Guide Dogs for the Blind

Wed, Oct 4th 2023 at 12:40 pm - 2:00 pm

Danny Roony was accompanied by a blind lady with her faithful dog

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Three special guests attended the meeting with their carers: guide Dogs for the Blind -puppies Jeeves and Bishop with retired guide dog Geordie. Danny Roony described the work of the Guide Dogs charity. Puppies are born at a centre in Leamington Spa where the top 2% are retained as special breeding stock; they stay 7 weeks with their mother and then go to puppy-raisers for 12 months; thereafter they go to specialist training centres such as our local one at Arbroath. The puppies are trained to be relaxed in all sorts of stressful situations, visiting hospitals, care-homes, schools, shops, doctor and dentist surgeries. In this way the young dogs are socialised in all walks of life by sighted people, before going on to specific training as a guide dog. Guide dogs in training are a fairly regular sight and the dogs become the very best publicity for the charity. A trained guide dog is matched to its new owner with great care to get the very best results, giving the owner restored confidence and independence. Retired guide dog Geordie attended the meeting with his partially-sighted owner, Helen (she could not bear to part with him when he was retired) and she described what a huge difference she felt when she trained with him -not having to look down continuously, trusting one another, renewed freedom. Today people must wait 2-years to be matched with a trained dog…….but what a life-changer it is when it happens. The vote of thanks was given by Frank Quinault.