[2] The Canine Development Center (CDC), located in Patterson, New York, is where guide dogs begin their careers.

The center's activities include breeding, birthing, socializing, screening, and placing high-potential puppies in puppy-raising homes.

The Special Needs Program gives selected guide dogs additional training designed for a specific students' unique requirements.

[4] In 2011, Guiding Eyes launched its One Step Ahead campaign, a fundraising drive to raise $8 million to build a puppy training academy on its Patterson property.

The dogs undergo further evaluation, including a medical exam, to determine if they are suitable candidates for the breeding program, focusing on hip quality and behavior.

[citation needed] A study done by Cornell University Veterinary School looked at 1,498 dogs from Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

Overall the study concluded that the selection of dogs for hip joint quality resulted in genetic improvement predominantly in the last 10 to 15 years [citation needed].

The dogs are born in the Whelping Kennel facility of Guiding Eyes for the Blind (GEB), located in Patterson, New York.

The first nine weeks of guide dog training consist of exposure to various environments and experiences to help with their emotional and intellectual development.

The dogs are also house trained and taught to alert their human companion when they need to urinate or defecate.

At these classes, the training methods are enforced and the raiser and dog get to practice the commands in a controlled environment.

[9] The foster puppies lived with selected senior citizens in the Atlantic Shores retirement community, where the dogs had early exposure to elevators, sidewalks, ramps, wheelchairs, and sliding doors—elements that mirrored the conditions in the second phase, when dogs receive 18 months of formal training.

Students also created their own reporting segments and followed the progress of the guide dogs via class broadcasts on the schools' television feeds.

If a dog does not do well on their IFT or if they have had a history of consistent insecurities or poor adaptability with their raisers, they are usually released from the program at this point.

[2] The guide dogs and students then meet and spend 26 days at the Yorktown Heights training facility learning to work safely with each other.

[14] GEB's biggest fundraiser is an annual golf tournament which has been hosted for the past six years by Eli Manning, quarterback for the New York Giants.

[16][17] GEB's founder, Don Kauth, had encouraged Richard "Dick" Ryan to start a golf tournament.

Ryan, an attorney, was GEB's board chairman and represented Augusta National Golf Club.

[18] The golf tournament, sponsored by Entergy, Pepsi and others, has raised over $7 million for Guiding Eyes since its creation in 1977.

[16] Since 2008, Guiding Eyes has operated an e-storefront with Lands' End via that company's Business Outfitters division.