Feel like fostering?

The Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc. is accepting applications for its Foster Family Program.

This which is the first step in training guide dogs for people with visual disabilities, the agency said in a statement.

Interested persons must fill out an application available at http://www.fidelco.org/ or by regular mail. Fidelco’s address is 103 Old Iron Ore Road, Bloomfield, Conn., 06002.

Applications also can be requested by e-mail at fosters@fidelco.org and by phone at 860-243-4047.

Upon receipt of the application, requestors will be contacted.

Applicants and their pups must attend Saturday training sessions at Fidelco’s Bloomfield facility to teach their pups basic obedience skills and to socialize the dogs, the statement said.

Fosters keep their pups until it is time to return their dogs to Fidelco for formal guide dog training.

"Fosters are an integral part of our training effort,” Sue Holt Brown, director of the Fidelco Foster Family Program said in the statement. “We’re always on the lookout for additional families that may qualify to raise a Fidelco pup in their homes.”

The Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, Inc., a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in Bloomfield, breeds, trains and places its own, unique type of German shepherd guide dogs with people who have visual disabilities, the statement said. It pioneered In-community Placement in the United States; a process that allows guide dog users to be trained in the communities where they live and work, the statement said.

Now in its 50th year, "Fidelco relies solely on the gifts and the generosity of individuals, foundations, corporations and civic organizations that partner with us to “Share the Vision,” the statement said.

“Jewel,” a Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation Puppy is shown in the photo.