Grab the Kleenex, your mutt and the remote

Through a Dog's Eyes aired last week on PBS. It sat in my Tivo for more than a week as I scrolled right past it in favor of Modern Family reruns. I knew it was about service dogs, but was a little hesitant to delve into something that would no doubt be emotionally charged.

Well, yesterday I finally watched it, and it was exactly what I thought it would be, but in a good way. It follows about five children and adults with varying physical handicaps as they attend training camp at Canine Assistants in Georgia. The documentary explores how they are carefully matched with their dogs and taught how to reap the emotional, social and physical benefits of a service dog.

The dogs were the cutest, sweetest bunch of labs, goldens and doodles, and the water works were in full swing about 10 minutes in. This isn't a sad show at all, just so sweet and touching.

The part that got me the most was the founder of the ranch, who used a dog herself in the past when diagnosed with MS. Every batch of dogs is born at the ranch and then spends 18 months training before being assigned to a person. Each dog is her baby, and she basically said watching the dogs go home with their new families is the most rewarding and hardest thing she does.

If you're a dog person, or even if you're not, I think you'll love this. Watch it here.

And I just noticed there is a whole slew of video extras. Sounds like a weekend plan. And I have Precious from Netflix. Can't decide if I'm up to it or not.