Dog in training is star at school

HIGHLAND — The most popular girl at Mountain Ridge Junior High School attends classes only about once a month.

And even then, she's there for just half the day.

Still, Garcelle regularly turns heads as she walks down the hall and draws crowds when she lingers near the lockers.

With her soft golden hair, deep brown eyes and the friendly wag of her tail, the 11-month-old yellow Labrador retriever stands out among the student body.

Eighth-grader Jill Ferrell shares the spotlight as Garcelle's best friend and partner for the past five months in A New Leash on Life, a guide dog puppy-raising club in Utah County.

Jill isn't blind, which is fortunate because Garcelle isn't a guide dog — at least not yet. The puppy is one of more than 1,000 across the West working with volunteers for Guide Dogs for the Blind to learn basic obedience skills and good manners.

But she's the only one at Mountain Ridge.

"Sometimes it's cool to bring her to school," Jill said. "If I'm having a bad day, everybody loves you when you have a dog. But sometimes it's annoying because you get the same questions a billion times a day."

What's her name?

Can I pet her?

How come you get to bring her to school?

And this from junior high boys who already know the answer to: Are you blind?

The popularity means little to Jill, who says she volunteers as a puppy raiser because she loves dogs and likes to help people. Garcelle is the second puppy Jill has worked with through Guide Dogs for the Blind.

The nonprofit organization, based in San Rafael, Calif., places puppies in homes of trained raisers for a year to 18 months. The dogs are then transported to San Rafael or Guide Dogs' other campus in Boring, Ore., for formal guidework training with licensed instructors.

When that training is complete, the dogs are paired with blind students in the United States and Canada who are enrolled in Guide Dogs' in-residence training program. The new partners work together for about a month before graduating to the real world.

Puppy raisers are invited to the graduation ceremonies to officially present the guide dogs to their partners.

Jill, 13, took in her first guide-dog-to-be about 2 1/2 years ago. That dog, a yellow lab named Darwin, is on his way to becoming a guide for a visually impaired and wheelchair-bound partner.

"It's not a usual hobby," said Kiplyn Ferrell, Jill's mother, "but she's not a usual girl. She's extraordinary."