Puppy Love

Like lots of other kids, my daughter Lindsay is constantly asking for a dog. Her dad and I aren’t ready to take that step yet, but we understand her fascination with the idea of a four-legged friend. So on a recent Saturday, we took her to Southeastern Guide Dogs’ Sarasota Discovery Center for its free Puppy Hugging program. Once a month, eight-week-old future guide dogs visit from the nonprofit’s campus in nearby Palmetto, Florida, for some serious cuddling.

Attendees are given a number and then called in to an enclosed petting area by groups of twenty. Kids get right down on the floor and wait for Southeastern Guide Dogs staffers and volunteers to place a puppy in their lap or guide one over for some playtime. A few balls and toys are provided to help draw canine to child (or to grown-up; adults are also welcome to get in on the puppy petting).

We arrived near the beginning of the puppy-hugging timeframe, so the little yellow Labradors still had lots of energy. Which meant that everyone had to get their hugs in quickly, since the pups would only sit in people’s laps for a minute or so before making their escape to explore their surroundings. Scampering all over the space, they paused for a pet here and a pet there or to sniff out everything from shoes to purses. Our desperate-for-a-dog daughter loved the softness of their fur, but she squealed and wriggled away the first time one of the puppies tried to lick her face. (Though she now remembers that fondly as her favorite part of the experience.) We heard that by the end of the session, the puppies usually start getting sleepy and sometimes doze in visitors’ laps.

The Discovery Center hosts other events aimed at kids and dog lovers, like art projects, seminars, and dog-training classes. It also houses a great gift shop with all kinds of doggie treats, toys, and supplies, with all of the proceeds going to support the organization’s mission of providing guide dogs for the visually impaired and U.S. veterans free of charge. So the puppies are more than just cute; they’ll be changing people’s lives one day.