The Seeing Eye Dog

These days, service dogs, and even cats, are fairly commonplace…sometimes to the point that we wonder if the owner really needs a service animal. Nevertheless, it’s not for any of us to say whether or not the service animal is necessary or not. If the person is scamming the system…well, that’s on them. There are far more people who really need the service animal than those who don’t. The animal provides a number of key services for the owner. Some have been trained to tell if their owner is having an epileptic attack, a PTSD attack, or anxiety attack, and a number of other attacks. However, the first “service dog” was actually a dog to guide blind people, thereby giving them independence. The exact time when dogs were first used to assist people with disabilities is unknown, but ancient artwork from Pompeii and China seems to show dogs guiding those with visual impairments. In 1785, Frenchman Valentin Haüy founded the First Institute for Blind Children and introduced the concept of using dogs for this purpose, but it wasn’t until after World War I that the modern Guide Dog movement truly began.

The movement to use dogs to guide the blind took time to get around the world, but in 1929, the United States saw the opening of The Seeing Eye, Inc. The Seeing Eye is a guide dog school located in Morris Township, New Jersey, and it is the oldest guide dog school in the United States, as well as one of the largest. The Seeing Eye campus features administrative offices, student dormitories, a veterinary care center, and kennels, along with a breeding station located in Chester, New Jersey. The school is a lead researcher in canine genetics, breeding, disease control, and behavior, all things necessary to provide the best dogs for the people they serve. The Seeing Eye pairs about 260 people who are blind or visually impaired with guide dogs each year. By 2023, there were roughly 1,700 active guide dog users in the United States and Canada, and since the school’s founding, The Seeing Eye has matched more than 17,500 people with dogs.

The Seeing Eye has its roots in Europe in the 1920s when Dorothy Harrison Eustis moved from the United States to Vevey, Switzerland. Her purpose was to establish a breeding and training center for German shepherds. She was joined by Elliott S “Jack” Humphrey, an American trainer and geneticist, who worked with her to create their own scientific method for breeding and training. During World War I, many German soldiers lost their sight, and many suffered visual impairments. That prompted several schools in Germany to experiment with training guide dogs in specific skills. Eustis later wrote about this in an article for The Saturday Evening Post titled “The Seeing Eye,” published on November 5, 1927. Afterward, Eustis received numerous letters from blind individuals inquiring about how to get a guide dog.

An article was read to Morris Frank, a 19-year-old blind man from Nashville, Tennessee, who had lost his sight in two separate accidents. Frank was convinced that a guide dog could help him regain independence, so he wrote to Eustis. Although she had never trained dogs for the blind, Eustis decided to help. Frank also expressed his wish to promote guide dog training for the blind in the United States. Eustis and Humphrey, experienced in training other working dogs, began adapting their methods. In April 1928, Frank met his first guide dog, Kiss, whom he renamed Buddy…the name he gave to all six of his future Seeing Eye dogs. The name has now been retired by the organization. Over six weeks, Frank and Buddy formed a strong bond and learned to navigate streets, obstacles, stairs, and crowds together. On January 29, 1929, Eustis and Frank founded The Seeing Eye in Nashville. The school’s first class was held in February 1929.

After receiving a generous donation, The Seeing Eye relocated to Whippany, New Jersey, in 1931, setting up a permanent spot for training and student housing. In 1965, it moved again to its current 60-acre campus in Morris Township, New Jersey, which houses administrative offices, student residences, a veterinary clinic, and kennels. The Seeing Eye was the first guide dog school established outside of Europe and remains the oldest one still operating in the world, celebrating its 95th anniversary in 2024. The Seeing Eye Dog was named the official state dog of New Jersey in 2020. Back in April 2005, a lifelike bronze statue of Morris Frank and his dog Buddy was placed on the northeast corner of the Morristown Green, showing Frank giving the “forward command.” The Seeing Eye played a key role in passing a state law that made it a crime to harm a service dog or a service dog in training. The bill was inspired by Dusty, a Seeing Eye puppy-in-training who was badly injured in a pit bull attack and had to leave the program. On January 17, 2014, Governor Chris Christie signed Dusty’s Law. In September 2021, Jim Kutsch, the school’s first graduate to become its CEO, was honored with both a portrait and a statue on the Morris Township campus. The guide dog program has done so much for people who are blind or visually impaired, and it is very likely to have been the inspiration for other types of service dogs too.