Thank you for visiting The OccuPaws Guide Dog Association's website.  OccuPaws is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, charitable  organization located in Madison, WI.  Our mission is to place well trained guide dogs of excellent health and temperament with Wisconsin residents who have visual disabilities. 

All of our training sessions take place in the comfort of the client's home environment.  We do this because we believe that legitimate, personal circumstances (family obligations, professional commitments or secondary health conditions) should not prevent an otherwise capable individual with a qualifying visual impairment from enjoying the companionship and assistance a dog guide can offer.  Each dog and person is carefully matched according to such traits as lifestyle, personality, activity level, and walking speed.

In addition to harness work and obedience commands, our trainers teach each client about the learning style of their particular dog, about various aspects of dog behavior, and about the innate characteristics of their dog's breed.  By the end of each in-home placement, the client will have learned how to teach their dog new skills, and how to work with and care for their canine partner throughout the entirety of its career.

Our hope is that our small size and collaborative training practices will allow us to provide an extremely supportive and highly customized experience to each of our dog-person teams.