Rossellini's pet project: training guide dogs

Actress Isabella Rossellini is taking on a new role that has become more than just a pet project.

For the past 10 months, Rossellini has been training a future guide dog for the blind, taking him on the subway, into restaurants, onto movie sets, even to Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.

"I walk the dog myself," Rossellini said of her daily outings in Central Park with the puppy, a Labrador-poodle mix named Terry. "I cannot imagine myself living without pets," and raising a future guide dog "allows me to combine my love of dogs with work for my community."

The Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind has been around for almost 60 years. The Long Island-based training program screens prospective volunteers who raise the puppies until they are about a year old. The dogs then go back to the foundation to be placed.

Rossellini, 52, said being a volunteer dog-handler has its rewards, adding Terry has been a breeze to raise.

"He didn't chew any Armani shoes," she said. "He did chew a little bit of the corner of a coat — but it was an antique coat, so this just added to it."

Terry's also fiercely protective, Rossellini said. He didn't back down when they encountered a barking dog on one of their outings.

"Terry stopped, he made himself big — but he didn't growl. He just stayed there very calm, protective of me," she said. "And I thought, 'This is the reaction you want with a blind person.' Not a dog that either attacks, or panics."

Rossellini gets her next four-legged charge next month. That pup's a black lab named Midnight.