02/02/2026
I’m placing the video in the comments. 🐕
In 1914, at the age of 6, Morris Frank was blinded in his right eye in a horse-riding accident. Ten years later, a boxing match cost him the sight in his left eye.
Frustrated at having to rely on others to get around his hometown of Nashville, Tenn., Frank was excited to learn in 1927 of a program in Switzerland that trained German shepherds to assist the blind.
The following April, the 20-year-old Vanderbilt University student booked passage to Europe and traveled alone across the ocean to meet the dog that offered what Frank described as “the divine gift of freedom.”
After five weeks of intensive training, Frank returned home with his new companion, Buddy, and the pair traveled widely, demonstrating how a well-trained dog could help a blind person navigate even unfamiliar surroundings safely and with confidence. Their success inspired Frank and Dorothy Eustis, the American woman who ran the Swiss program, to launch the Seeing Eye, the first guide-dog training school in the United States, in 1929.
