to put it all together and see the training grounds and kennels for yourself. You’ll also get the chance to interact with the …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Holiday Gift Giving Has Gone to the Dogs

The holidays are upon us! Have you done your shopping yet? If not, here are some gift ideas that may not have crossed your mind.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday now faint memories, we bet there are still people on your list that you haven’t checked off.  Whether it is that uncle who has everything or your boss, shopping can be difficult.  So why not avoid the lines and mayhem and do something for the greater good instead? Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Palmetto campus has a fabulous Gift Shop!  Visitors can shop in a homey atmosphere for a wide variety of pet-centered gifts, but the best thing…all proceeds go toward funding Southeastern’s mission. For those of you to our south, the unique pet boutique in our Main Street location in downtown Sarasota is chock-full of goodies for the four-legged family members and those who love them.  You are sure to find a great gift …

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Are Republicans or Democrats More Giving?

A new study compares charitable giving levels by state to how states voted in the 2008 election: red or blue. Guess which party is most generous?

By Ben Gose As President Obama and Mitt Romney campaign across America, they might want to check the local giving statistics to forecast future voting patterns: States that voted Republican in the last presidential race are far more likely to be generous to charities than those that voted Democratic, a new study suggests. Cities and states, it turns out, are just as polarized as in the nation’s electorate. In a special report titled "How America Gives," The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked states by how much residents give to charity. The report then looked at how the 50 states voted in the 2008 presidential election. Here are some key results, as well as how Florida ranked: As the nation seeks to recover from the worst economic slide …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Guide Dog Puppy Camp!

Before you get too excited, no, we aren’t offering camp here on campus this summer. Puppy Camp is for our puppies-in-training and a very important part of the process of making great guide dogs.

Certified trainer Karen Mersereau explains the thought process behind Puppy Camp and why it is so important during training.  For the puppy raisers out there, you may recognize this piece as it was originally posted on the Blue Coat Journal in May 2011. Sometimes I think the second most feared phrase in puppy raising after “time for IFT” (in-for-training – when the dogs come back to campus for formal harness training) is “time for puppy camp.” I can understand this. You like this dog. You just got them somewhat under control and singing off the same page with you (or at least out of the same songbook). The last thing you want is to send them off to someone else. But puppy camp is a very important part of the dog’s socialization. Our dogs …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Southeastern Graduate Profile: Lunar Explorer Frank Obremski & Berniece

This week saw another group of students graduate from Southeastern Guide Dogs’ program with their new guide dogs. Here is the profile of just one of those inspiring people.

Frank Obremski, born with congenital retinitis pigmentosa, has been legally blind since birth and ten years ago became totally blind.  But that didn’t stop him from making a lasting impression on the moon.  You see, Frank was a vendor at the Kennedy Space Center for 42 years and while there, he was able to “have a look” at the lunar space rover by giving it a once-over with his hands before it was sent up to check out the moon. Frank came to Southeastern Guide Dogs for his third guide.  Upon arriving, he was paired with a petite black Labrador named Berniece, but lovingly called Niecey with whom he bonded instantly. Niecey won’t have to make her way around the Kennedy Space Center and its enormous buildings, but she will have plenty of …

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Charles Schelle

8:45 am on Friday, March 23, 2012

That's great to hear Frank has a great companion in Berniece or I guess now it's Niecey! Does Kennedy Space Center do that regularly for its vendors? Pretty cool they allow an up-close feel and inspection of space craft for folks who work on the property.   more ›

Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Spring Break is a Family Affair at This Campus

Southeastern Guide Dogs’ campus has been abuzz all week with Spring Break visitors. Here’s how you can bring the Spring Break fun home all year.

With Spring Break come big crowds for Puppy Hugging and Dog Walking on Southeastern Guide Dogs’ campus. Southeastern is the only guide dog school that opens its campus five days a week to the general public to enlist their help in socializing the puppies and exercising the dogs-in-training and people come in carloads to the picturesque campus. While this socialization and exercise is very important, there are also other ways the whole family can get involved with Southeastern Guide Dogs. One major way would be to become puppy raisers.  These selfless folks bring a cuddly bundle of puppy energy into their homes, love it, teach it basic obedience and expose it to the wide world. Then once the pup has become a well-behaved dog, they return it…

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Good News From Southeastern's Walkathon Wrap-Up

Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Walkathon was last weekend. In case you didn’t make it to Vinoy Park, here’s a wrap-up of the day’s events.

It was a gorgeous day March 3 down by the waterfront in St. Petersburg when people gathered for the 26th Annual Southeastern Guide Dogs Walkathon. The site was laid out with a variety of activities for the whole family – there were three giant bounce houses/slides for the kids, food trucks with delicious fare, dog massage, and a giant tent that housed both of Southeastern’s gift shops. By dinner the day got even better with volunteer awards and a big surprise for Southeastern Guide Dogs. The walk was led by Petey, the First Pup of St. Petersburg, and Miss St. Pete.  The line of walkers seemed never-ending as they made their way along the 3K walk. Many different breeds of dog were in attendance from Great Pyrenees to teacup Pomeranians, all…

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Getting Ready for the Walkathon

Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Walkathon is this weekend. Ever wonder what it takes to put on such an event? Here’s the breakdown by the numbers.

Saturday, March 3 is the 26th Annual Southeastern Guide Dogs Walkathon.  While the walk participants likely just spend a little bit of time getting ready to walk, at Southeastern we have been planning this event for the past year.  Here’s a snapshot at what all goes into getting ready for Walkathon. Number of Southeastern Guide Dogs Staff at the walk: 68 Number of Volunteers at the walk: 170 Number of trained dogs for blindfold walks: 20 Number of Fundraisers: 1,986 Number of Fundraisers who created sitstaygive.org pages: 246 Number of Tents: 8 Length of walk: 3K Number of food trucks: 3 Pounds of BBQ Chefs Rob & Lance will be cooking: 100 Number of Silent Auction items: 35 Number of raffle prizes: 3 (including the $10,000 grand prize) …

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Weekly Tails From Southeastern Guide Dogs

Come Join the Guide Dog Family

Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Walkathon is not only a great fundraiser, but a terrific way to be a part of a fantastic community.

The 26th Annual Southeastern Guide Dogs Walkathon is set for March 3. Walkathon is Southeastern’s biggest fundraiser and this year looks like it will surpass all the previous years with record attendance expected.  “We outgrew our previous locations, so this year we are moving the walk to St. Pete’s Vinoy Park,” said Stacey Price, Special Events Manager, “and the city of St. Petersburg has welcomed us with open arms.”  The new location has allowed Southeastern to expand the activities of the day to include something for the whole family. This year’s Walkathon is shaping up to be a fun-filled morning for everyone, two-legged and four-legged alike.  Obviously, dogs are more than welcome at the walk and there will even be a dog masseuse on …

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Puppy Hugs Available for Valentine’s Day

Looking for a unique gift for Valentine’s Day? How about independence and freedom?

It is estimated that Americans will spend approximately $13 billion, that’s BILLION, with a B, on Valentine’s Day this year.  While I admit it is really nice to receive a beautiful bouquet of flowers, box of chocolates, and enjoy a nice night out, let’s see just what could be done if that $13 billion were used a different way.  With $13 billion, Southeastern Guide Dogs could breed, raise, train, place and provide follow-up care for more than 216,000 guide dog teams.  Or we could feed more than 35,700,000 dogs-in-training for a year.  Or $3,700,000+ people could have puppies-in-training named after them.  Or we could purchase more than 43,000,000 guide dog harnesses and leashes. Wow! To bring those numbers down to more feasible terms, the …

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