Dorothy Harrison Eustis, the daughter of a wealthy businessman from Philadelphia, later moved to Switzerland, where she began breeding and training German shepherds for police and military use. During a trip to Germany, Dorothy witnessed German shepherds being trained for another purpose—guiding military veterans who had been blinded in World War I. She was so impressed by what she had seen that she wrote an article about it for the Saturday Evening Post.
“It was as though a complete transformation had taken place before my eyes,” she wrote in the article. “One moment, it was an uncertain, shuffling blind man, tapping with a cane; the next, it was an assured person, with his dog firmly in hand and his head up, who walked toward us quickly and firmly, giving his orders in a low, confident voice. To think that one small dog could stand for so much in the life of a human being, not only in his usual role of companion but as his eyes, sword, and shield and buckler!”
In response to that article, Dorothy received letters from people who were blind asking for guide dogs. One stood out from a college student named Morris Frank. Dorothy invited him to Switzerland to learn how to work with and care for a German shepherd.
From that partnership, The Seeing Eye was born.
From that wellspring came guide dog schools around the world, as well as service dogs trained for other purposes!
