The History of Guide Dogs. America and England. Part Two

The closure of the first guide dog school in Oldenburg was not the end of training dogs to help blind people. In the same year, 1926, when the school in Oldenburg closed, there was already a school in Potsdam, near Berlin. The Potsdam center was successful, becoming known worldwide and opening new horizons in guide dog training.

America, America…

Around the same time, an American named Dorothy Harrison Eustis, who lived in Switzerland and trained service dogs for the army, police, and customs, learned about the guide dog school in Potsdam. Intrigued by the school, Dorothy Harrison spent several months in Potsdam studying the school’s methods and dog training. She was so impressed that she wrote an article for the very popular American weekly magazine, Saturday Evening Post, in the 1920s.

It is thanks to Dorothy Eustis, her boundless energy, valuable experience, and desire to learn and then teach others, that guide dog schools became international. The article was so successful that guide dog training schools began to open in every state and larger cities across the United States.

One of the most remarkable stories related to guide dog schools in America is the story of a blind American named Morris Frank, who read Dorothy’s article in the Saturday Evening Post and became inspired to establish a guide dog training center in the U.S.

Morris Frank, a blind American, heard about this article and bought a copy of the magazine. Recalling the article and his feelings at that time, Morris Frank later said that the five cents he spent on the weekly “were actually worth a million dollars because they changed my life.” He wrote to Dorothy Eustis, telling her that he would love to help introduce guide dogs to the United States.

A Four-Legged Helper Named Baddy

Morris Frank’s story is, on the one hand, unremarkable, yet on the other, despite its ordinariness, it stands out among the events that have changed our social life. A young man and a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Morris lost his sight completely by the age of sixteen. When Morris turned 20, his father, a successful businessman, read him an already mentioned article. Morris Frank decided that a guide dog would help him become independent in his movements, freeing him from reliance on others’ goodwill. Morris Frank wrote to Dorothy Eustis, received a response and an invitation to come to her in Switzerland for training with dogs from her kennel. The primary condition for his visit was to promote Dorothy’s idea of teaching blind Americans to work with guide dogs. Without much hesitation, Morris Frank agreed and set out for Switzerland.

Before Morris Frank’s arrival, Dorothy Eustis prepared a dog named Buddy for him and, upon his arrival in Switzerland, taught him to work with Buddy. Buddy became the first (or at least most believe so) guide dog in America and, in a sense, an emblem of Morris Frank himself.

Upon returning to America, Morris Frank first demonstrated Buddy’s abilities on the crowded streets of New York City. He then opened one of the first schools for training guide dogs for the blind. The Seeing Eye school was established in January 1929 and became highly successful. This school still exists today, located in Whippany, New Jersey.

Until 1929, Dorothy Harrison Eustis worked in Switzerland, then returned to the USA and opened a guide dog school in Morristown, New Jersey. However, her tireless nature demanded action, and after setting up the Morristown school, Dorothy Eustis returned to Europe to help establish guide dog schools across the continent.

Rules Britania!

The energetic and determined Dorothy Eustis not only opened schools and trained dogs, but she also actively promoted the idea of guide dogs and wrote articles about it. In 1931, publishing one of her articles in the United Kingdom, she inspired two remarkable women.

In 1930, two British women, Muriel Crooke and Rosamund Bond, heard about “The Seeing Eye” and contacted Dorothy Eustis, who sent one of her trainers. In 1931, the first four British guide dogs completed their training, and three years later, the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was founded in the United Kingdom.

The first four guide dogs were trained by these extraordinary women in a garage in the small town of Wallasey in Merseyside, in the west of the United Kingdom.

By the end of WWII, there were enough guide dog training schools in the United Kingdom, or rather in the British Empire. Thanks to those who continued to train dogs during and especially after the war, veterans who lost their sight were able to gain independence.

The idea of guide dogs for the blind became extremely popular after an episode of the popular BBC educational series, Blue Peter, which featured a guide dog named Honey. She became the star of the series. This outcome was almost inevitable, given the British people’s affection for dogs.