10/16/2022
Happy birthday, to Buddy, The first Seeing Eye dog! Buddy was born on October 15, 1926, in Switzerland. About 16 months later she was matched with Morris Frank, a 20-year-old college student and insurance salesman who had traveled from America to be matched with a dog who could guide a blind person. He promptly renamed the German shepherd Buddy. This historic photo shows Morris Frank being guided around a tricycle on a sidewalk by Buddy.
Morris and Buddy traveled the country demonstrating that it really was possible for a dog to work as a guide. But soon they had another challenge: public access. Many stores, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses had a strict "no dogs allowed" policy, and there were no exceptions for service dogs -- after all, they had just been invented! Morris and Buddy campaigned tirelessly for the right to go anywhere that any other member of the public can go. While giving a speech in Washington, D.C., someone had the bright idea of having Morris give a demonstration of Buddy's abilities -- without telling Morris about it. The route Morris had taken to the stage to give his talk was quietly blocked with chairs. When Morris gave Buddy the command to leave the stage the way they'd come, she refused. "She had watched the whole proceeding from the platform and had seen the complicated series of impediments set up for us," Morris wrote in "First Lady of The Seeing Eye". "Without a second's hesitation she simply took me the quickest, safest way to our destination."
Rather than navigating through the obstacle course, Buddy led Morris across the stage and to a different, unblocked aisle. Problem solved! "The audience went wild with applause. By taking the commonsense way out of our predicament, Buddy had given a far more remarkable demonstration of her prowess than they had ever anticipated," Morris wrote.