Any high school teacher will tell you that keeping students focused when the weather turns nice in the final weeks of the school year can be tough. But at The Branson School in Ross, Heather Duncan has a secret weapon—well, she actually has a whole pack of them.

"Yeah, I mean, it's cute. The kids really like the puppies," Duncan says.

Heather is normally the school's biology teacher, but for these last two weeks before summer break, she is leading a dozen students in an immersive class on what it takes to raise puppies for San Rafael's Guide Dogs for the Blind .

The kids couldn't have a better, or certainly more experienced, teacher. Heather has been volunteering to raise guide dog puppies for close to twenty years.

"So like 18 years of raising probably, I've had 17 puppies," she e

See Full Page