Ben Mutzabaugh

USA TODAY

Travelers who flew through Newark Liberty International Airport this past Saturday could be forgiven for thinking the facility had gone to the dogs.

Nearly 100 dogs – 89, to be exact – were brought to the airport’s Terminal C as part of their training to become guide dogs for the visually impaired. “The Labradors, German Shepherds and retrievers walked around the terminal, rode escalators and even boarded a United Airlines plane,” The Associated Press writes.

The Star-Ledger of Newark has more, writing that “for about three hours, the puppies and their handlers went through ticketing, security checkpoints, baggage claim and boarded a plane to accustom the dogs to traveling -- and the chaos that comes with it.”

“The exposure’s the most important, because when they are with their graduate — their new owner — they’re going to be going out to lots of different places and being exposed to so many different things,” dog trainer Casey Johnson told CBS New York.

Frank Radics, Newark airport’s interim deputy general manager at the airport, tells the Star-Ledger the airport has hosted the dog training for more than 20 years.

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"This program has trained nearly 3,500 dogs to assist visually impaired passengers navigate busy airports like ours, making air travel a little easier," Radics said to the newspaper.

The program seen at the airport on Saturday was part of a partnership with The Seeing Eye, a New Jersey group that helps train dogs for the blind and visually impaired.

As part of the training, dogs are placed in the homes of volunteers who will spend about a year caring for and training the animals. Then, the dogs undergo another four months of training with The Seeing Eye. The group matches about 260 guide dogs a year to visually impaired people, according to the Star-Ledger.



For those who missed the scene at Newark Liberty this past weekend, there’ll be a repeat performance this coming Saturday (April 8), according to CBS New York.

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