29-04-2025
Meet adorable dogs at this poppy pup-up in Sydney city
Dog lovers, this one's for you! On International Guide Dog Day (this Wednesday, April 30), Martin Place will become a puppy paradise. Guide Dogs NSW/ACT is marking the date with a free puppy pop-up, and it's shaping up to be a tail-wagging treat.
If you head over to Martin Place, you'll be able to meet adorable Guide Dog puppies, watch live training demos, and chat with the Guide Dogs team as well as with members of the low vision and blind community about life with a working dog (in case you've ever considered becoming a puppy trainer?).
Make sure you 'paws' to meet Gulliver, the much-loved 4.3 metre-tall Labrador mascot, who'll be spreading awareness throughout the day.
The activities begin in the morning at 7:30am, and run through until 2pm. Session times include:
Puppies in Raising Class: 7.30–9.30am
Older Dogs: 9.30–11.30am
Young Puppies Play: 12–2pm
This event comes during Guide Dogs NSW/ACT's recently launched campaign – their Access Means Business initiative, which aims to help Sydney restaurants, cafés and bars become more accessible to people with low vision or blindness by providing a handy toolkit for hospitality businesses to use. Shockingly, people with low vision or blindness are still refused entry into venues due to having a Guide Dog in tow. Find out more about that campaign and resources over here. That campaign was launched earlier this year at Newtown's Tokyo Lamington – a trailblazing venue that has been leading the charge in terms of accessibility measures for people with low vision or blindness.
This week's Martin Place event will now see the launch a related campaign, 'Is Inclusion on Your Menu?', which is all about highlighting the legal access rights of Guide Dog users, as well as continuing to encourage hospitality venues across NSW and ACT to become more inclusive.
So, whether you simply adore dogs, want to support people with low vision or blindness, want to know more about Guide Dogs, or are simply looking for a feel-good way to spend your lunch break, don't miss this free pop-up over at Martin Place, Sydney, from 7am to 2pm on Wednesday, 30 April 2025. While the booking is still highly recommended.
