Guide dog puppies take on new experiences at Meadowhall as charity expands in Sheffield

Guide dog pups Dan, Briar, Phoebe and Claudia, all aged between five and 12 months, arrived at Meadowhall with their puppy raiser volunteers.

The dogs were taking part in special training sessions to help them navigate a busy environment and become more familiar with the sights and sounds of a shopping centre.

There are more than 60 registered guide dog owners in Sheffield and South Yorkshire and many are regular visitors to Meadowhall and other shopping centre.

So it is vital that puppies are appropriately trained for their future role as guide dogs as they have to be ready to deal with all eventualities and environments.

And as Guide Dogs expands its services to support more people living with sight loss, more puppies will need to go through training.

Alana Marriott, puppy development advisor at Guide Dogs in Sheffield said: “Fully qualified guide dogs are required to face a variety of settings and situations with calmness and confidence, and early tastes of different environments will see them experienced for later life.

“It’s a good experience for the pups to get used to the sights, sounds and smells of a busy environment like Meadowhall so it shouldn’t bother them later when they are fully trained guide dogs helping people with sight loss to lead independent lives.

“Our puppy raisers are volunteers who make an invaluable contribution to the development of guide dogs, and we are so grateful for how much time they give, and their unwavering support in this important educational exercise for our guide dog puppies.”

Guide Dogs has recently expanded its team and invested in a larger site so it can support more people living with sight loss in South Yorkshire.

The charity’s new training site, located in Sheffield Business Park, offers more room that has been specifically tailored to facilitate more staff and with capacity for up to 30 dogs in training.

Darren Pearce, centre director at Meadowhall, said: “We’re incredibly proud to partner with Guide Dogs and assist in the training of their dogs, whilst continuing to be an inclusive centre for all shoppers.

“By providing a space for their latest training sessions, we hope to help the vital work Guide Dogs does to increase the independence of the people they support.”

Alana added: “As we look to bring more dogs through our breeding programme and training, we are in need of more volunteers to help care for our puppies or older guide dogs in training.

“As we aim to support more people living with sight loss in Sheffield, if you think you could provide a loving temporary home for one of our dogs please do get in touch!”n For more information on volunteering opportunities in Sheffield for Guide Dogs, visit www.guidedogs.org.uk/volunteering

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