“Hometown Training”

Guide Dog Training at Home for the Blind.

Freedom Guide Dogs, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization, based in Upstate NY, has brought an exciting and sensible program
to the northeast that provides professional training with a guide dog to a qualifying blind person.

An instructor will go directly to the home of the blind person and train that person with his or her new guide dog. The two
will be trained, as a team, to travel confidently and safely on those routes that the blind student needs to travel most frequently
in the future.

What is so different about blind people being trained at home with a guide dog? With other programs, more than 95% of the
blind people who receive instruction are required to leave home and go away to school. Usually somewhere out of state.



Why “Hometown Training?”

Photo of a Freedom Guide Dog working on a Train Platform
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.
 Photo of a Freedom Guide Dog working in a busy urban setting
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 living in New York and the North East. 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.

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