PUPPY RAISERS WANTED!  Help raise a miracle and change a life! 

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Saturday, August 14	Saturday, August 28

Thank you for visiting The OccuPaws Guide Dog Association's website.  OccuPaws is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, charitable  organization located in Madison, WI.  OccuPaws is a world-class, innovative and life-changing organization dedicated to empowering the visually impaired while raising awareness and education for both adults and children.  Our mission is to place well trained guide dogs of excellent health and temperament with Wisconsin residents who have visual disabilities. 

Our guide dog mobility and Children's Visual Companion Dog training sessions take place in the comfort of the client's home environment.  We do this because we believe that legitimate, personal circumstances (family obligations, professional commitments or secondary health conditions) should not prevent an otherwise capable individual with a qualifying visual impairment from enjoying the companionship and assistance a dog guide can offer.  Each dog and person is carefully matched according to such traits as lifestyle, personality, activity level, and walking speed.

In addition to harness work and obedience commands, our puppy trainers teach each client about the learning style of their particular guide dog, about various aspects of guide dog behavior, and about the innate characteristics of their guide dog's breed.  By the end of each in-home placement, the client will have learned how to teach their guide dog new skills, and how to work with and care for their canine visual partner throughout the entirety of its career.

Our hope is that our small size and collaborative training practices will allow us to provide an extremely supportive and highly customized experience to each of our dog-person teams.  Please help us by becoming a volunteer puppy raiser, donating to OccuPaws to help us place guide dogs or children's visual companion dogs or becoming a volunteer at one of our fund raising events to provide this unique visual aid to our visually impaired community.

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