Lunchtime Speaker – Dr Gareth Holsgrove & Anica plus Guide dog Maisie

This week our speaker was Dr Gareth Holsgrave from Guide Dogs for the Blind. Professor Anica Zeyen
and her guide dog Maisie could not attend due to family issues. However, Hayley Zie from Woking High School
did attend the lunch and gave us an update on her braille signage for accessible toilets project. Gareth told us
about his experience as a volunteer puppy raiser. Applying to be a puppy raiser is lengthy and rigorous process
including an interview, a home visit and a DBS check. Once accepted, the puppy raiser has to sign a legal
agreement that they will train the dog and return it at the end of the training. Both Gareth and his wife applied
were approved and put on a waiting list. They got a black Labrador puppy called May, who was one of a litter of
nine. Guide Dogs breed their own dogs. The rules of puppy training are called PREP (Puppy Raising for
Excellent Partnership), which uses reward and encouragement rather than scolding to train the puppy. The
basic training includes visits to puppy raising classes at which puppy raisers will swap puppies. The puppies are
trained to be safe with children and other adults, to learn how to travel in cars, on public transport and planes,
to cross roads safely, to take directions to places where their owner wants to go. Most importantly, a guide dog
should be able to recognise and obey commands by their owner. Toilet training on command is very important.
The basic training takes 14 months after which dogs are given more intensive training at a training centre. This
lasts for at least 20 weeks. Assuming that a dog successfully passes its training, it is then matched with an
owner. The potential guide dog owner is given training and assessed to see if they can work with a dog. They
are then matched with a canine partner after assessing whether the dog and owner are a good match. Guide
Dogs works with the owner to design a training programme to build a trusting partnership beween them and
the dog. Normally a guide dog has a working life of 8-10 years, after which they retire and are usually rehomed.
Although some can be retrained into less intensive roles, or stay with their owner. Each guide dog costs the
charity an average of £77,000 including training, food, insurance and vets bills over its working life Guide Dogs
raises money through legacies, individual and corporate donations and fundraising. Brian Nett