Any high school teacher will tell you that keeping students focused when the weather turns nice in the final weeks of the school year can be tough. But at The Branson School in Ross, Heather Duncan has a secret weapon — well, she actually has a whole pack of them.
"Yeah, I mean, it's cute. The kids really like the puppies," Duncan said.
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WATCH HEREDuncan is normally the school's biology teacher, but for these last two weeks before summer break, she is leading a dozen students in an immersive class on what it takes to raise puppies for San Rafael's Guide Dogs for the Blind.
The kids couldn't have a better, or certainly more experienced, teacher. Duncan has been volunteering to raise guide dog puppies for close to 20 years.
"So like 18 years of raising probably I've had 17 puppies," she explained.
That's 17 puppies Duncan has cared for and trained from eight weeks to roughly 18 months before passing them on for more intensive training and, hopefully, one day a job helping to guide a blind person through a world built for sighted people.
Why so many puppies over so many years, so many midnight bathroom breaks and chewed up furniture?
"I'm a glutton for punishment. No, I just, I love it," Duncan laughed.
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It's just that love Duncan hopes some of these students get a taste of during the class. She exposes them to the basics of handling and grooming the dogs as well as sharing with them the variety of people dogs can help, not just the blind.
"So I'm hoping to instill a curiosity in one of those organizations or multiple ones. I'd love for more kids to be raising puppies at our school," she said.
And come next fall, that's exactly what Sadie Winter will be doing. Winter took Duncan's class last year, got hooked, and just got paired with Bluebell a few weeks ago. She will be working with her over the summer and into the next school year.
It's exactly the kind of thing Duncan was hoping to see. She can, and has, raised a lot of puppies, but the more who join, it's definitely the merrier.
