Dog Health Questions: Raising a guide dog help?

Me and my family are thinking about raising/training a guide dog. I'm really excited but I want to know if there are guide dog schools out there that will give you the dog to train after it has been potty trained and has basic obedience training? Also does some have to be with the dog at all times? (for example what if we have to go to school and work)
Please answer both questions! Sorry about the long question!

P.S. If there are websites to these guide dog training schools please include them in your answer! :)

Dog Training - The Reward Way

Recommended Answer:
http://www.guidedogs.com/site/PageServer…

Here are some FAQs regarding your question. Hope that helps!

Dog Training

• No they do not place already house and obedience trained puppies. There would be no point in that because the purpose of puppy raising is to potty train the pup and teach them basic obedience. Once those tasks are accomplished, the pups are returned to the program for advanced training with their professional trainers and then placed with their blind owners. Training at the school is intense and dogs stay at the school for about six months straight for this process.
  
  Yes, someone needs to be at home with the pup during the day. The purpose of puppy raising is potty training (which requires toileting the pup every two hours when young), socialization, and learning house manners. The pup cannot learn how to live with people to the extent a guide dog must be able to live in the world of people when he is left alone all day long.


• Guide Dogs for the Blind has people who will raise the puppy to 4 months and then give it to someone to finish training until the dog goes back for formal training. by 4 months the dog should know at least sit down and come. it will be potty trained for the most part.
  
  http://www.guidedogs.com/site/PageServer


• It seems that you have been misinformed as to what role puppyraisers/puppywalkers play in the guide dog training process.
  
  The whole point of the puppyraising period is to get the dog used to interacting with different kinds of people, teach it basic manners like housebreaking and not chewing on things, and obedience skills. Once a dog knows these things and is old enough, it goes to a professional trainer. You would not be able to get a dog to raise if it was already house trained and obedience trained. You need to be able to commit to about a year with the puppy, follow all of their guidelines (the standards for training a guide dog candidate are far stricter than for training a household pet), take the dog for regular health checks at the vet, feed the premium food required by the program, and attend all of the group training sessions.
  
  The higher-level skills, the actual work of guiding a blind person, are only trained by professionals who have years of experience in advanced-level dog training. That part of training is a full-time job, and requires that you live very near the school's kennels and the student living quarters, because training guide dogs is as much about training their blind handlers as it is about training the dogs. Guide dog trainers work in all weather (because a blind person can't just skip going to work or the grocery store just because it's sleeting or 100 degrees out), definitely more than 40 hours a week, and usually for pay that can best be described as modest. It's something you do because you're good at it, you love it, and have a commitment to contributing to the independence of blind people. It's definitely not a hobby.