St Andrew's Women's group Guide Dog Talk

For the April meeting of St Andrew's Women's group, we were pleased to welcome, as our speakers, three volunteers: Angie, Rosemary and Sarah from the charity GUIDE DOGS FOR THE BLIND, together with Hettie, a puppy in training and Jane, a fully qualified guide dog.

We learned that this national charity was, in fact, founded by two ladies from Wallasey on the Wirral, who used their own premises. Their first trained guide dog was a German Shepherd and given to a soldier blinded in the Second World War. Eventually, they were leased a property in Birkenhead by the local Council for a peppercorn rent. They have certainly come a long way since the early days!

Spending the first 9 months with the puppy worker in a family environment prepares the puppy for the intensive training necessary for them to become a guide dog. The training takes place in the training centre at Leamington Spa. If a dog is found not suited to the training scheme, other routes are available. Some train as sniffer dogs, buddy dogs or other support dogs. All dogs in training have been bred to be guide dogs, using crossbreeds such as German Shepherd x Labrador, Labradoodles, or pure breeds such as Retrievers, Labradors, or German Shepherds. This talk was inspirational, and our thanks go to all our speakers for enlightening us to the extent of the work carried out by so many dedicated and hard-working volunteers supporting this charity in providing guide dogs to so many people, transforming their lives.

This is a very costly charity to run and is entirely supported by donations and fundraising. We all enjoyed buying from the pop-up shop to support them. It was a pleasure to have Hettie, puppy in training and Guide Dog Jane as VIP guests with our speakers.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, May 7th at 7 pm, when our speaker will be local author and editor, Fi Miles.
Photos taken on the night with permission from the speakers