Fall/Winter 2025  – Vol. 15

Read the latest on our pups’ journeys!

Friend,

As a monthly supporter of our program, you’re receiving this inside look at the journeys of our prospective future guide dogs! Past Pupdates can be found at this link.

Can you ever have too many puppies? (Our answer: im-paw-ssible!). This summer,  two new furry faces joined the CNIB Guide Dogs family:

Because of your ongoing support, we’re able to welcome more puppies like Clover and Gloria into our program, helping ensure that everyone who wants a guide dog can access one at no cost. We’re so excited to share their journeys with you in future Pupdates!

Buddy Dog Camp @ CNIB Lake Joe

In August, 13 children and their families gathered at CNIB Lake Joe – Canada’s only fully accessible camp for people who are blind – for our fourth annual Buddy Dog Camp. Designed for families impacted by blindness, this week of fun in the sun provided a safe and engaging environment for children who are blind or have low vision and partnered with a CNIB buddy dog or waiting to be paired with one.

The participants – who came from six provinces – built confidence, practiced their dog-handling skills with CNIB Guide Dogs trainers, and enjoyed classic CNIB Lake Joe activities like swimming, kayaking, and rock climbing. What an unforgettable summer!

Indoor City at Canine Campus

From the great outdoors to the mighty indoors, a lot’s changed in our Indoor City, a one-of-a-kind training space at CNIB Canine Campus in Carleton Place, ON! With tons of real-world features like bus stops, sidewalks, traffic lights, and even an airplane cabin, the Indoor City makes it possible for our future guide dogs to train year-round through snowstorms, heatwaves, and everything in between.

Our pups are growing by leaps and bounds in their training! Keep reading to learn how your ongoing support is nurturing the next generation of guide dogs.

Training Updates

Name: Di
Entered program: April 2025
Sex: Female
Breed: Labrador retriever

Di, now six months old, has a strong desire to please. That, plus her high food motivation makes her a fast learner – and an easy one to bribe! Her cleverness can also translate to mischief, though, and sometimes she looks for things to grab around the house. Her team of trainers and volunteer puppy raisers are working hard on getting her to “leave it.” When she’s not keeping people on their toes, Di is always up for a fast-paced adventure. We look forward to watching Di blossom!

Name: Valerie
Entered program: April 2025
Sex: Female
Breed: Labrador retriever

The ever-confident Valerie is very bright and eager to start exploring her new environment with her volunteer puppy raiser in Ontario. This social pup has a zest for life, which can be a challenge because it can lead to becoming overexcited and vocal. To overcome this, Valerie’s trainer is working with her on impulse control and rewarding her quiet behaviour. During the warm summer months, Valerie enjoyed sitting on the front porch with her puppy raiser and watching the world go by!

Name: Duckie
Entered program: January 2025
Sex: Female
Breed: Labrador retriever

Duckie is a 12 month-old black Labrador retriever who loves people and making new friends. She often seeks out anyone who makes eye contact with her, and this makes walks more of a social event. To address this, her trainer is working on getting her to focus on tasks and save her socializing for when she isn’t wearing her yellow future guide dog vest.

Duckie enjoys learning new tasks and is food motivated which makes training easy. She can be shy around loud sounds, so her volunteer puppy raiser is building up Duckie’s tolerance to unexpected sounds by having dance parties with music and light drumming on kitchen pots and pans! Our team will continue to build up her confidence so she can continue her training successfully.

Name: Captain
Entered program: June 2024
Sex: Male
Breed: Labrador retriever

Meet Captain, an 18-month-old male black Labrador retriever! Over the past several months of formal training, he has gradually gained confidence and continues to find his stride.

He demonstrates enthusiasm for learning new skills and recently mastered how to safely identify a crosswalk button on a light post. This has quickly become one of his favorite tasks during walks—no doubt encouraged by the reward he receives for completing it successfully!

Captain is most confident in familiar environments, so his trainers have established several consistent training routes. These regular sessions have provided him with structure and reassurance, and it has been rewarding to see his progress. He is proving himself to be a smart, driven, and eager dog, both in and out of harness.

Name: Dolly
Entered program: November 2024
Sex: Female
Breed: Labrador golden retriever cross

Dolly, now 11 months old, is a sweet, sensitive dog who just wants to make her trainer and volunteer puppy raisers happy. She loves picking up items like Lego bricks and bringing them to her puppy raisers, as if she were giving them a treat. While this adorable behaviour is normal for a Labrador retriever (“retrieve” is literally in the name!), Dolly’s trainer is working to correct this, encouraging her to pick up items like her Kong toy instead – a more dog-appropriate way for her to spread joy to her puppy raisers.

From raising and training future guide dogs to making confidence-building programs like Buddy Dog Camp possible, your monthly support is changing what it is to be blind in Canada. On behalf of the entire team (and all of our pups!), thank you for supporting CNIB Guide Dogs.

Warmly,

P.S. The holidays will be here before you know it! Place your order now for a set of beautifully designed holiday cards – including new designs for 2025 – that support CNIB’s vital programs and services.