Four-legged Visitors Tour Fire Station

Tours of El Cerrito’s San Pablo Avenue fire station are a common enough sight, but Saturday’s visit was a bit unusual in that it included a dozen dogs. The humans on the tour belong to a Guide Dogs for the Blind puppy-raising club led by Jan Russell of Concord. The fire station visit was part of the puppy raisers’ efforts to make the dogs comfortable with a variety of sights, sounds, and smells.

Puppy raisers get the dogs when they are about eight weeks old and keep them until they are about 16 to 18 months old, when their training continues at Guide Dogs for the Blind in San Rafael.  The club meets weekly and takes outings monthly. Russell, who was accompanied by her canine charge Kalana, said club members take trips into different cities and often take BART, ferries, and buses to give the dogs different experiences.

“We try to find something fun for us to do at the end,” she explained.

The tour of Station 71 was led by fire , whose family is raising Guide Dog puppy Katrinka.