Introduction: Guiding Eyes for the Blind (GEB) breeds, raises, and trains dogs to serve as guides for people with visual impairments (i.e., those who are blind or have low vision). Their puppy raising program enlists volunteers to foster puppies for a year or more, providing socialization, basic skills training, and comfort, so they will grow into confident dogs. The volunteers must ultimately return these dogs to Yorktown Heights, New York, to begin training. For raisers, the emotional toll of this parting can be great. Methods: Utilizing the 2017 GEB Puppy Raiser Survey data, this study analyzed factors that might affect emotional grief and the decision to continue to raise puppies. Cross-tabulation and ordinal regression analyses examined the associations of puppy raiser demographics (i.e., gender, age, marital status, and employment), organizational integration (i.e., number of dogs raised for GEB, perceptions on how well GEB supports raisers in returning a dog, belief that they are part of the GEB community, and formation of friendships), and goal attainment (perceptions on how well GEB communicated progress in training, whether they raised a dog accepted for guide training, and whether they attended a graduation ceremony) with self-reported emotional difficulty, recovery time, and likelihood of raising another puppy. Results: Although the demographics of the raiser had minimal effect on emotional difficulty, recovery time, and likelihood of raising again, factors that measured organization integration and goal attainment were associated with grief and continued participation. Discussion: Raiser demographics are not strong predictors of grief and continued raising; however, a welcoming organization that communicates effectively will inspire volunteers’ commitment. Implications: With a growing need for assistance dogs and puppy raisers, identifying and addressing the challenges that these volunteers face is critical if skilled and dedicated raisers are to be recruited and retained.

中文翻译：

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返回小狗进行指导训练：影响小狗饲养者悲伤的因素以及再次抚养的决定

简介：盲人导视协会 (GEB) 饲养、饲养和训练狗，为有视力障碍的人（即盲人或视力低下的人）提供指导。他们的小狗饲养计划招募志愿者来抚养小狗一年或更长时间，提供社交、基本技能培训和安慰，让它们成长为自信的狗。志愿者最终必须将这些狗送回纽约约克敦高地，开始训练。对于抚养者来说，这种离别的情感损失可能是巨大的。方法：本研究利用 2017 年 GEB 幼犬饲养者调查数据，分析了可能影响情绪悲伤和继续饲养幼犬的决定的因素。交叉表和有序回归分析检查了养犬者人口统计数据（即性别、年龄、婚姻状况和就业）之间的关联，组织整合（即，为 GEB 饲养的狗的数量，对 GEB 支持饲养者返回狗的程度的看法，相信他们是 GEB 社区的一部分，以及友谊的形成）和目标实现（对 GEB 沟通情况的看法训练的进展，他们是否养了一只接受指导训练的狗，以及他们是否参加了毕业典礼）自我报告的情绪困难、恢复时间和养另一只小狗的可能性。结果：虽然抚养者的人口统计学对情绪困难、恢复时间和再次抚养的可能性影响很小，但衡量组织整合和目标实现的因素与悲伤和持续参与有关。讨论：抚养者人口统计数据并不是悲伤和继续抚养的有力预测因素；然而，一个有效沟通的热情组织将激发志愿者的承诺。启示：随着对辅助犬和幼犬饲养者的需求不断增长，如果要招募和留住熟练且敬业的饲养者，识别和解决这些志愿者面临的挑战至关重要。