Prose & Comments: If Biscuit could write …

By Maggie Davis

Hi, my name is Biscuit and I’m one of Shelter Island’s newest residents. I might look like any other Labrador retriever but I actually have a pretty important job. You see, I’m a breeder dog for the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind and for Vet Dogs of America. I’m responsible for fathering puppies who might someday become service dogs for the blind or disabled.

I came to Shelter Island as a seven-week-old puppy and some of you might have met me at the IGA, pharmacy or Post Office being socialized for my future as a seeing eye dog. My puppy walker, Maggie, brought me here from Smithtown, where the Guide Dog Foundation has its headquarters. Well, as you can imagine, I fell in love with beautiful Shelter Island. It’s the perfect spot for a future guide dog to spend his first formative year.

Maggie was not only responsible for socializing me, but for teaching me basic obedience and most of all for giving me plenty of exercise and affection. Twice a month we would travel to Riverhead or Southampton (sometimes Sag Harbor) for puppy class. We would meet up with our puppy advisor and other puppies in training and have a nice walk through town. These were the kinds of experiences necessary to prepare us for a future life of service. I was able to learn to be calm and relaxed in a multitude of daily situations. That first year was very important and laid the groundwork for my more intense training.

When I was a year old, I was called back to the guide dog Foundation to begin my formal training as a guide dog but instead I got a promotion! It turns out I must have impressed some people along the way because they decided a better job for me would be to contribute my genes to future generations of guide dogs. I was prepared to take on the enormous responsibility of seeing eye or service dog but I must admit I was overjoyed to learn I would be returning to my life on Shelter Island. Maggie is now my permanent caretaker and, aside from the occasional trip to GDF headquarters for “work,” I live the typical happy life of an Island dog.

I just had my first litter of eight little ones! Their mom is a beautiful Labrador named Boots. Our pups will be ready to go to puppy walkers the last week in June. Puppy walkers are volunteers who do much more than walk puppies. They house and care for us until we’re mature enough to handle the rigors of serious training. As you might imagine, learning to guide a blind person, assist an amputee or alert an epileptic before they have a seizure are all extremely important jobs.

Maggie thinks being a puppy raiser for the Guide Dog Foundation is the best way to help someone while selfishly receiving daily (multiple doses) of joy. The relationship with our volunteer puppy walkers is one of the most important in our young lives. If you’re inspired to raise a guide dog puppy, I have to warn you: you will fall in love with your puppy (we’re incredibly lovable) and you will be sad when we have to go off to “college” and start a life of service. But when you experience the incredible gift you have given a blind person or a disabled veteran, it will all be worth it.

If you see Maggie and me around town and want to know more about raising a Guide Dog Foundation puppy for its first year, we’ll be happy to give you all the details. I would love to see some of my offspring enjoy the same happy puppyhood I had on beautiful Shelter Island.