Meet Teddy: A Guide Dog Helping Navigate Life with Vision Loss

By Mike Marlin

In honor of International Guide Dog Day, we’re spotlighting the life-changing partnership between people living with vision loss and their guide dogs, through the eyes of one very special dog.

Meet Teddy, a 6-year-old Labrador retriever and guide dog to the Director of the California Braille and Talking Book Library (BTBL), Mike Marlin. Since 2022, Teddy has been a trusted partner in navigating daily life, while also serving as the BTBL’s second unofficial resident canine librarian after his predecessor, Vivaldi. In this Q&A (originally printed in BTBL’s Fall 2025 newsletter), Teddy shares an encapsulating, albeit embellished glimpse into his day-to-day work—from guiding his handler to holding down his unofficial post at BTBL.

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Q: Teddy, what sort of education is required to become a canine librarian?
T: It all started with my dogged puppy raisers Nick and Sara in Texas. They enrolled me in an advanced K-9 curriculum at 21st Century Houndsworth Academy, a San Antonio special institution. I learned the ropes there and how best to chew them. I also spent a lot of time at the library napping in very comfortable bean bag chairs.

Q: Getting back to your library career…did you receive specialized training?
T: Once I graduated from Houndsworth, I moved back to California to the Guide Dogs for the Blind campus in San Rafael, where I earned several degrees, for example: a Bachelor of Arts in Sidewalk, Roadway Crossing, and Alley Navigation with a minor in Willful Disobedience, a Certificate of Achievement in Tight Vehicular Space Adaptability, and a third degree in Subterranean Dining. I also received a certificate in Stuffed Animal Resource Management. I was then paired with my handler, Mike, or as I know him, Dad. During my first year in Sacramento, I was fortunate to study for my Master's in Canine Information Science through a correspondence course at San Jose Steak University.

Q: Do you mean San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science?
T: Yes, I was distracted thinking it’s almost lunch time. I completed my Master's in Canine Library Science in early 2023, and I could not have done it without the help of my silver lab roommate Moonshadow, and her vast reservoir of knowledge about precision versus recall, especially when it comes to items inadvertently left on the edge of counters.

Q: What are some of the challenges you face in your day-to-day work at the library?
T: The windows don’t open in our building, and I’m too well-trained to bolt on my own. So it makes it very difficult to chase squirrels that taunt me through the windows of my dad’s office, or even go out for a sniff break, trot over to the Capital Park to see my buddies, etc.

Q: Did you consider going into any other line of work before librarianship?
T: Well, while library work is my passion, I briefly considered going into construction. I think I would make an excellent woofer.

Q: In addition to your role as unofficial canine librarian, are you also a patron of the Braille and Talking Book Library?
T: Yes, indeed, due to my reading disability – Opposable Thumb Challenge or OTC Syndrome, I am an eligible patron. Paws make it very hard to handle traditional print books, and the public libraries don’t like it if you dog-ear all the pages. I love downloading titles from BARK, I mean BARD.

Q: So you’re a ravenous reader?
T: I pawsitively love to read, almost as much as I like to snack.

Q: Could you recommend some of your favorite braille or audio books?
T: Indeed!  Have Dog, Will Travel: A Poet’s Journey by Stephen Kuusisto
(DB 91578). Poet and author, legally blind since birth, recounts stories of life with his first guide dog, Corky, acquired at age thirty-eight, and how this life-changing partnership transformed Kuusisto’s interaction with the world. A must-read for every would-be globetrotter.

Confessions of A Guide Dog: The Blonde Leading the Blind by Mark Carlson (DB 75126). The author, legally blind because of retinitis pigmentosa, describes the relationship that developed between him and his guide dog Musket and the work and home life they have shared.

Off the Leash: A Year in the Dog Park by Mathew Gilbert (DBC 11433). New to the pleasures and chaos of dog ownership, a Boston television critic gets into the routine of taking his headstrong puppy to a nearby park that is frequented by a colorful cast of humans and their free-ranging pets. This book will have you barking with laughter.

Q: You’ve talked to us in the past about how much you enjoy the NLS music collection. Care to comment on it?
T: I really appreciate their braille cookie sheet music, particularly Vivaldi’s “Four Croutons” and Wagner’s Ring Ding Cycle.

Q: Do you have any favorite bands?
T: Anything bark and roll, but I also like Soul Food music, chow tunes, in fact, all genres. Favorites include the Beagles, especially the drummer Dingo Starr, the Black Eyed Peas, the Lemondrops, Meatloaf, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but only in moderation, Ice Tea, etc.

Q: Anything else you want to share with the patrons of the library?
T: BTBL is the best thing since sliced bread!  Its collection of 150,000 books and magazines and counting should be howled from the rooftops far and wide. Please tell all your friends, family, and acquaintances, including canine, feline, human, and all other literate species, to check it out at btbl.ca.gov. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just heard a wrapper rustling in the distance.

 

About Mike
Mike Marlin has served as the Director of the California Braille and Talking Book Library (BTBL) since 2007. He is a legally blind librarian as well as a patron of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), for which BTBL is the Northern California regional library. Mike has worked in public and academic libraries, and in a previous life, he was a producer and music host at public and community radio stations on both the East and West coasts. Mike is active in the American Library Association (ALA), where he advocates for accessibility and disability-centered librarianship, and he worked closely with ALA’s Washington office to lobby for passage and ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate cross-border sharing of accessible works. In his spare time, Mike plays jazz banjo and travels around with his yellow lab guide dog, Teddy.