Our Training Department works diligently to make the perfect match for each dog and person team. Making sure the guide dog would work best amongst the individual’s community, lifestyle, pace in which they walk and any specific needs they may have. We want to create teams and bonds that last and succeed with many successful working years with one another. 

This personalized “Hometown Training” can make all the difference for someone who cannot sacrifice income from a job by going away to school for four weeks, or has domestic responsibilities that would prevent it.

For example 1) a young man who recently started his very first job needs the greater mobility that a guide dog can give, but he could not leave his work to be trained  2) a mother of two who said “I just couldn’t leave my little ones for all that time.”  There are so many others in similar circumstances who need the freedom a trusted guide dog will bring.

It’s Customized.

The training of Freedom Guide Dogs is tailored to meet each blind person’s travel needs.  The student is trained intensively with his or her new guide dog.  Special attention is given to the routes the student will need to travel most in the future, such as to work, school, church, or the shopping mall.  This travel training can involve a bus, a train or other means of public transportation, as well as walking.  The purpose of this individualized training is to prepare a blind person to go where he or she has to go quickly and efficiently with the aid of a loyal guide dog companion.  In our experience, once a blind person has mastered the fundamentals of working with a guide dog, the person will have no trouble transferring that successful experience to traveling safely and smoothly, with confidence in a neighboring city or, indeed, in any part of the country he or she chooses to go.

The founders of Freedom Guide Dogs, a voluntary organization, have combined experience in the professional guide dog field encompassing all aspects of the work, including the breeding and training of superior guide dogs and their placement with many deserving blind people.  Hometown Training is offered to clients who are legally blind and reside along the East Coast. Our services will travel anywhere within the United States for blind veterans. This service is very helpful to many blind people.  Demand for this innovative program can be seen as the inquiries and applications for blind men and women who need such a service increase.