Dorothy Harrison Eustis helped establish the international guide dog movement.
The international guide dog movement owes a great deal to several pioneering women.
Humans have had relationships with wolves and dogs for hundreds of thousands of years and there are several historical anecdotes of dogs assisting the blind dating back to 79 AD. However, it wasn’t until the late 1920’s that the guide dog movement was established.
American women Dorothy Harrison Eustis, who was already training dogs for the military, police and customs services, was fascinated by the work done by the first-ever guide dog school in Oldenburg, Germany. After spending several months training there, she trained her first guide dog Buddy, which she partnered with a blind American man.
Following this, Dorothy set up a guide dog school in Switzerland in 1928 and another in New Jersey in 1929. The schools were called The Seeing Eye.
A few years later, two British women, Muriel Crooke and Rosamund Bond, heard about The Seeing Eye and contacted Dorothy. She trained the British women and, in 1931, the first four British guide dogs completed their training. Three years later the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was founded in the UK by Muriel and Rosamund.
With this momentum, guide dog schools began to open all around the world and thousands of lives have subsequently been changed, thanks to the pioneering work of these women.