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Making a career choice was easy for Cheryl Timmons, Sarah Dumas and Lori Brown. They each combined two of their personal passions and became guide dog trainers.

"I enjoy working with both people and animals," Timmons explains. "And this is a perfect job for someone who enjoys both. I also like a challenge and this job gives me a chance to develop a dog to become a guide, and teach someone the skills necessary to work with a guide."

Dumas didn't plan on this career. "I was looking for full-time work after university and I saw an ad in the paper for a guide dog trainer. That's the first time it occurred to me that such a career might be possible."

Timmons started with Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB) when her family raised three puppies.

"The last one became 'career changed' due to hip dysplasia, but lived out her life until she was almost 15," Timmons recalls. "I obedience-trained her and competed in obedience trials with her. I became a 4-H leader and taught other people how to raise and socialize puppies for GDB. Then I volunteered at a humane society and worked part time in an emergency vet clinic. I applied at GDB and was accepted as an instructor assistant."

After being accepted she held that position for about a year, then was promoted to a three-year apprentice instructor. Timmons then took some tests, was successful and earned the title of guide dog instructor. She was later promoted to training-class supervisor. At that point, Timmons had achieved one of her goals in guide dog training.

"Getting my license was very special," she says. "I felt that it was a goal that I worked hard for. Getting promoted to supervisor was another goal. I also think that finding a way of explaining something to someone who is having difficulty understanding a concept can be very rewarding."

Dumas loves the job. "Some people I work with are more memorable than others. But all the friendships that you make are quite special," she says. "The blind person who is getting used to the dog really has to trust you. And that's very special."

While most of her duties involve training, Dumas has other responsibilities. "It's a very dynamic job. Sometimes we do public relations and education -- and sometimes we do work in the kennel. It runs the gamut from shoveling poop to talking with a potential donor. It really keeps you on your toes."

Lori Brown followed a long, winding and wet road to become a guide dog trainer. She grew up in Connecticut, where she showed horses for several years. Later she attended the University of Hawaii. While living in Honolulu, Brown was head trainer in dolphin cognition research at Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Lab.

She has worked with marine and land animals for years. However, Brown says she also enjoys interacting with human beings.

"Training guide dogs not only allows me to work with animals in a productive way, it also gives me the opportunity to work with people. It's always rewarding to see graduates I've worked with after they've been home and really bonded with their dogs."

As a child, Adam Waskow was always around animals at home and work. That experience helped him become a guide dog trainer.

"As a teenager, I held many jobs in pet stores in my neighborhood. From the pet store trade I moved on to become a veterinary technician. After several years in that field, I started to work in a private training company. I trained dogs for that company until I started my career at GDB.

"Some of the best moments have been meeting the class -- visually -- that I had just spent 10 days with under blindfold," says Waskow.

"Being accepted by them even though our common bond has been removed from my face, and knowing that theirs won't ever be so easily discarded. Every graduation falls into that category -- the culmination of so much hard work by the students, the 4-H kids and families coming together at the same moment to remember, rejoice and let go.

"Moments like these are commonplace at GDB, but never taken for granted."

People who get involved in guide dog training and who love what they do tend to stay with it for a long time.

Bill Thornton is one of those people. He says he became a guide dog trainer by accident.

He was a police dog handler earlier in his life. "I went past the head office of British Guide Dogs and popped in and picked up a brochure. Someone said they were recruiting at the moment. I had a vague interest and I ended up getting a job interview. I wasn't really super-enamored with the idea, but the more the interview went, the more I heard about what these dogs did, and I was caught."