Lori and Leanne Nelson noticed the rivalry between their guide dogs right from the beginning.

On their walks, the 2-year-old German shepherds each jockeyed for the lead.

In the training van, Sasha growled at Salsa. At the Maine Mall, Salsa growled at Sasha.

“I said ‘Stop it,'” Leanne said. “‘I know that’s your sister and you probably have a gripe with her now and then. That’s family.'”

Leanne and Lori should know. They’re sisters. With sister guide dogs.

“I never expected it,” Lori said. “It’s pretty unique.”

Lori, 44, of Auburn, and Leanne, 36, of Lewiston, have retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative genetic disease that impaired their sight from birth. Both got their first guide dogs while they were in their early 20s. Both had beloved guide dogs die within the past two-and-a-half years.

Both decided last year that they were ready to start again.

“With a cane, people say ‘Oh, that poor woman,'” Lori said. “Having a dog at my side it’s ‘Oh, look at that woman.'”

Lori and Leanne applied to the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation in Connecticut, New England’s only guide dog school, within six weeks of each other.

The school, which only uses German shepherds, matched the sisters to dogs that would meet their needs.

The dogs happened to be sisters too.

“This is actually a first for us,” said Fidelco spokesman Jack Hayward. “We’re tickled by it.”

The dogs, born in the same litter, had been placed in separate foster homes as puppies. When they were 14 months old, they both returned to the center for training.

“A family reunion,” Hayward said.

Sasha and Salsa made the trek to Maine to meet Lori and Leanne four weeks ago. With a Fidelco trainer, the women and dogs spent 10 days getting to know each other and training around Maine.

The dogs were different in a lot of ways. Lori’s Sasha was intense, protective. Leanne’s Salsa was playful, attention-seeking.

“She demands playtime,” Leanne said of Salsa.

But the dogs were similar, too. Both were seriously all-business when the harness went on. Both were loyal.

Both had an abiding interest in cats.

“I’m not quite sure if she wants to play with them or eat them,” Lori said of Sasha.

When they took the dogs out for training, the sisters noticed a bit of sibling rivalry.

“There was that ‘I want to be in front, I want to be in front.’ You could feel it in the harness handle,” Leanne said.

So far, the dogs haven’t spent a lot of down time together. Lori hopes to change that soon. She’s moving and her new home will have a dog-friendly backyard.

Although they’re still getting used to the dogs’ personalities and quirks, both women say they’re happy.

Leanne said Salsa’s already made her life easier, safer, more independent. She recently walked down Sabattus Street to the local supermarket. Before getting the dog, she said, she would have relied on friends, family or neighbors to help her out.

Lori plans to educate schoolchildren about guide dogs, advocate for the blind and push to make city elevators and public computers to more accessible to the visually impaired. She believes it will all be easier now.

“I look forward to that and to having Sasha right at my side,” she said.