The Seeing Eye

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[Music] [Applause] [Music]

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[Applause] [Music]

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forever what's up everybody welcome back to another episode of greetings from the

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garden state i'm mike ham we are here in morristown new jersey today at the seeing eye with brian mckenna and melissa allman guys welcome to the show

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thank you thank you might be here i'm very excited to have you guys on so for the purposes of this recording the

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second segment i'm very excited about because we brian we haven't done it yet right

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exactly but um but in the first thing we're just gonna do a little bit of background second second we're actually gonna go for a walk with um terry and

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then we're gonna finish up with our normal community segment at the end um but just so that everybody kind of knows

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who you guys are uh we're gonna do like a quick little you know background on and what you guys do here at the seeing

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eye so melissa we'll start with you okay great well i have been working at the seeing eye for it'll be four years coming up at the

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end of april and i'm the advocacy and government relations specialist which is a long way of saying i'm that person

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that our graduates and our students who are here in class can reach out to about

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their rights and responsibilities in public places and other contexts with their guide dogs

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with their seeing eye dogs and i also you know i do the class lecture

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about access and those kinds of issues while students are here

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i i do presentations to various groups around new jersey and and beyond about

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access issues and i work on legislative initiatives as well and policy initiatives i get to

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talk to airlines about things that they're doing and and how that affects us as handlers so

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my job is it's fun it's interesting and i was a fair housing lawyer for 12 years

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before okay i got to come here and i got and i was matched with luna my wonderful

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seeing eye dog uh before i started working here by at that point i was still living and working in chicago

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and i was excited and i was sitting by the fire one day on a cold day after luna and i had

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come in from a trip walking around morristown and i was thinking i wonder what it would be like

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to work here i don't think i'll ever find out but you know i'm gonna go back and be a lawyer and and then the next

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thing you know the job came open and i i thought i wanna i wanna apply and see

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if they'll have me so awesome and here you are and here i am how long how long has that been it's been it i will have

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been here for four years at the end of april wow so awesome awesome stuff yeah uh brian

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thanks mike my name is brian mckenna i've been here at the seeing eye for 18 years i'm currently the senior manager

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of instructor training and the wallers family foundation master instructor which means just like terry

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here at my side who's a female black lab golden cross i'm sponsored and she is sponsored by

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our generous donors and currently i've segueing into

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hiring our apprentice instructors and training our apprentice instructors and prior to this new position i've been

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training dogs teaching our students how to use their dogs safely in our class environment uh

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for these past uh 18 years and my brother's a graduate which is how i became involved at the seeing eye

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awesome awesome stuff so you guys have intimate connections to what goes on here which i think is really cool um so

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let's let's do like a quick little background and i'm not sure who wants to take this one out of the gate on the

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seeing eye itself so it's been around since like 1929 right is that right yeah yeah so so one of the things that i

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think is fascinating about the seeing eyes founding is how serendipity kind of

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played in right because we have dorothy harrison eustis who was

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you know living and breeding german shepherds for police work in vevay switzerland switzerland at

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fortunate fields which is her her kind of palatial mansion and and where she lived and as a

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society lady so here she is breeding german shepherds for police work there

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and she is asked to write an article for the saturday evening post and about that breeding program so her

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thought was well i don't really want to give too much away about this program so i'll write about something different and so what

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she wrote about instead was these was german shepherds being trained

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to guide people who had come home from the war and were blind as a result of the

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mustard gas and other things that happened to them so she wrote this article about about that

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and how impressed she was with that training and that was sort of to deflect that

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attention but what ended up happening is she got a whole lot of different attention and this was back in 1927 when

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she did this and so so she wrote that article and then she gets a million

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letters from all these blind people who were saying you know will you train a dog for me and so on and so forth and i

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think she was like what have i gotten myself into here you know because this isn't why i wrote this article but then

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she got a letter from somebody really interesting and that was morris frank who was a hot-headed

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nashville tennessee young insurance salesman who was really tired of and he was he was blind as a result of uh uh

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well he he had a couple things happen one eye was blind he was blind in one eye

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because a tree branch hit him in the face when he was riding and the other eye he was silly enough being blind in

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one eye to get into a boxing situation and like lost his sight in the other eye oh my god and so he's trying to sell

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insurance and sometimes the kids that he would hire to to help him to guide him

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when he was selling insurance would just like leave him there right they just they would just peace out and say all right i'm done yeah and so he was really

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tired of that so he wrote her a letter that said if you train a dog for me i will start a school

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so that was a little different than do this for me because this was

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i will make this contribution if you if you train a dog for me and that's really

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who the seeing eye is we have always had skin in the game those of us who who work with our dogs so um so that was

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really how it started and she was like okay so they uh he came to switzerland and there's a lot that can be said just

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about that alone to train with his dog and then he came back to

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the united states and one of the first things he did was cross this really scary street in new

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york west street i think it's a highway now and the reporters that were watching him

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do it took a cab because they didn't want to get hit um but he was he was crossing the street

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with buddy his first seeing eye dog and and that was a really big first success so then now is that sorry to cut

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you off no is that the statue that's off the green in morristown is that something different morris that's a

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there is a statue of morris frank and buddy but that's that's i don't know brian which buddy was that because i don't

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know if that was a buddy later on that was not one of his first that wasn't buddy one okay and that wasn't the picture of him

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confidently crossing west street that uh was later on he was a an older gentleman at that at that point that picture is

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actually framed somewhere i believe in our in our hall of history just outside the room that we're in right now that particular

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picture and that sculptor yeah did an amazing job with that statue yeah it's a really cool statue he named all of his

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dog's buddy his first dog was actually named kiss and she was a female german shepherd and

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he said i'm not gonna have a dog named kiss i'm gonna change his name so they were all buddy after that so so the school actually was founded in

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january of 1929 and it started in nashville but in 1931 it moved to whippany because it

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just was really too hot to they discovered to train to train dogs in in nashville so that's yeah the seeing eye

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has been here for 92 years yeah yeah crazy and then at what point did it does it go from

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whippany to morristown was it that 1916. i think that was 1965. yeah i did my homework here yeah 1965. you got it yeah

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and so um then like so we had we did the walk around morristown uh we will do the walk

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around morristown um just getting a little ahead of myself uh but um but then you have this campus

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here which is i mean thomas called me when he got here thomas is behind the camera and he was

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like this is way bigger than i thought it was gonna be i don't even know if i'm in the right spot um so take me through maybe like the progression so 1965 it

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moves to morristown and then obviously it's 2022 now um so maybe take me through the progression of like kind of

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when it started to like the level that it's at now you want to talk a little bit about the

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how how you've seen it expand in the time that you've been here brian yeah definitely i don't know if i'd be able to give you any specific dates um in the

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60s or 70s there there might have been that long yeah that's true there has

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been significant expansion upgrades especially to our dorm wing to this

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beautiful multi-purpose room that we're in right now and all of it is through the generosity

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the gifts from from our donors that we're able to add on to the seeing eye that were able to update the seeing eye

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and that were able to expand and the particular rooms this multi-purpose room

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uh the leisure path the gazebos on the leisure path are beautiful state-of-the-art indoor outdoor

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facilities for our dogs they're all from the gener generosity of our donors and when they make these donations they go

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towards particular projects that our donors can actually sponsor particular projects

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in the 20 years that i've been here i mean other than this multi-purpose room and some upgrades to the the outside of

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the kennel too the beautiful beautiful new kennels that was the most most recent thing was this room and our

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beautiful indoor outdoor kennels which just really enhance the environment for our dogs that they can be inside and

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at night and come out during the day to the fresh air just absolutely beautiful absolutely but yeah it's been quite a

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bit since 1965 that that we've moved here but uh no in terms of what it looked like in 1965 i've heard the

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stories and i've read i've seen the pictures yeah so we've definitely uh come a long way for sure yeah because the the whippany was you know the

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whippany facility was an old house yeah just an old house i've seen the pictures of them yeah and we also have

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our our breeding center in in in chester new jersey too so there's there's a lot of

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um there's a lot to the seeing eye physically and not only it's not just people walking around morristown you

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know like no there's a lot more than that yeah for sure and a lot of people don't realize you know we've got the downtown training center which by the

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way we used to have a different training center i don't know if you were here when that was yeah right on mount kim uh

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mount campbell which was essentially just an older house as well which upstairs we can start our trips

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and end our trips and underneath there was a temperature controlled parking as well but in 2008 we got that beautiful

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downtown training center right on maple avenue on the blocks between maple and south and that has just really really

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enhanced the training process for the dogs and for the students and really connects us

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more to the downtown morristown community which we're already a big part of it for sure but it's nice to be right

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there between maple and south yeah right right in the heart of it for sure um so

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that's all awesome uh so just let's do like if we can do a quick before we break for our second segment which is

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gonna be the walk um if we could just kind of do like a very broad strokes because i know we're going to get into some of the specifics on like how the

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dogs are trained and all that kind of stuff so you have different locations uh not

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different locations you have this campus here this uh the seeing eyes campus you have the the downtown uh training

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center right got that right yes um and then chester you said was the a breeding station it's about

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15 minutes from here and that was uh i guess ground broke on that in 2002. okay i

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believe is uh when we purchased and started our breeding program at the breeding station there in chester so

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right down the road sure beautiful beautiful piece of property at any one time like how many dogs would the seeing

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eye be working with well i think i think on campus at any

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one time we have um about 250 to 300 dogs okay yeah on campus in

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all aspects of just coming in for processing dogs up for adoption and of course mostly dogs in training at

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different aspects of their training right and how long about does that training take a minimum of four months okay minimum

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four months for these dogs to be qualified and if they need more time that is totally fine and then

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i mean i know this is hard probably a hard number to to get but on average per year like how

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many matches are you making between a person and their dog well that number i think has

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unfortunately it's changed a little bit with kovacs and everything so it's not quite the same but it's i would say about 250 a

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year yeah that's awesome i would agree with that yeah yeah amazing um okay so

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we're going to get ready to go on our walk right brian you got it then uh we'll be right back so this is

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the greetings from the garden state podcast i'm mike ham we are here at the seeing eye in morristown with brian mckenna and melissa allman we'll be

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right back it is time for today in new jersey history on april 18th 1946 jackie

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robinson broke baseball's color line at roosevelt stadium in jersey city new jersey in an opening day game between

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the aaa minor league teams the jersey city giants and the montreal royals who robinson was playing for and that is

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today in new jersey history

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all right we're back for segment two of this episode of greetings from the garden state with the seeing eye on my cam of course uh we got brian here again

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and terry uh so terry and brian are gonna take me through a walk on a walk through morristown right now um

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blindfolded which i am very excited about also a little bit nervous um but i trust you you got it yeah yeah so why

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don't we give like a little quick background on terry kind of where she's at in her training just so i can feel a little bit more comfortable you got it

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mike this is terry terry's a female black cross so she's part uh labrador retriever and part golden retriever

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she's completely trained she's ready to go to be paired with her forever person that means she's had the minimum of four

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months in training she's passed her midterm exam which was guided me under uh blindfold at the two-month point

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she's passed her final exam which is guiding me under blindfold at the four-month point and we're just waiting

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for her forever person to come through the door that we can match her with and in the meantime she's a perfect

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candidate to take mike for his first walk under blindfold awesome i'm ready to go let's do it so we got the uh

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blindfold definitely all right

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a lot of trust here got a big head too so look at

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that yeah so i can't see anything so that's great so now

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what's next mike about face please turn and face that traffic okay perfect the dogs go on the left side i'm gonna go

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behind your back and put her on your left side okay oh good girl terry there she is

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mike i'm gonna take this leash and put it over your left wrist okay i'm gonna put it between your thumb and your pointer finger just like that okay i'm

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calling terry to come up a couple more steps and mike i'm going to put this handle just under your forefinger perfect well

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done my friend thumb thumb natural loose loose grip loose grip loose grip she's going to stay right here reference point

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would you be able to touch your pocket with your thumb you don't necessarily have to do that she was too far ahead of you you'd be too far back if she was

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behind you you'd be guiding yourself okay basic commands basically she cues

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herself off of the direction of your hips and your shoulders okay the forward hand signal i'm going to reach over and touch your right hand yep is it terry

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forward just like that carry it forward and you'd wait wait for the pull so whenever you're ready go ahead and tell her terry foley okay terry forward and

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then appraiser oh great job terry you got it i'm gonna slide in behind your right shoulder this is the instructor position okay good she's showing you the

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door on the right side so just ask her to hop up hop up good hop up means carry on okay commands are pretty basic we're

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approaching uh maple avenue start suggesting left by telling her left left good keep telling her left left and

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praise oh good job terry nice job in front of us now it's on your right side it went from perpendicular to parallel

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that traffic on your right side is maple avenue it's going to be your parallel traffic for the next three blocks okay

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she hears my voice i'm a familiar uh voice behind you right so she's looking up at you not sure who you are

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i won't let you bump into anything i won't let you turn your ankle that's why i'm right here behind your right shoulder i appreciate that she'll always

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hear me but this the whole point is she can't see me back here okay good job maintaining that pull the dogs guide by

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pace and pull they're two separate things so the pace of my walk in the oh i'm sorry you were just gonna say you're

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exactly right approaching our down curb and about 15 feet okay ten

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three two one and i moved in to help her stop just to be safe yes thank you wonderful reach out with your right foot

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straight in front of you a little bit farther a little bit farther and then drag your foot back

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good that's a very flat ramp okay so you'll fee if you do it again you'll feel a slight bump when you drag back

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that's it right there it's not much yeah she moved you just to the right of the tactile strip which is under your left

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foot if you move your left foot out to the left a little bit without kicking her you'll feel those bumps underfoot

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yeah yeah yeah you actually have the perfect shoes on for this there's not much underneath that's for sure right so that was her

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way of showing you the down ramp okay and that was your way of telling her i'm gonna wave this traffic on it's one way traffic from the left that was your way

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of finding what she had showed you she brought you beautifully to the down ramp so you can go ahead and tell her she's wonderful great job terry you're

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wonderful you can reach down and scratch her if you like as well she loves that oh yeah yes perfect she just looked back at you excellent we're going to be doing

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these dogs they were trained through guide work patterns to go from block to block i'm waving on the traffic again

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okay it's one way on your left side so right now there is a stop sign on your left that's your perpendicular

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coming from left to right okay cars on your parallel and your right side cannot cut in on you i'm continuing to wave

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there's a traffic light one block down to the left that must be green at this moment that's why we're having uh yeah

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some traffic here that's okay i'm gonna wait for two more cars so i have a question while we're waiting for these cars yeah um how does like i mean if i

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can't see and the dog is taking me through like the streets of morristown and you're not here how does it know

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like how's the dog know when to go and when to stop it's your job oh my job so

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ideally what you would hear is you would hear nothing on your left side knowing that there's a stop sign here that's cause i moved around behind you

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she's following me around good you would know because this is your home environment we don't like our students

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to ever trailblaze we want them to know exactly where they are and where they're going whether it's their hometown

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college campus new commute to work okay always work on new ground this car is letting us go so we're going to go go

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ahead and ask your terry forward terry forward and praise good job perfect mike halfway through the crossing it's a

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blended up ramp there's no defined curve she's approaching it she'll steady three two one good until her terry forward

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terry forward excellent she does not need to stop on a blended up ramp like that if it was a defined up curb she

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would have stopped with a front paws on it yeah so to get back to your question our students are always aware of their surroundings in the direction that

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they're going if they were not able to safely judge traffic patterns they would not be safe to use a seeing eye dog okay

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it's a 50 50 relationship yeah they judge the traffic as best as they can give the dog the command to go forward

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the dog either carries it out safely or intelligently disobeys the command yeah

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a little bumpy underfoot lift your feet here mike that's it and it's flat again you're right in the middle of the sidewalk perfectly safe

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maple avenue is still your parallel on your right side you're doing a great job of handling all the talking on this episode and i'm the host usually i do

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all the talking so this is great you got it mike so like tell talk to me a little bit about you know like what goes into

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actually before we get to the next intersection of course um what goes into like putting feet again finding the

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right person and flat again that fits the right dog well we conduct the interviews for our students in their

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home environment where they're most comfortable and that's our new students for our successor students coming back

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lift your feet again please that's it and flat again students coming back for dogs two three

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four however many dogs they've had before we have an idea of what they want how fast they want to go and what they're looking for so to speak okay but

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with our new students we conduct the interviews in their home environment approaching down ramp in 12

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5 4 3 2 1 and praise she's outstanding go ahead and scratch her

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scratch your ear again yeah perfect oh yeah and you could feel your foot if you moved your right foot a

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little bit that that bumps you're on that tactile strip good sure so you could feel her ready to go she went

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around to look at me again so i'm just shifting her hips back in position no problem mike again this is one way

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perpendicular traffic from left to right okay if you were one of our students i would be describing it just like i am to

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you right now sure if you hear nothing on your left side that means it's safe to cross if there was something idling

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here possibly rolling through the stop sign sure jersey style and you would not ask your dog to go yep so your parallel

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traffic cannot cut in on you from the right because it's one way from the left i don't hear anything mike whenever you're ready tell her terry forward

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terry forward terry forward and prays great job terry good halfway you're

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doing pricing it's an arrow crossing approaching your up ramp and here it is she's telling you she's

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slowing and tell her terry forward terry forward excellent good job terry i feel so safe with terry this is a nice

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flat long block plenty of time to talk to me so

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so terry is a mix right black lab and golden retriever and what you're smelling is taking place directly

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in front of us what is that

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oh yeah sorry that's okay that's about 20 feet in front yes

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okay and then generally like what are the types of dogs that you guys are are breeding for these types of uh missions

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we started with german shepherds in 1929 and now we we breed and train german shepherds labrador retrievers golden

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retrievers lab golden crosses like terry and we have used boxers and poodles in the past but we currently aren't doing

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that okay and how many dogs at any given time around would you have like in

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training around 150 to 200 depending on when they've come back from their razors how

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many instructors are on the particular team so there are some variables to play into that but that's a good good rough

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number yeah and then i think we were talking before we actually started recording about the um the time frame

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that it takes so terry is in what month of her training she's past the four months she's had over eight months at

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this point okay all because our numbers have been a little bit low having students in because of the pandemic and

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because we just haven't had the perfect person for her yeah but you can feel from first-hand experience just how

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smooth and confident she is yeah you're a natural mike you're doing great she's got you right in the middle of the sidewalk she knows her job she doesn't

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know you but she knows her job that's right and she's doing it yeah terry ever needs a home just let me know

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she's wonderful i'm sure i'm sure my girlfriend would love it you know she's got a nice disposition she's the

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perfect size she's willing she's confident she's happy she's eager she's all these wonderful things that we breed

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for and we look for in a dog she could go safely with a man or a woman she can go like our cutoff age is 18. we

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generally don't like our dogs in high school environments because we don't trust that environment right there's a lot of stuff going on yeah our next

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crossing will probably be the biggest crossing we've done yet mike we're about 30 feet away this will be uh crossing

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three miller road and there is a traffic light okay approaching your down ramp in 10

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four three two and she nailed it again good job terry perfect mike oh yeah

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so i'm like i'll let you judge this one okay this is uh we got a light here miller road good way to remember this to

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our students is miller light this is crossing number three okay so your parallel still uh it has the light your

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perpendicular has the light yeah you can hear that car idling off your left side yes now it is moving right now okay i do

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hear it moving a little deceiving because this is a right on red sure so you heard the parallel traffic going and then you heard her come as well

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okay we're gonna wait for that parallel surge to begin that's the safest time to cross okay that particular phase of the

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cycle when traffic is coming from in front of you to behind you she can see it and if a car cuts in front of you she

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can stop safely okay i won't put you in that position today mike i appreciate that i got it there goes your

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perpendicular traffic from the left and the right okay

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a lot of stuff going on let me know when you hear that parallel traffic begin before you go please mike

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sure i don't hear anything yet you put you you did the first two they were perpendicular or just you know the

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t-crossings all right hear it now that's it whenever you're ready all right terry forward ask her again terry forward and she was

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watching the traffic i'm right here with you you're safe you got plenty of time got three lanes to cross past the

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halfway point she's gonna slow at the upramp and we'll keep going awesome terry this

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is a nice long flat block as well so we're taking this up to um swiss

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chalet yeah well done yeah i told you i'm from here yeah

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a little close on the right side so i'm just helping you yeah there we go good there must have been a scent or something in the grass back there well

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there was a scent before but yeah it's still up there yeah i'm still still catching it yeah

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very funny so yeah we're working our way up to madison she'll show you madison and then we'll make our first turn with her

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and this is how it works these dogs are trained to go curb to curb they're trained to find doors and cars and

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locations that they get praised for yeah they're not rewarded with treats they're not rewarded with money it's all just

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positive reinforcement and praise sure and if one of our students can't do that then they wouldn't be

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qualified to get a seeing eye dog as well right we want to make sure with the time and love and money we spend on

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these dogs that they're in environments that they're used cared for and loved and respected as they deserve

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to be absolutely she's doing this job because not only she she loves it she enjoys it if she

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didn't she wouldn't make the program right about 40 of our dogs don't make the program for various reasons

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okay so like if you have a dog i mean i'm sure there's instances where a dog will go through the training yeah

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and while it's probably very well trained probably more or better trained than most dogs are

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like maybe just not good like not quite at the level as maybe a terry or some of your other graduates i guess right they keep

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getting passed over for one reason or another yeah sure like what happens in that instance well we'll give them every chance uh there's

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a certain age cut off that they'll get to before they'll get dropped from the program and um they'll go the first lift your

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feet here mike and that's it the first call will be their razor our volunteer families that raise our dogs for us are

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absolutely amazing okay and other than our donors i mean it just wouldn't be possible without them absolutely they get the first call to get the dog back

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got it it's bittersweet the dog gets picked up and they want the dog to make it and work with someone and change someone's

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life and provide all that wonderful wonderful stuff that our dogs provide a little step down here mike so the last

27:32

75 feet or so of this block before we get to madison it's just it's just this old slate sidewalk yeah it feels pretty

27:38

chewed up there's no real toe catchers though here's a root underneath a little step down

27:43

and if they don't want the dog back for whatever reason we'll have uh law enforcement we'll come and check out

27:48

these dogs we have dogs that go back to school in other ways yeah and if they don't uh find what they're looking for

27:54

then our dogs will be adopted out yeah so about what age do they go from the razor to you guys approaching madison

28:00

about eight feet three two one and i'm helping her stop there just take two

28:06

steps back for me one two good and just praise her there good job terry she was rolling in a

28:13

little bit of a rhythm there i know we were doing it takes a long time for a person and the dog to get on the same page and

28:19

that's why the class experience which i'll get into in a moment is so long we're going to make our first left turn

28:24

for a left turn your left foot stays where it is you turn your hips and your shoulder into her and you pull back on

28:30

the handle and tell her terry left terry left and be ready to go with her okay ask her

28:35

again terry left terry left and go nice mike beautiful okay here we go one

28:41

block up to south street and we'll pass the swiss chalet when we get to south street

28:46

the dogs uh usually by age three three would be about the latest that we'd keep a dog before um

28:53

evaluating just how long they've been here and uh you know what the best future would be for them we want to give

29:00

every dog the opportunity but we've got more dogs than we have students yeah and we want to make sure

29:06

that our students are covered when they come to spend 25 days in morristown with us yeah 17 if they've had a dog before

29:12

lift your feet here mike that's it perfect 17 if they've had a dog before and 25 if it's their first dog so how

29:19

old uh when so like the razor is raising the dogs i guess from puppies yes and

29:24

then at what point do you take the dog from the razor uh about 18 months okay so they generally turn two in their

29:31

first four months of training okay so i'm gonna guess terry is approaching she's between two and a half to three

29:37

years old yeah and then someone like you as a trainer yeah working with terry like do you have

29:44

a certain set of dogs that you work with or yes i'll have eight at a time eight dogs for four months okay and then on

29:50

the fifth month my students will come to class and i'll live in the building with them for 17 to 25 days okay some of my

29:55

dogs will go in some won't and i have four or five partners each with eight dogs themselves yeah so we'll have

30:01

anywhere from 45 to 60 dogs to choose from from my team of five instructors the six instructors and then we'll have

30:07

the dogs from uh the last few months as well you're approaching south street okay and there's the down ramp yeah yeah

30:13

and you can praise her there terry good job and now we're gonna make a left turn and head back covering the same blocks but

30:18

in reverse like this yep and pull back there she goes yep and praise her good job terry i'm not sure where you are but

30:26

okay perfect carry forward yep stay right up next door she just asked you if you wanted to cross back over south street and there you go well done now

30:32

your parallel traffic is south street on your right side the whole way back okay needless to say you're from morristown

30:38

yeah it's uh more lively here there's more more things for them to get into and to see she's showing you swiss

30:43

chalet right now all right potted plant in front of she's going to push you to the right here it comes

30:49

let's back up a little bit give her some space there we go sorry terry [Music]

30:54

she's keeping you away from traffic on your right side okay so she's doing her job she's indicating familiar

31:00

destinations on the left she's keeping you away from the heavy parallel traffic on your right this first block gets very

31:06

wide for example you're on the on the sidewalk there mike and i am down here about 10 feet to your right right as we

31:13

approach the paint store she's gonna have to push you to the right she's doing it already okay beautiful

31:18

and wonderful so morristown must be a pretty good spot for

31:24

this just because of like you got a lot of stuff to the left around the light post just talk to her hop up hop up

31:30

there you go mike good uh yeah it's wonderful it's perfect it offers uh a wire and a

31:35

car just cut in front of you from right to left in the capital one it was far enough away she didn't have to stop under foot you just felt the capital one

31:42

driveway yep they don't have to stop for driveways if they did our students wouldn't get anywhere about 50 feet

31:48

including closing is a small dog coming towards us okay go ahead and tell her leave it leave it good that basically

31:53

just means don't leave it and just keep talking to her good job hello wonderful great job

32:00

outstanding terry i got to say went ahead okay i'm going to move you to the left around it yeah

32:06

now she's in a groove well done mike oh yeah so morristown's wonderful it offers us so many opportunities put these dogs

32:11

in as many situations as morristown can offer they definitely enjoy having us as neighbors and we love having them yeah

32:17

absolutely we utilize their public transportation their park space their traffic i mean anything we possibly can

32:22

and when the dogs get to a certain point in training we venture outside of morristown okay continue to show them as

32:28

much as we possibly can yeah because i was going to say that too i mean i guess like intersections are intersections but

32:34

a new york city intersection is obviously a lot different than yes a morristown intersection would be a lot different than like a sparta

32:39

intersection right definitely so i guess exposing them to all those different things i guess would help kind of figure

32:45

out who the perfect match would be right exactly yeah these dogs are matched with people based on two primary things the

32:51

pace at which the dogs guide and the pole at which they provide terry never walks faster than this pace mike and she

32:57

never walks slower awesome so i can tell you right now that terry's walking three miles an hour okay and if you came into

33:02

class as a visually impaired student said to me brian this is all i want to walk then i would say that i've got the perfect dog for you right we tell every

33:09

student they have to walk at the same pace no matter where they are yeah because all of our dogs only provide one pace yeah some are fast some are slow

33:16

and some are right in the middle which is what terry is yeah then you take in consideration the pull approaching miller light again 15 feet and closing

33:23

it's got a good defined ramp she's telling you about it awesome drag your foot forward and then bring it back you'll feel the ramp and then you can

33:28

praise her so she knows you found it good job terry the t-shaped intersection here mike yep

33:34

uh right now the face of the cycle is just ending in your against you okay so your perpendicular

33:41

is about to begin unfortunately south street's in a little bit of a traffic jam right now that's okay so we're gonna wait for sal street to

33:47

begin again which will be your parallel beginning again here comes your perpendicular yep hear it

33:52

it's crazy like you know like the heightened sense of hearing that i kind of like and i know where i

33:58

am yeah so i think like that obviously like you were saying before it's a big thing for like what these dogs can do

34:04

like with their person definitely he's like i know my way around here i walk the street like almost every day and knowing kind of like i mean i know

34:10

exactly where i am uh like mayo pack's right over there you got it uh jackie hollow's right there

34:16

pointed right at it south of pine former guest right over there church over here wait

34:21

church over here yes yeah you got it yeah so that's incredible so you're working with

34:26

eight dogs at a time yes each day gets about 45 minutes to an hour a day of one-on-one training okay

34:32

now i'm hearing the traffic on my right side that's it it just began you are exactly right so do i have am i good to

34:39

go should i wait you are yep all right terry forward terry forward and parades great job

34:45

terry hold on i'm right here with you about three lanes to cross coaching your up ramp it's a pretty flat

34:51

one she's gonna tell you it's there and good girl forward good job terry excellent job

34:58

got trees on the right little tree wells not enough to roll an ankle pass in the library on the left more pedestrians

35:04

more cars more action more dogs our students come in they don't we ask them to be as confident as they

35:10

can and learn the routes we do in morristown as best they can understanding that when they get home they'll be more confident familiar

35:16

familiar ground right but they're here long enough to prove to us that they can do this they can learn the routes they

35:22

can learn to trust and respect and of course love these dogs before they go home yeah and that's a big reason why

35:28

classes as long as it is before they go home to canada or chicago or oregon florida wherever it could be a quiet

35:35

rural environment it could be a bustling city they have to have that foundation of the bond of the trust and the respect of

35:41

that relationship and that's why classes as long as it is i feel she's picking it up a little bit

35:47

now despite what i said about the pace this is uh her telling you that we're getting close to home okay and any dog

35:53

will show this a little bit in terms of familiar destinations okay here's a little ramp of a driveway up good

36:00

so i was going to ask does it ever get bittersweet for you i mean i know that obviously you're doing a great thing to

36:05

put a dog in it's in its home with its person but is it ever a little bit bittersweet you spend all that time with these dogs and then have to almost give

36:12

them away yeah it's tough yeah and we're a part of the process so we give the dogs over and then we're right there yeah so i would give the dog to my

36:19

student and now i'm behind your right shoulder and they know darn well where i am they hear me and the first couple days is tough they're whining and crying

36:25

and turning around and trying to get to me treat well she hurt she felt your right foot hit it and she compensated and

36:30

brought you back over to the left i felt that but as the days week one uh week one you know turned to week two and they

36:36

stopped looking back and uh it is bittersweet because we know that they're starting to fall in love with their

36:42

person and vice versa and we more importantly we know their person is doing what it takes to win this dog over

36:48

and respecting them and loving the behind closed doors with the play time and the grooming and the wrestling and

36:54

the snuggle time and all that good stuff yeah approaching community place about 10 feet good defined ramp here and

37:01

good she's right there and i'm over here on her side so she's spun you go ahead and scratch it a little bit perfect and

37:07

that right there that interaction that relationship that's the only reason she's doing this yeah there's a car coming from the right that has it right

37:12

away and i'm okay i'm gonna wave them on sure community place is a t-shaped intersection south has the right of ways

37:18

you're parallel it's one way from right to left there's no control no stop sign no light if you waited here for all

37:24

quiet as you know with south street you'd be waiting here a long time yeah be dark by the time we were done you got it so basically you hear that parallel

37:30

surge of traffic going go ahead and ask her to go with a confident tone and if she has to stop for a car cutting you

37:36

off she will stop okay terry forward terry forward and praise good job terry

37:42

perfect mike that praise is so important you have two seconds to praise for an action if you don't praise there's your

37:48

up ramp good girl yeah i felt like like i'm getting the feel of it too like when she slows down yep she's showing you a

37:54

driveway okay show me your driveway there we go that's an indication so that was an indication i haven't taken her to

38:00

the women's club of morristown but she indicated the women's club of morristown for you hey god bless you guys for your good work oh thank you very much

38:07

amazing stuff you guys do thank you enjoy this beautiful day thank you as well look at that people just trying to get

38:13

on the episode yes definitely freeloaders especially that couple walking in front of us on mayport

38:23

we're going to encounter um quite a few pedestrians up ahead there's the frozen yogurt shop door propped open on a day

38:29

like today i can't blame them that's for sure a little bit of salt underneath that's from the you know the snow the

38:34

other day that can bother the dog's paws sometimes but terry seems to be okay with it yeah it can get stuck between

38:40

their toes sometimes and if i see her you know hobbling i'll i'll get it out of there but she seems to be okay right

38:46

family coming towards you it's one nice thing about morristown is people get out of the way the only

38:52

problem is that dogs don't learn to go around people yeah hello thank you very much we're just powering through aren't

38:57

we yes and because people are getting out of the way politely of course and sure we wish we could tell them no no no

39:02

stay still yeah yeah so that's another huge advantage to going to new york city won't get out of the way they don't care

39:08

the dogs really really learn about pedestrian clearance at that point yeah our next crossing will be d hard street

39:14

it's a lighted intersection about six feet in closing perfect go ahead and praise her there

39:19

good job terry

39:24

terry's practicing it sure mike's practicing too but in a little bit different way

39:31

t-shaped lighted intersection as well we're waiting for that front to back parallel surge okay we're in an all-quiet phase of the cycle right now

39:37

yep the first thing you'll hear will be from behind us and to the left that's not what we want right that's the left turn signal you got it going down for

39:44

dogs to see yep front to back will block those turners that you hear right now sure so they

39:49

can't turn in front of you is that front to back the next face is what we want yep here it goes okay whenever you're ready

39:57

terry forward and terry forward ask her again terry forward well done that was

40:03

her asking you if you wanted to go in two twenty three southwest boutique yes

40:08

[Music] so ask her to hop up all right go and i'll tell you the moment what she did do

40:14

you feel what she's doing now mike yeah she's anticipating the left turn she knows we're turning left here so before

40:20

you actually found the up curve she's actually already turned you 90 degrees left got it so go ahead and tell her forward and carry forward and good job

40:26

terry around this new fire hydrant that they put in an awkward spot close to the wall i'm gonna tap that wall so she hears it there we go and she moved you

40:32

off the wall this is i mean like

40:39

i just just blows me away awesome like as i was telling you before we got started

40:44

like every time i see you guys out here doing this stuff it's just like it's mind-blowing to me but like doing it

40:51

i could feel like all the stuff that you're saying like that wall

40:56

is the narrow block she's keeping you away from the parallel traffic on her side sure and stop

41:01

and just tap this show that to her good drop the handle but hold the leash so keep the leash on

41:06

your wrist good we're going to rework it go straight back covering the same ground that you yep perfect keep her on

41:12

the left if you can extend your left arm from your side perfect take one step forward

41:17

bend at the knees to find that handle it's a little bit lower she's a shorty

41:23

there we go good perfect so that's my leash this is uh i'll just pull it through right there yeah you got

41:29

it so that was how rework that was considered a work error she bumped you into something you addressed it by

41:35

hitting it okay you walk straight back covering the same ground in reverse you use the technique to keep her on the

41:40

left that has her working position so you never lost your orientation that's what's most important with our students

41:46

okay there's a lot of things going on here right you got an idling delivery truck on the left you got a leaf blower down the alley to the right you can hear

41:52

acoustically that this wall is on your right side so she's hugging the right side to keep you away from this traffic

41:58

and as soon as you lost the building line to get to the alley to the back of all these restaurants right there's a yellow support pole here that keeps

42:05

vehicular traffic from running into the building okay because too many delivery trucks have cut the corner yeah this

42:11

building right that's what she brushed you on okay so now we're gonna rework the air go ahead and ask her terry forward terry ford

42:18

terry forward ask her again terry forward terry yes sir she goes good mike good

42:24

well done she's just looking up at me there we go good wonderful and we're past it now we've got the parking garage

42:30

entrances the cars are coming up from the right you are safe okay good she's gonna go behind the car on

42:36

your left it's wonderful and stop oh yeah with your right foot just just

42:42

show that to her good and now right from here ask her hop up hop up hop up and she's pulling you to the left

42:48

already wonderful good she brought you around two cars that we're looking to pull out into

42:53

which is you know not traffic but a little backed up on dehart sure and when she did that she just bumped your right

43:00

toe into something okay good excellent and this is exactly what i would tell our students to do as well bring the

43:06

attention to the dog of the things that you like sure praise them for what what you like and they'll do it again and

43:11

stop and just show her this drop the handle and go straight back and we'll reapproach

43:16

perfect covering the same ground but in reverse good she just spun into position

43:23

there's head trail bent down this back perfect and terry forward terry forward

43:29

terry forward terry forward and praise good job perfect mike well done right by the sign

43:35

that was for the stretch lab okay stretch lab i know where i am we are halfway to maple

43:42

praise for what you the dog does that you like and she'll do it again point out to her the things that she shouldn't do and she'll avoid them next

43:48

time right right and it's just patterning exercises repetition and praise praise praise yeah

43:54

that's just so cool

44:05

so now like at night is terry like hanging out with all the other dogs are they yeah

44:10

she's in the kennels okay she's got a roommate she's in a yard with uh 18 other dogs

44:16

and she gets to play with them and when she's not in training with me she's anticipating the turn to the right

44:22

but she's gotta finish down to maple avenue first okay i'm sliding over on her side so she's cheating a little bit

44:28

so go ahead and ask her to hop up hop up there she goes she's gotta finish maple avenue

44:33

she's it keep asking her to hop up hop up hop up and there's the tactile strip

44:38

wonderful nice job even though she knows the way and we're impressed that she does she still has to finish the block for you sure right turn is basically the

44:45

sweeping hand motion of just tips yes there we go knew it yeah

44:52

good job terry that was awesome yeah they're very smart they they figured out where their trips ended begin and this

44:57

is how easily they learn the routines of their person at home right and even at their very routines all these dogs want

45:02

to do is please you they're so willing they're so driven they just want to do this job it's just it's a very powerful

45:08

thing to be a part of absolutely up ahead you'll hear a hose one of our instructors is cleaning the park area

45:14

okay that's good yes definitely

45:20

mike wants to stop right there you can lift your blindfold right back to where we started from

45:25

hey oscar that was so cool good so cool good job terry

45:32

and she did a great job keeping you safe mike yeah absolutely you did wonderful thank you thank you thank you so much

45:37

yeah absolutely awesome appreciate that you got it mike all right so that was segment two of

45:43

this episode of greetings from the garden state we'll be right back with segment three so mike cam greenish from the garden state brian terry

45:49

we'll catch you in a little bit it is time for your new jersey fun fact

45:55

of the day did you know that the most populated zip code in new jersey is 08701 which is lakewood new jersey with

46:01

a population of 93 320. the least populated zip code is 08556

46:07

which is rose mountain new jersey with only 13 inhabitants and that is your new jersey fun fact of the day

46:15

[Music]

46:23

all right we're back for our third and final segment of the greetings from the garden state podcast this episode of the greetings from the garden state podcast

46:29

i'm mike cam we are here at the seeing eye of course in morristown with brian mckenna and melissa allman so we just got back from our walk and now i could

46:36

actually talk about it and that was amazing like just totally blown away and i think i said to you before we started

46:42

brian like i live in morristown like as melissa and i were talking about and i see

46:47

you guys working with dogs on south street and around that surrounding area all the time and i've just been like so

46:53

blown away like one of the reasons why i was like i have to get the seeing eye on this show just because i thought it was

46:59

just such a cool thing and then when i reached out to michelle and she was like yeah we'd love to what would you think

47:04

about getting blindfolded and walked around town i was like hell yeah like we're doing that like that's amazing so

47:10

it lived up and surpassed all expectations i could have possibly had for that and terry did a great job so

47:17

it's awesome mike you did a great job thank you and so did terry yes sleeping by my side right terry did better i

47:22

think because she was actually doing all the work i was just kind of along for the ride but i did pretty good picking out all those spots in morristown just because i got a keen understanding of my

47:29

hometown so um so our last segment we like to do is do uh tie it back into the community in some way and obviously

47:36

there are a lot of things involved here um with the community and the seeing eye

47:42

so i think brian if you wanted to talk a little bit about working in morristown and the relationship that the seeing eye

47:47

has with morristown especially you know in particular the downtown area and the people and the local restaurants like

47:54

all that kind of stuff like take me through kind of like that relationship and how i'm assuming positive it must be

48:00

oh yeah definitely uh we love being in morristown and it's really clear just how much morristown enjoys having us

48:06

there as well as terry just stands up next to me sounds sweet out of girl

48:11

we really do take a lot of pride in being in morristown and we love the morris statue that was donated to us in

48:17

the center of morristown we love to give back to the morristown uh community and uh you know we we hear

48:23

from them all the time in terms of what it means for us to be there in the in the town in the community not just in

48:29

morristown but the surrounding towns as well we'll train the dogs in chester and madison and mendom and summit and just

48:36

this area of new jersey morristown in particular has so much to offer us in terms of training these dogs and working

48:42

with our students and the support that we get i mean it's just been incredible yeah a big way for um

48:50

you know new jersey and people in morristown to support us is just with their i've mentioned before their

48:56

generosity and their and their donations but i think mike you even heard it um on

49:01

the street as you're working with terry just uh yeah you know how cool it is of a thing that we that we get to do yeah

49:08

and we do take a lot of pride right in being here in morristown and utilizing everything that they have to offer

49:14

we know the store owners the restaurant owners and the delis and uh you know there's places that we've seen coming on

49:20

and gone over the years and uh and we're still there supporting morristown as best as we can and and we

49:26

know what it means uh to them to have us there yeah for sure yeah if i didn't already know the great work that you guys are doing i was

49:33

gonna be like that guy just wanted to get on the podcast he's just trying to jump in jump in yeah that's what it is yeah but uh so

49:40

melissa you're doing stuff you know like your role takes you even beyond morristown and all the stuff that you're

49:45

doing beyond that so that obviously creates an even larger community so you can talk about sure well and and but

49:50

just to start with morristown though uh you know i live and a lot of the

49:57

the instructors right brian who who work in morristown and and train dogs in morristown don't necessarily get to live

50:04

there because you live in other places throughout new jersey but i i live in morristown and one thing i can say is

50:09

that it's just it's really meaningful to kind of walk down the street and know

50:14

that i am working with a seeing eye dog and i'm doing that in the place where

50:20

these dogs are trained and in the place where i live and and i love to patronize the local businesses one of the things

50:27

that is is fantastic is that i can it morristown is very walkable so i can walk to the places i need to go to

50:33

whether it's you know the the bank or the dry cleaners or the you know my favorite takeout places because i don't

50:39

really like to cook you know so and my wine store that i that i just absolutely love so that to me is is really

50:46

meaningful and and one of the things that i i love is that i get to work

50:53

for an organization with a mission that has profoundly changed my life i don't know too many

50:59

people who can say i work for a place that has a mission that has profoundly changed my life you know the

51:04

independence and dignity that comes with working with a dog and so when i go and do outreach presentations

51:11

to other organizations throughout new jersey and sometimes before kovid you know beyond

51:18

that and i get to talk about what we do and i talk about rights of of handlers

51:23

with with guide dogs i'm passionate about it because i live it you know we did a presentation

51:29

right before the world shut down to a group of vegetable growers at a

51:34

conference in new jersey and that was that was a really interesting presentation that stretched

51:41

my forced me to really stretch my my thought processes about the

51:47

regulations and the laws that we have that protect our rights because there are also questions of

51:53

you know how does that translate into a pick your own farm and how did how does that work so that was a really fun

51:59

experience yeah we've also i would never even think about that no no and until they approached us we you know that was

52:06

a really new thing and then of course doing a presentation to a group of health inspectors and explaining to them

52:12

yes the health codes are important but the the americans with disabilities act sort of supersedes that when it comes to

52:19

you have to still allow service animals in restaurants and places where you have to think about

52:24

health codes but obviously that not every restaurateur and every business

52:30

necessarily knows that so it was informative for these health inspectors you know we're going to be doing a

52:35

presentation to some some commercial uh building owners and managers in the

52:41

next couple of weeks so so that's helpful and and meaningful and i always

52:46

learn something we're working on where we do presentations to law enforcement sometimes so that's

52:52

that's how i feel like we can really get out and educate yeah and be educated too

52:58

because i always learn something from people's questions and and and what they have to bring to the

53:04

discussion and things that i have not thought of right and then of course with the airlines with the regulations having

53:11

changed recently concerning traveling with service animals and having the opportunity to engage in dialogue with

53:18

them about how their implementation of the regulations affects guide dog handlers and what they

53:25

can do to make it less burdensome and and what we can learn from their perspective so it's

53:30

it's it's fun stuff yeah no i mean like listen like i said before like this this place and what you guys do just blows me

53:37

away which i think is just so cool and i love just how ingrained in not just the

53:42

morristown community but even beyond that in different communities you guys are because you're doing so much good to help people that need the help you know

53:49

so um take me through also because obviously like a big part of what you guys do stems from

53:55

donors so take me through like that community and how important they are to what you guys do here well so our donors

54:02

are people like the listeners to this podcast they're people like you and me they're private

54:08

individuals they are corporations that care about what we do we don't receive any money

54:13

from federal or government sources and it costs upwards of seventy thousand

54:20

dollars right now to start from the birth of a dog to

54:26

you know through the through the actually even before that the breeding the raising the training

54:32

and the matching and then all the the follow-up services throughout the life of the dog and and that support so

54:39

that's really about how much it costs to make and sustain a match but

54:45

we only charge a tuition of a hundred and fifty dollars for like that's what i paid for

54:51

for to be matched with luna and and fifty dollars for subsequent dogs

54:56

and then a dollar for veterans so when i came here

55:02

i paid 150 for being flown

55:07

to you know from chicago to here staying here for three and a half weeks

55:14

getting the most profound gift of my life being fed which i really do care about

55:19

actually so you know three three square meals um and and really really meaningful instruction you know room and

55:25

board and and this incredible experience and then returning home and being told

55:32

that if i needed support with my dog in the future oh and i got this this harness that she wears

55:37

it's a leather harness and it it's it costs a lot to make those they're they're a couple hundred bucks and and

55:43

the equipment to start out with and then you go home and you're told if you need us we're here yes so

55:49

that's what that's what i got and and everything that i've experienced

55:54

for the past five plus years because of the donations that that we receive from individuals

56:01

and corporations that's that's how my life has been changed i can't say that much absolutely

56:07

incredible the generosity of the of our donors absolutely incredible and those uh the tuition that she mentioned the cost

56:14

of fifty 150 for the first dog and fifty dollars for every successor dog that's been the same since 1929. yeah which is

56:21

just absolutely incredible that everything around us everything that we do everything we've been talking about is just funded by the generosity of our

56:28

of our donors it's just absolutely incredible and that's another big thing with the community and the outreach is at one

56:34

point mike today when we were crossing community you might have heard to your left um a mother talking to her two kids

56:41

about you know notice the harness and that's a working dog we don't talk to working dogs and that's another thing

56:46

that morristown does for us is they're great advocates for us because they take what they've seen what they've what

56:52

they've learned that's around them just like you've described as in your home environment and they can help to educate

56:58

their friends family members co-workers anywhere anywhere around the world yeah um because that is a constant thing for

57:05

our for our students because they don't all go home to places that are have uh guide dog schools right in their

57:11

backyard like right now yeah that's a big part of what melissa mentioned as well is we've got our students backs uh

57:18

once they leave here and a graduate of the seeing eye the dog is theirs we give full ownership but if they need anything

57:23

we're a phone call away a drive away a quick flight away and that's a big part of what i do as an instructor is provide

57:31

that support to to our graduates whether it's uh over the phone or in person and

57:36

it's a job a role of melissa's here at the seeing eye as well so we really are a family and we consider the morristown

57:43

community part of our family as well yeah absolutely i like it when the kids educate their parents and because

57:49

because they're doing a lot more in schools now i mean you have kids brian right so you know um but they're doing a lot more in schools now to educate kids

57:56

about service animals and so i'll be walking along and i'll hear i've heard a kid say to their parents mommy we can't

58:03

pet that doggy that's a service dog and it's so much fun yeah yeah i love that um and then what you guys were

58:10

saying before that's what i think is so cool about the community that the seeing eye has is it's not just in morristown

58:16

it's not just with the donors it's not just with your students not just with the dogs or the people that work here and it just doesn't that you don't just

58:22

go hey here's your dog now get out of here you know what i mean like it's like the ongoing relationship that keeps

58:28

people from all over north america you know so we've got canadians we've got i mean we've got a whole

58:33

gamut of of people from from everywhere all over north america that that come

58:39

here to be matched with our dogs and that we when we say we're going to support you we we mean that yeah for

58:45

sure absolutely i love that um so if people are listening to this episode and they're like hey i want to get involved

58:51

i want to volunteer i want to donate i want to do all those different kinds of things like how can they go about doing

58:58

that well i so if they there's there's a donate link on our website if you go to

59:04

seeing eye.org and then you just click on donate that's one way to support us

59:09

and and like i said before as somebody who gets to work for a place with a mission

59:14

that's profoundly changed my life i very much can say that we appreciate those donations

59:20

and then if you um call the seeing eye at

59:26

973-539-4425 and say hey look i'm interested in volunteering you will be directed to the right place yeah and we

59:33

have amazing volunteers we really do we're scaled back with volunteers right now but we'll be back to our full

59:40

capacity of volunteers hopefully sooner than later and our volunteers work in every department here at the seeing eye

59:46

and they are essential for the day-to-day function of the seeing eye as well yeah yeah

59:52

and we're always looking for puppy raisers yes to volunteer their time their love and

59:59

just complete dedication to going through everything that is entailed with raising a puppy yeah we didn't really

1:00:05

talk about puppy raisers yeah and getting that puppy right where they want it to be and then giving it back yes and

1:00:11

it not being theirs yeah and starting with another so when the puppies are seven weeks old they they go to their

1:00:16

razors and and you get all the the the you know the sort of accidents and the

1:00:23

um all the good stuff right and then you

1:00:28

you teach that that puppy basic obedience and manners and go on exposure outings

1:00:34

and you you do all of that for the seeing eye with direction you know and

1:00:39

then you give the dog back when it's somewhere between 15 and 18 months old and it's not your dog and so

1:00:46

that's when the training begins and then you get that pride and satisfaction you played such a huge role in this

1:00:53

amazingly emotional powerful bittersweet uh

1:00:59

thing yeah that is at uh sleeping at melissa's feet thank you luna's puppy raisers

1:01:06

shout out we just there are so many wonderful people that make the

1:01:12

seeing eye work from our donors to our volunteers to our razors and it's just not possible without all of them there's

1:01:19

a lot a lot that goes into producing these wonderful thoughtful safe guide

1:01:24

dog teams like melissa and luna and it's it's an amazingly rewarding process from

1:01:31

start to finish yeah absolutely i i mean like experiencing it i called my girlfriend

1:01:36

on the way over here and i was like it was unbelievable and she was upset that she couldn't make it and i was like too

1:01:41

bad but um you know but like i just i just said you know like i was telling her all these things because we always talk about like

1:01:47

how does the dog know like when to stop like how does it know when to go how does it know when to do this how does it know when to do that and then like i

1:01:52

learned all that stuff on the walk and then learning all the history now like and you know the community side of it too on what you guys do and how you guys

1:01:59

do it and all that kind of stuff is it like takes something that i saw from afar and thought it was really cool and

1:02:05

then just puts it into a totally different perspective on how you know it

1:02:10

just it's mind-blowing that's really the only way that i can describe it and i do this because i'm good at talking and i can't

1:02:16

even really describe like how like overwhelming this whole experience has been literally from start to finish from

1:02:22

just sitting down and talking here uh talking with you guys here and doing the walk around morristown with brian and terry amazing and you know thank you

1:02:29

guys so much for doing this with us today and being a part of the show well thank you so much for for having us i

1:02:35

know it definitely means a lot to me for sure you gotta mike this has been a lot of fun you're welcome any time i'd

1:02:42

love to catch up with you absolutely ever see one of us walking down the street yeah definitely say hi i like her name sure i know right with us just and

1:02:48

if i don't recognize you just say it's mike and i'll be like oh yeah that guy that guy yeah

1:02:54

luna has not snored this entire time so that's a testament to i know you keeping things she's nuzzled up on me a little

1:02:59

bit that's um awesome so i will make sure that i

1:03:05

put seeing eye dot org right yep seeing i dot org no no that no no that so seeing eye dot org

1:03:12

and the number that you so quickly rattled off i will put those in the show notes so that people that are listening

1:03:17

watching on youtube all that kind of stuff can go check it out connect if you want to donate please do

1:03:23

if you want to volunteer obviously there's opportunities for that too i'm sure in like a variety of different

1:03:29

areas right so make sure you do that so brian and melissa thank you again so

1:03:34

much michelle thank you for setting this up um thomas thank you for filming behind the camera i know you got you got

1:03:40

to get some sunglasses back there but this has been the greetings from the garden state podcast i'm mike hamm uh we were here at the seeing eye today in

1:03:46

morristown with brian mckenna and melissa allman thank you for listening and we'll catch you next time

1:03:56

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