Good manners and a robust social calendar: The world of raising puppy guide dogs

Mackenzie Jacobs gets up early every morning to feed her puppy, Korlette. The pair practice commands like "sit" and "lie down,"

The 10-year-old loves being an official puppy raiser and working with adorable, 8-week-old Labradors who will grow up to be guide dogs for people with visual impairments.

All kinds of families across the U.S. receive Labrador retriever, golden retriever and German shepherd puppies from nonprofits that will later train the fully-grown dogs complex skills to guide people who are blind or visually impaired. The puppies need to be raised in home environments to get exposure to the world before they're ready to start official training at around 16 months.

Households that raise guide dog puppies say they want to help out a good cause. Raising a puppy also gives children − and their parents − practice with daily responsibilities.

"I know I'm contributing to a cause that will significantly improve a visually-impaired person's life," Mackenzie said. Her mom, Rachel Jacobs, attested to her daughter's role in a recent video call, saying "she does do the majority of the responsibilities when it comes to that dog."

Guide dog puppies are different than other pups because they're bred to work. As early as seven weeks, they must be on their best behavior at all times, building a foundation of good dog manners that will support a visually-impaired handler navigate crosswalks, shopping malls and airports.

"They are superheroes," said Thomas Panek, CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, who has a guide dog himself, after becoming legally blind at 25 after developing a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa.

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Because it's so important for guide service dogs to be accepted in public, nonprofits have found success with puppy raiser families in "that phase of life where mom and dad feel like they're driving the kids someplace every day," said Peggy Gibbon, director of canine development at The Seeing Eye in Morristown, New Jersey, which gave the Jacobses Korlette earlier this fall.

Families must raise polite puppies

Guide dog nonprofits who spoke with USA TODAY said they have a few strict rules for things puppies cannot do. Raiser families, as they're called, which can range from parents with children, to retirees to single adults, need to be patient and be able to dedicate time and energy to the basic obedience training guidelines they get from staff like Gibbon.

The puppies cannot get on any furniture − not even a couch − and they cannot bark or jump on people. While ordinarily fine in non-working dogs, these behaviors are considered "disruptive" for service guide dogs in-training, Gibbon said.

"It's very important they be good citizens and create a good name for service dogs, so that business owners want to allow them access to the places the law says they should have access to," Gibbon said.

Families raising guide dog puppies train them by rewarding good behavior and obedience, especially with treats, according to families who spoke with USA TODAY.

"We teach people how not to overreact to what their puppy is doing and to react appropriately," Panek said. "Be calm and essentially, give that puppy the positive reinforcement it needs to succeed."

Puppies also "have to just learn to sit and do nothing," like at a doctor's office or a slow-moving check-out line, said Jenn Escaravage, whose family has raised three puppies in Upstate New York.

"Settling," or the ability to lay down quietly and "just hang" is a huge part of puppy manners said Vijay Joshi, manager of raiser and host experience at Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester Hills, Michigan.

Well-socialized puppies make confident guide dogs

Besides politeness, the puppies need to be exposed to the different environments they'll one day navigate on-the-job. Importantly, raiser families do not need to train their dogs how to navigate these environments as guides, because that's learned in official training, nonprofits said.

The Jacobses took Korlette to a Virginia Tech football game, for example, where she had to remain calm and not get overwhelmed by the sounds of the crowd. She's also been to a ballet recital, where she had to keep completely quiet during the performance in a dark auditorium. When families take the puppy out of the house, they wear a special bandana or vest signaling they're a guide dog in-training.

In Carmel, New York, the Escaravage family just "worked the dog into our life," said Escaravage, who works at a public library, runs her own photography business and has three teenage daughters. The family's three puppies have toured college campuses alongside Escaravage's 17-year-old and they're regulars at Renegades minor league baseball games in town.

"Your puppy needs a lot of experience in the world − lots of places, sounds − because if they learn about the world while they're babies, then they just need to learn their job in that world when they return for formal training," Gibbon said.

As a graduate of training school, adult guide dogs will be able to navigate escalators, damaged sidewalks and paths with low-hanging tree branches, said Jacobs. At that point, the dogs will be confident and focused enough to do "the most difficult task in the dog service industry," said Joshi, a behavior known as intelligent disobedience.

Mackenzie explained: "They're so intelligent that they can know when to disobey their handler. Like there are electric cars that the visually-impaired person can't hear. So they'll say 'forward' and then if the dog sees a car coming, they'll stop."

The end result of all the house manners, socialization and formal training is that a person who is blind will be able to navigate the world with confidence, said Panek, who has had guide dogs for the last 30 years.

"The puppy raising part is so important for us, and I know my puppy raiser's names personally," Panek said, adding, "This ability to have a dog, it will change your life, it'll get you back on your feet, it'll get you going, it'll get you motivated."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How families raise service guide dogs for visually impaired people