Guide dog of the future
Published: June 9, 2006
This week Kentish Times Newspapers are launching a campaign to raise cash for a Guide Dog for the Blind. With your help we hope to support a Labrador pup on its way to being a vital member of someone’s family. With help from our readers, we will sponsor one special puppy and be there every step of the way keeping you up to date with his or her progress. Help us reach that £5,000 target by sending in your donations now!
IMAGINE being the first blind person to put your faith in a guide dog to keep you out of harm’s way.
That is what four pioneers did in 1931 and since then over 21,000 others have followed in their footsteps through the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.
This year to mark the charity’s 75th anniversary the Kentish Times is launching a campaign to fund pup, Ewart, a three-month-old labrador-cross. through training.
Puppy walker Malcolm Moore spent 14 years as a dog handler in the Met’s Bomb Squad, before preparing Guide Dog puppies in their role as the eyes of the visually impaired and blind.
The 68-year-old from North Cray will spend the next year introducing the pup to different environments.
Mr Moore said: “It’s our job to get them ready for training, get them used to children, public transport and bustling streets.
“Ewart is my third puppy and recently my first, Oates, passed his training.
“I can’t tell you how proud I felt when I was invited to watch him as he progressed.
“To see him confidently leading someone over pedestrian crossings and around obstacles gave me a tremendous kick.
“You know that he is going to give a person the gift of independence. In fact, the man Oates was assigned to in Croydon wrote to me saying it’s opened up a whole new world for him.
“He doesn’t have to be met by someone wherever he goes and during his lunch break instead of being stuck at his desk he goes for a walk through the city.”
Not all dogs have what it takes, the majority make it through training but those who do not can be placed with hearing impaired people, become police dogs or go to a loving family as a pet.
Eamonn MacNeil, 45, of St Paul’s Cray was left totally blind aged 17 after a battle with a rare blood disease.
He says he wouldn’t be able to function if it was not for his trusty seven-year-old golden retriever, Angus.
Mr MacNeil said: “He gives me the freedom to go where I want, taking the worry away.
“I travel to work in Fulham every day and I don’t think I would be able to do that without him.”
The bank worker has had four guide dogs since his first in 1982 at the age of 21.
He described the elation of the first few days: “It was fantastic, like learning to walk again and gave me a new lease of life. I was able to lose the fear of bumping into things.
“It never ceases to amaze me how capable guide dogs are, how well trained they are.
“There have been periods when I haven’t had a guide dog which were absolutely horrible.”
The KT will keep a diary on Ewart’s progress as he tackles different disciplines and grows up ready to take on Guide Dogs for the Blind Association’s one year training programme.
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