Meet Poppy, FOX 4's new service dog in training

Meet Poppy the FOX 4 puppy

A big welcome to FOX 4's new service pup, Poppy! Many of you helped select her name. She's now being trained to be a seeing-eye dog for the visually impaired. Pat Glines and Su Young Bae with Guide Dogs of Texas joined Good Day to talk about the plans for Poppy and how you can get involved.

DALLAS - Last month, we told you FOX 4 was getting a Labrador puppy. Now we’re ready to introduce you to her.

Meet Poppy.

Many of you played a role in picking her name. It beat out Dolly, Pixel, and Tilly in an online contest.

While Poppy enjoys spending time at the FOX 4 station during the day and gets plenty of love and attention from our staff, she lives with FOX 4 promotions producer Gabby Brewster.

She is also being trained to be a service dog.

The folks from Guide Dogs of Texas joined Good Day on Friday to talk more about Poppy and explain how her training process will work.

Head trainer Su Young Bae said her time at the station will help her to feel more comfortable being out in public.

"We train the puppies as much as possible to be able to adapt to all the different situations and different environments so that they are comfortable in all different situations," Bae said.

As a puppy, she’ll also learn good house behavior, how to politely greet people, and how to behave in places like stores, restaurants, or on public transportation.

After about a year, Guide Dogs of Texas will determine if she is fit to continue training to be someone’s service dog.

Pat Glines is the CEO of the San Antonio-based nonprofit organization. He said he got involved because he had a friend who had to deal with the challenges of blindness.

"A really dear friend in high school and college went blind and I was with him through that journey," he said. "He ended up getting a guide dog and I saw the impact that the dog had on his life. And I thought, ‘I need to be a part of this.’"

Currently, the organization has about two dozen dogs being trained in homes across the state.

"We put out about five [service] dogs last year and we’re looking to continually incrementally grow that year over year because the need is high," Glines said.

Guide Dogs of Texas is always looking for new trainers and people who are willing to work with the puppies.

"People like our wonderful Gabby have the dog about a year. So, they get the dog at about 8 weeks old. Poppy is just coming up on 10 weeks now. So, Gabby will have her for about a year. She’ll receive all of the support that she needs from Su Young as her trainer and we’ll be assessing her the whole time along that journey to make sure that she’s got all the right stuff to be a guide dog," Glines said.

For more information about how you can get involved, visit guidedogsoftexas.org.