At two years old most guide and assistance dogs in training take on their role as one of the most responsible dogs in the country. Here we guide you through the training of a guide and assistance dog.
Birthing and Welping
Volunteers look after our breeding stock all year round and care for our puppies from birth to six weeks of age. The quality of our breeding stock is a product of years of research and hard work. We exchange breeding stock with guide dog organisations in the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Korea and the United States of America.
Preparation for Puppy Walking
At six weeks of age, our puppies arrive at our National Headquarters and Training Centre in Cork. Here they are prepared for their Puppy Walking placement. They are micro-chipped, given a full veterinary review and begin the basics of house training.
Puppy Walking
Puppy-walking volunteers foster our puppies for approximately 12 - 15 months, making a valuable contribution to the first stage of their training. During the first year, our volunteer puppy-walkers dedicate their time to working on obedience training and socialising our puppies. This involves daily walks and outings to ensure our puppies become accustomed to people, transport and the built environment.
Early Training
When the puppy is a year old, it leaves its puppy walker to join up to 40 other dogs at our training centre. This phase of their training lasts for 3 - 5 months with a specially trained Instructor. Trainers work with groups of five or six dogs on a daily basis, assessing each dog's ability and temperament all the while reinforcing positive behaviour and guiding skills.
The dog is taken on several walks each day where it is taught how to cross roads, stop at kerbs and how to avoid obstacles that would cause problems for its owner. The dog is brought into the city and shopping centres, to get used to the traffic and noise and also taken on buses, trains and lifts. The dog must also learn how to behave in busy places such as restaurants.
Advanced Training
If the dog completes Early Training successfuly and meets the high standards needed to be a guide or assistance dog, it will move onto another 3 months of Advanced Training. Now, the Instructor perfects the dog’s skills so that it can provide safe mobility for a visually impaired person. The Instructor will look at how the dog behaves, its personality, whether it walks fast or slow, whether it prefers working in the country or city. From these traits the dog is matched with a person on our waiting list who suits this particular type of dog.
Getting the dog/owner match right is crucial and a lot of time and effort is put in to ensure the best possible partnership is made.
Matching and Qualifying
At 20 - 24 months old, our dog is now ready to graduate as a fully trained guide or assistance dog. However, before the newly trained dog begins work, they must first attend a 3 week residential course, together with their newly matched owner, at our Training Centre in Cork.
On completion of the training course the guide dog owner and their dog return to their home. During the following weeks the Instructor will visit to make sure they are both working well together and will help them to get to know different routes that the owner would make regularly, such as to work or shopping.
Thereafter regular contact is maintained with a visit by a Guide Dog Mobility Instructor at least once every year.
Retirement
A guide dog will begin to tire around the age of 10 and at this stage we will look at retiring the dog. This can be a very difficult time for both dog and owner as they have spent many years together. Sometimes the guide dog owner will keep their dog as a pet for the remainder of their life. If they choose not to, we find a suitable home for these hard working dogs. The owner is then trained with a new guide dog as soon as possible. It can be difficult to adjust to having a new dog with a different personality but in time, they become the best of companions.
