Testimonials
Here are just some of the things that our viewers have said about Growing Up Guide Pup!
Amazing series! Loving it so much! Whenever Eli barks, our GDB pup Roxie jumps up and looks for him. :)
Great videos, and very well produced! We're big fans!
Love the video's and as a service dog owner thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a puppy raiser!
Just wanted to say that you are my main insperation! Keep up the good work. I am raising a service dog of my own, all though not a guide dog, some of your training techniques have really helped me :)
Only those who raise puppies understand the" tug of heart" that goes on when you see your dog make it and go off to live their lives. Part of you stays with him, proud yet a little sad at the same time. Thank you for doing such a wonderful job with your pups. I only finished one black lab and honestly, it was way too hard on my heart. Now I just puppysit!
My wife and I live in Houston and just brought our Kevin back to Southeastern Guide dogs for his advanced training (14 months old now). We hope to get our next pup in June. Just found your site and series and have subscribed. I know we will benefit from your experience. Thanks.
I love your show! I am catching up on all the episodes from Season 1 and then will be starting season 2. I am currently raising a puppy (10 months old) who I hope will become my service dog. I have been using Leader Dogs and Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy raising manuals as guides for how to raise my dog for this purpose. Hope your family and Pilaf are doing well! Thank you.
Hello !! i'm just sending you a message to tell you how inspiring your videos are. I am 24 years old and currently raising my 1st guide puppy Neece. In a lot of ways she is like Pilaf so I find your videos VERY helpful. Neece comes to university with me everyday while I finish up my masters in Occupational Therapy. She is LOVED by my classmates and has a lot of support. She as travelled with me all over Canada and we hope to visit Chicago this month. We have inspired countless individuals to raise their own puppy and to apply for a guide dog (so many of my friends with disabilities wanted a dog but were unsure of how to get one. We (me and Neece) vote for Pilaf every day and I am so grateful for what you do. Wishing you all the best , give Pilaf a cuddle for me.
I follow your show religiously. I love it. Thank you
The moment when I first looked in to your gorgeous eyes, this is you, the one who is now my guide. A loyal, loving friend who will always stand beside me til the end. You was given an opportunity to have an important job that is brought before you. You are a guide to me I'm proud to say it's true. You make me smile when I would reach down and touch your face. Your title to me is Dilly-Grace. When coming to a conclusion, you are my guiding hand. In creating a bonding companionship and teamwork together we shal stand.
Thank you for your time and answers! I am a raiser for another organization which does not allow contact between raisers. I wish to continue this work with puppies, but have a hard time wondering how my dogs are doing, not knowing answers because I can't and will never hear directly. I'd like to look into GDB which does allow contact. Thanks for the series!
I love your videos on YouTube and I am trying to start the process for getting my first puppy with guide dogs for the blind. Thank you so much and I'm sorry to hear about Eli, I hope he gets better.
You guys just give so much to GUGP, in making it so inspiring and moving in every way. So, thank you all so much for doing what you do! You know the saying, it takes a village to raise a child? Well, it takes a village to breed, raise, train, and then partner a blind individual with their guide dog!
I’d like to thank everyone involved in being a part of this beautiful and so rewarding process in making all of this possible. As for me and Mozie, we just have grown so much in this last year and a half, and will always continue to grow. Thank you GUGP for giving me shows that I can listen to and stem from to create my own training opportunities and ways that we can work so well together every day. Next year, I plan to graduate high school from the Hadley School for the blind, which is an online correspondence school based in ILL. After that, I plan to have a career. Ami has inspired me to become a dog trainer. I’m planning to start out by applying for a job at Pets Mart as being a dog trainer. I’m very excited about this! So, once again, thank you so much GUGP for putting out shows that I think not only inspire many people, but in so many ways, helped to inspire me and my guide dog Mozart every single day!
When we found Growing Up Guide Pup, we had just decided to start raising a puppy. We wanted to find out what day to day life is like for raisers, so we started watching GUGP. We watched every episode we could with Pilaf, and then watched all of Ricki’s episodes. We got a very good idea of what we were in for, and some very good tips on things we hadn’t even thought of. After we got our puppy GUGP started showing Ricki’s episodes again, which happens to coincide with where our puppy is age wise. This has been a great way for us to get some other ideas on things to do with our puppy. We love following Amy and Matt and their family of puppies, and cannot wait to see what is in store for Miss Pilaf.
I recently started training to get my doggie, her name is Hope she is a yellow lab. Not a day goes by that I don't think about the wonderful people and trainers that took the time to put her in my arms and change my life.Congratulations on all the awards garnered by my favorite web series, and possibly the only worthwhile "reality" show in the media today! Keep up the good work! This is a truly excellent series, and could be a wonderful teaching tool as well! Amie and Matt, Rikki, Pilaf, and the rest of your "brood", this is truly a job well done, and awards well-deserved! I still remember when I saw Amie having to send Rikki off to "graduate school" at GDB, and how heartbroken I was. I'm ready to get another Lab, after having lost my beloved Duncan, a chocolate Lab that had shared my life on both coasts for nearly 16 years. Meanwhile, I strongly considered contacting the closest puppy-raising club in SoCal (Calabassas) to look into the program. My best friend, whose guide, "Icon" has been "my baby" ever since she came back from Boring, OR. with him nearly 7 years ago, told me that I'd be a "terrible" candidate, as she said that there would be no way that I'd be willing to part with a puppy when it was time for him/her to go back to "college". She is probably right. So...it is with special joy that I follow your adventures and misadventures as very experienced puppy raisers! Keep up the wonderful work!!!
I have been watching the videos of Ricki that you have posted on youtube I am kinda new to the blind problem I was informed by my eye doctor that have RP a few years ago I have just started my cane traiing and lets just say I dont like it at all. Watching you videos and the videos of Guide Dogs for the Blind has peaked my intrest in a guide dog, seeing how you train them as pups and how they grow up to guide people like me really has made it easy for me to decide that I want a dog for myself.
GUGP has shown me how much my puppy raisers had to go through in order to raise Pescara. That shows me how thankful I should be and to also take nothing for granted. because watching GUGP shows me how it is hard and dedicated you need to be in order to raise a puppy.
I first started GUGP when I received my second guide dog puppy. I followed Ricki through the first season as my puppy Rocco (no relation) grew up. In September 2010 I left for University which meant I had to transfer Rocco over to another raiser. I was far from home and all alone and missed my baby boy, but every week I would watch the newest episode of GUGP and still feel that connection to GDB and my home town. I now love following Pilaf in season two as I have gotten more and more involved with Guide Dogs for the Blind here in the UK and a new puppy might soon be in my future. If it's not I know I always have a little piece of GDB in watching GUGP.
