International Guide Dog Day spotlights invaluable companions enhancing lives

Today is International Guide Dog Day- a chance to honor our furry four legged friends helping improve lives.

More than 140 million people in the u-s alone are blind or suffer from some sort of vision impairment. Guide dogs help keep them safe... But, research shows they also boost a person's confidence and can lead to increased social interaction.

But... Guide dog training can be expensive and time-consuming. It can take up to two years and $25,000 to fully train a single service dog.

One of the harder things to teach? When to disobey instructions to avoid putting their handler in danger.

There's kind of a believe among some people and kind of a common misconception that you hold on to the harness and just tell the dog where to go and it just takes off but that's not how it is. Really it's i give luna the command and she takes it from there and guides me safely around obstacles," Melissa Allman said. "If you want to help or get involved... You can go to seeingeye.org.