Guide Dog Training - Jackie & Alex Weir

Wed, Jan 10th 2018 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

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Jackie and Alex Weir came to the Club to talk to us about their work training puppies who will then go on for further training to be Guide Dogs - working with people who are blind or partially sighted. Alex worked for 30 years for Edinburgh Police Force and Jackie is a retired Civil Servant.  When they retired they started working with the puppies and told us of all the puppies they had that went on to be Guide Dogs.  They have the puppies from 6 weeks old and it is their job to socialise them, take them out to mix with people and other dogs and to teach them to come when called and sit.  They take the dogs to shops and out and about and even take them on holidays with them.

 After they have finished with the basic training and socialising they then have the hardest part of the job – to give up the puppy to go on for further training.  They sometime hear how the dogs are getting on but they seldom see them again.  The dogs go on to advanced training at Training Centres for 3 months.  If they successfully complete this training they are then matched to a Blind Person on their list of people waiting for a dog. Not all the dogs complete all the training but there is a long list of people wanting to adopt Guide Dogs.  They generally have a working life of 9 years – after that they are sometime kept by their Owner or go on to the list for adoption. 


 Jackie and Alex brought with them Rollo, a female 4 months old – part Golden Retriever and part Labrador.  Apparently Rollo had not been in such a large crowd of adults before and they were not sure how she would cope.  She did very well and seemed to enjoy all the attention from the Club members.

                                                                                                                                        Vote of thanks given by Jim West


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