Carol Abbenzeller This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. GuidingEyesBcweb.Org - GEB Community News

   www.guidingeyesbcweb.org/bin/r - [Cached]

   Published on: 7/17/2004   Last Visited: 4/26/2005

   It began when employee Carol Abbenzeller told her boss she wanted to raise a puppy for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a not-for-profit dog training program that depends on volunteers.
   
   Abbenzeller works as a floor supervisor at Vermont Country Store's 355-employee distribution center in Clarendon. A dog would require constant attention from age 7 weeks to about 16 months. How, she wondered, could she keep a leash on both jobs?
   
   Her boss suggested tying them together.
   
   Vermont Country Store, a retail and mail-order company specializing in practical, hard-to-find household goods, not only has opened its 160,000-square-foot warehouse to Abbenzeller's black Labrador, but also has signed on as the dog's official sponsor.
   
   The company's first assignment was to write a check for $2,000 - 5 percent of the $40,000 cost to educate and care for a guide dog. Employees then held an election to choose their four-legged investment's name.
   
   Abbenzeller liked Orton, the last name of the family that founded the business in 1946. Someone else suggested Weston, the town that hosts the company's flagship store. But the winner was Necco, after the classic nickel-size candy wafers the company sells.
   
   Guiding Eyes for the Blind has trained more than 6,000 dogs for visually impaired people in 48 states and 12 countries since its start 50 years ago. The puppy-raising program is geared to help a dog learn to obey commands, ignore distractions and adapt to different settings and situations."I'm teaching the dog to pay attention to its handler, get used to walking close by, sit and stay and not leave the owner's side," Abbenzeller says.
   
   So imagine the challenge of training a puppy in a holiday- crazed distribution center and adjacent 245-employee customer-service office. The company has a no-pets policy, but Abbenzeller is allowed to take Necco everywhere, from the garage bays that receive freight to the assembly line that sends orders out.
   ...
   "Some people say, 'That poor dog, never off the leash, no sitting on the couch,'" Abbenzeller says. "They have a lot of guidelines. But she has it a lot better than a lot of dogs."
   
   Abbenzeller, who has good vision, sees her good fortune, too.
   
   "It's a lot of work, but it's very rewarding when she learns something new," she says.