On any typical day at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey there’s so much to see and do.

But on Saturday afternoon, things became even more exiting there when visitors were caught off guard by about a dozen puppies joining them in line for the Touch Tunnel.

Yet these were no typical house pets, however. The Golden Retrievers and Labs were in training to become service dogs through Canine Companions for Independence, a nationwide non-profit organization.

“Anywhere I go, he’s with me,” volunteer Pat Redden, a chemistry professor at St. Peter’s College, said of Elvis, a regular around Jersey City. “The only place off limits is my chemistry lab.”

Redden and her fellow volunteers raise and train the dogs for 16 to 18 months. Events like the trip to LSC are designed to acclimate the puppies to public settings and crowds.

“The idea is to expose them to as many things as possible because the person they are paired with might like to come to these types of places,” Redden said.

After training, if the puppies qualify for certification, they will be matched with individuals with special needs other than vision. CCI-trained dogs do not become Seeing Eye dogs.

On Saturday, the puppies explored the Touch Tunnel and checked out the huge fish tanks while their owners answered all kinds of questions from curious bystanders. A few of the puppy raisers kept information cards in the their puppies’ vests, encouraging interested people to try raising a puppy of their own.

So how did the trainees do?

The puppies, it turned out, had an easier time navigating the popular attraction than their owners did. The pitch-black maze tests visitors’ ability to navigate on all fours — something dogs do all the time — and without vision.

“At one point I bumped into the wall, and he seemed to look back at me, as if to say, ‘What’s the problem?'” Redden said with a laugh. “It was a lot of fun.”