SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. -- Second-grade students at Bird Elementary in Sun Prairie have been training a guide dog named Sonny all year, and as school comes to a close, they are getting ready to say goodbye.

"We get to train him to clean up and we get to train him to come to us," said Olivia Lane, a Bird Elementary student.

"You can actually only play with him when his vest's off. If his vest is on, he's working you can't pet him or touch him," said Saraphin White, a Bird Elementary student.

As school comes to a close, students said they'll miss Sonny.

"One part of you thinks, 'I want to keep him,' and the other part says, 'I really want to give him to someone.' But the good part is you have to give it to someone who is blind because it's helping out more and more," said Jaclene Hanson, a Bird Elementary student.

Teacher Debbie Daggett said part of training a guide dog is teaching it to manage distractions, which there were no shortage of in her classroom.

"During the course of a school day, there are lots of things going on and he has adjusted to that and he's very calm," Daggett said.

Daggett and her students are training Sonny for OccuPaws, a program started by a friend who's losing her sight.

"Visually impaired people need that sense of independence that they can go out in public and be independent," Daggett said.

For now, Sonny travels everywhere with Daggett, from school to Brewers and Badgers games.

Yet as her students get ready to head home for the summer, she said she's preparing for some of her last lessons with Sonny as well.

"When he's with you all the time you become so attached to him, but I realize that he has a greater goal and a greater mission in life than just being a pet. He's going to be somebody's eyes," Daggett said.