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Guide dogs learn job with foster families

Port Alberni's Heather Graydon and her family are training Gabby for her future job as a seeing eye dog.
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Heather Graydon and Gabby go shopping at Buy-Low Foods on Johnston Road. Graydon takes Gabby into places like grocery stores

Heather Graydon and her family have welcomed a new family member into their home for the next year.

Gabby is a golden Labrador puppy and is a guide dog in training.

The Graydons are training Gabby for her future job as a seeing eye dog.

“We sit in restaurants, we sit at the doctor’s office, we go to the pool,” she said. She also takes Gabby grocery shopping and to her children’s school.

When Gabby has her jacket and harness on, she is working, and Graydon asks people to refrain from petting or distracting her.

“We can stop and talk, but she can’t be distracted...When she is not wearing her jacket she knows she is just a puppy and she plays with our beagle.”

For more information on Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind, please contact their Lower Mainland BC Branch at (604) 270-2432 or e-mail info@guidedogs.ca. They are always looking for puppy walkers and foster families.

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