When Bill and Alice LeBlanc speak, their dogs listen.

Housebroken in a week and trained to stay put even when a juicy steak is dropped from the dinner table, the many dogs raised at the LeBlanc household go on to help blind people as guide dogs.

The LeBlancs, both 57 and Hudson natives, are puppy-raisers for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, a nationally recognized, nonprofit training school for guide dogs.

Bill is the regional coordinator for New Hampshire, a volunteer position, and keeps track of the 12 to 15 families in the state that also raise puppies to be guide dogs. The organization has more than 400 volunteers from Maine to North Carolina, and its headquarters are in New York.

In 20 years, he and his wife have raised 12 dogs. Most have been Labradors, but the have also raised a few German shepherds. Their latest dog is Pearce, a young German shepherd with a lot of energy.

“We like to say we’ve sent more dogs to college than we have kids,” Alice said.

Bill said the dogs not only offer companionship, but they serve a greater purpose: They give blind people independence.

LeBlanc and his wife will take the dogs to Walmart, grocery stores and other places like church or a business meeting, to make sure the dogs can stay quiet when asked.

They are also taught how to be good with children or other pets. LeBlanc said the puppies are touched early, as young as 2 or 3 days old, to help the dog become comfortable with a stranger’s touch.

“Anything a blind person might encounter, that’s what we expose these dogs to,” he said.

The best way to teach the dogs is actually to use food and treats as a reward, LeBlanc said, and to take the food away slowly but maintain the level of praise.

“It’s easier to prevent bad behavior than it is to correct bad behavior,” he said.

It helps that the dogs will do just about anything for food.

“They’re so food-driven, I could make any of these dogs stand on their head,” he said, joking.

Raisers get the puppies at about 8 weeks old and keep them for 14 to 18 months. A variety of groups volunteer, including families with kids, without kids, single men or women, or senior citizens.

If the dogs pass all of their obedience and medical tests, LeBlanc said, they can become guide dogs. And if they score extremely high, Guiding Eyes for the Blind will use the dog for breeding purposes.

“It’s one of the only guide schools in the country with its own cryogenics lab,” he said.

Guiding Eyes is “world renowned” for its Labradors, LeBlanc said, but it also raises golden retrievers and has been recently trying to develop a German shepherd line to help blind people who live in large cities.

Many blind people choose an urban life to have better access to mass transportation, he said, but that can also mean they run into problems with crime.

“It’s sad to say they’re victims of crime, but they’re easily mugged and all that,” LeBlanc said. “When they have a German shepherd, a robber might think twice of holding them up because the dogs are so intimidating.”

If a dog fails, it can be handed over to the government for training in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The dogs might also be adopted by the raisers as pets, or adopted by someone else in the general public.

The dogs are each worth about $45,000 to $55,000 with their training, LeBlanc said, but they are given to the blind at no cost.

The hardest part of the raising process is graduation day, when the dogs are given to the blind. When the LeBlancs had to give up their first dog, a black Labrador named Una, Alice said they both “cried like babies.”

“It’s really hard to give them up, but if you see what they do for a blind person … it’s so rewarding,” Bill LeBlanc said.

He does the job as a volunteer and still keeps up with his third-shift salesman’s job at Lepage Bakeries in Auburn, Maine. Bill’s dedication with the dogs has earned him two awards, including the Melvin Jones Fellowship from the Nottingham West Lions Club in Hudson for his humanitarian service and the Jane Akins Award from Dog Guide Users of New Hampshire.

“I spend as much time with this as I do with my full-time job,” he said.

Alice used to work at Nashua First Bank and as a quality control inspector at Cirtronics in Milford, and now she lives at home on disability.

Bill leads classes at Nashua’s Pilgrim Congregational Church a couple of Sundays every month for the group of New Hampshire raisers.

He said Alice does all the “behind the scenes stuff” and plays a key role in the raising process.

“It makes it easier when you have somebody who can help you,” he said.

The task is tough for any family, especially financially.

Food alone can cost $40 a month, on top of the cost of Frontline and heartworm medications, leashes, balls and toys, as well as veterinary care, LeBlanc said. The costs are offset by some pet stores that help those families with food sponsorships, like Pet’s Choice in Merrimack, and many veterinarians provide free care for guide-dogs-in-training.

The experience is worth it in so many ways, LeBlanc said. About 85 percent of New Hampshire families are “repeat raisers” and continue to train more guide dogs after their first.

Bill and Alice don’t think they’ll ever stop.

“It’s a way of life for us,” Alice said. “We thought we’d slow down after a while … nope. It’s what we do. We’ll probably do it until we die.”

Cameron Kittle can be reached at 594-6523 or ckittle@nashuatelegraph.com. Also check out Kittle (@Telegraph_CamK) on Twitter.