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Pupdates

Pupdates is a purpose-built, fully accessible website that offers puppy raisers a way to receive regular, personalized information of how the puppies they raised are progressing through their GDB journeys while on campus.

Pupdates give puppy raisers (and others) an easy way to share updates about the dogs in our program, helping to raise awareness of our work and volunteer opportunities. Each Pupdate has the built-in ability to be shared to a variety of social media accounts and are archived and available on the site forever!

Pupdates also provide others (GDB clients, breeder custodians, career change dog adopters, donors, and more) the opportunity to see the Pupdates of any/all dogs, including the dog they have been partnered with, have adopted, or sponsored.

Each dog has their own profile page, complete with a profile picture. New Pupdates are available on the third Thursday of every month at Noon Pacific time. Note: if a dog arrives on campus too close to that month’s “publish” date for GDB to gather Pupdate info, a note is added to their profile page indicating that the first full Pupdate will be added the following month.

The Pupdates site is the only one of its kind in the world. No other guide dog school is offering this sort of peek into the journeys of their dogs, and this undertaking is a massive, ongoing coordinated effort between GDB staff across multiple departments.

A grinning Golden Retriever guide dog.

Important Things to Note

  • In addition to monthly Pupdates, GDB provides weekly phase reports so raisers and leaders can follow the progress of each dog in guide dog training, breeding evaluation, or K9 Buddy evaluation.
  • Changes in a dog’s status during their time on campus will be communicated by your GDB support team. Status updates may be delayed in the Pupdates system to ensure all parties have been notified before the updates are shared publicly on the Pupdates website.
  • Once a dog graduates as a guide dog, is matched as a K9 Buddy, becomes a breeder; or is placed with a strategic or community partner client; or is career changed, their final disposition will be indicated in the “Path” section of their Pupdates profile page.
  • Profile pages are moved to the "Completed" section of Pupdates each month for all dogs that have reached their final destination on the GDB journey by becoming guide dogs, breeders, or K9 Buddies; have finished training with a Community Placement partner, or have been placed in loving homes as pets. The profiles can always be found using the search tool in the Pupdates header (top right). 

Guide Dogs for the Blind Puppy Raising Guidebook, all rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use Guidelines to utilize the contents within.