COULD you help train a guide dog for the blind?
The Guide Dog organisation is appealing for volunteers from South Yorkshire to socialise guide dog puppies, a volunteering role known as ‘puppy walking’.
Crucial volunteers provide the full-time care and education of a puppy from six weeks of age until they are between 12 and 14 months old, when the puppies are then returned to the charity to begin their formal guide dog training.
Puppy walkers prepare guide dog puppies for their working life ahead. Tasks consist of familiarising them with different environments including the home, towns and public transport.
The Guide Dogs charity supplies basic equipment and covers all veterinary and feeding expenses.
Dave Clough, Guide Dogs’ volunteer development coordinator, said: “We’re looking for enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers who can care for the puppies full-time for the first year of their life.
“Puppy walking is challenging and requires commitment but, with the support of Guide Dogs staff, our volunteers find puppy walking extremely rewarding and worthwhile.”
To become a puppy walker, volunteers will need to be with the puppy for the majority of the day.
They must also be able to take their puppy into many varied environments, and have access to a car and a securely-fenced yard or garden.
For more information about becoming a puppy walker email volunteer@guidedogs.org.uk or call Guide Dogs on 0845 371 7771.
Alternatively, visit www.guidedogs.org.uk/puppywalking for more details.
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