Do you know how to train a dog? It is not easy. Can you imagine training dogs for a living? I interviewed someone who trains dogs for a living for my Capstone interview. The person I interviewed was Valerie Quick and she trains service dogs for Guiding Eyes. Guiding Eyes provides service dogs for blind people.

Valerie has been working for Guiding Eyes for 13 years and her title is Training School Kennel Manager. She started out in the kennel learning how to take care of dogs. Valerie likes everything about training service dogs except for training dogs outside in bad weather. She likes working with dogs and thinks it is one of the best jobs she ever had.

She trains labradors because they are smart. Guiding Eyes breeds their own dogs. At 8 weeks the puppies go to volunteer puppy raisers and come back when they are 16 months old. Then they get trained and the process usually takes until they ar 2 years old. Once the dogs are trained they are moved on to find their owner. They match dogs to their owner by seeing what the owner is like and seeing what the dog is like.