Canyon News / O C Register
August 24, 2001

Canyon couple gives canine gift

 Pete and Mary Jo Egus of Trabuco Canyon just returned from San Rafael, Calif., where they watched their prize pupil, Elko, Labrador retriever, graduate from Guide Dogs for the Blind with his new owner, Roger Brannon.

The local couple trained Elko from a pup and were thrilled he was now a full-fledged guide dog for the blind.

The Egus’ took Elko as a pup from the Guide Dog kennels at two months, housetrained the animal and taught him the social skills which are the foundation of the future work of the dogs in their selected profession.

At 18 months, the dogs are returned to the school to begin up to five months of training with licensed instructors.

After that, the dogs are matched with the blind people enrolled at the school.  The new person-canine team completes an intensive residence training course as well, which ends in a graduation ceremony when the dog raisers formally present their dogs to their new owners.

Guide Dogs for the Blind, Inc. provides the dogs and training free of charge to qualified blind men and women throughout the United States and Canada.  The program receives no state or federal funding and depends entirely on donations.

For information about any element of the Guide Dogs program phone (800) 295-4050; write P.O. Box 151200, San Rafael, Calif., 94915; or visit their Web site at www.guidedogs.com.