Port Authority and United Airlines to Provide Invaluable Training
                          For Future Seeing Eye Dogs

    NEWARK, N.J., March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 100 Seeing Eye puppies
will pass through Newark Liberty International Airport over the next two
Saturdays to become accustomed to the sights, sounds and smells of the
airport.  The pups will be accompanied by their puppy raisers, volunteers for
The Seeing Eye, the Morristown, NJ school that breeds, raises and trains dogs
to guide blind people.
    Port Authority personnel, members of the Port Authority Police Department
and United Airlines representatives together are hosting the puppies and their
families to provide an experience that will help to prepare the pups for their
careers as Seeing Eye dogs.
    United Airlines representatives will take the puppies onto a plane and on
a tour of the Terminal A baggage claim areas.  Airport staff will take the
student dog guides on a tour of Terminal A, and Port Authority police will
familiarize the puppies with emergency equipment and vehicles.
    Media wishing to cover the event should come to the Terminal A arrivals
area by 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 29 and/or Saturday, April 5.
    "We are grateful to the Port Authority for making this tour possible,"
said Janet Keeler, The Seeing Eye Puppy Club leader who organized the
excursion, now in its ninth year.  "Every new experience a puppy can have
makes it more prepared for its life as a Seeing Eye dog."
    Almost all of the people who receive their dog guides from The Seeing Eye
in Morristown, NJ return home via Newark Liberty International Airport.
    Seeing Eye puppies are placed with area families when they are seven weeks
old.  The families follow a specific training curriculum: they teach puppies
basic obedience, impart good manners and provide the dog with exposure to the
daily stimuli it will encounter as a working Seeing Eye dog. When the dog is
about 16 months old, it returns to The Seeing Eye for its formal training.
After successfully completing the four-month program, the dog is matched with
a blind person. Together they spend one month at The Seeing Eye residence
learning how to work as a team.

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