Latest news with #guideDogs
Times
21-06-2025
- Automotive
- Times
The new guide dog training: e-bikes, phone zombies, busy cities
Nothing upsets Laurie. With 'pavement zombies' marching towards him obliviously while tapping at their phones, with ambulance and police sirens screaming in his ears, and a speeding-but-silent e-scooter flashing across his path at 25mph, he pads safely and calmly through the chaos. Still, at least there are no robots to worry about today. Laurie is a 20-month-old labrador-golden retriever cross with a look in his eyes that could melt your heart. He's also a professional, with a job to do. He is nearing the end of his six-month training to be a guide dog, an intense process and one which has had to change a lot in the past decade, as Britain's roads and pavements have been transformed by new technology and evolving attitudes. 'We've had to adapt fast,' said Karen Brady, 35, a training and behaviour manager at the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, known as Guide Dogs, which launched in the 1930s. Their animals are now taught to cope with a host of new hazards — and delivery robots are one of the most recent. 'We've had a lot of fun with those in Cambridge,' she said. Introduced in the area in 2022, the automated vehicles trundle along the pavement and simply stop when they detect a pedestrian. Guide dogs were initially baffled, and stopped too. 'We had to teach them to treat the robot like a car that's parked on a pavement, and find a way around it,' she said. 'The makers gave us a shell to practise with.' Other innovations are much more widespread — and potentially dangerous. 'Electric vehicles are a big thing, because the dog owner can't hear them,' said Brady. 'E-scooters fly up past the dogs really quickly, really quietly. We've hired them sometimes and rode them around to get the dogs used to them.' • How Terry the guide dog puppy was bred for perfection Owners and their dogs work as a partnership, and with the human unable to perceive an almost-silent car, bicycle or scooter, the dog must be extra vigilant. The human is in charge, but the watchful dogs are trained not to move across a road if they see a danger. There are plenty more new hazards. 'Cars have got bigger, and often park on pavements — we've taught the dogs to do a lot more work, often having to go on roads so the owner can get through the space. You get e-bikes and scooters littered all over the pavement now too, which is another big thing to find a way around. Then there are mobility scooters: we get them used to those as puppies. 'And of course there are people staring at their mobile phones, not looking where they're going. We do indoor exercises in our training centre to get the dog used to them. Outside, Oxford Street is a good place to practise.' Modern life impinges in ways that the sighted might not consider. Glass lifts, increasingly common in shopping centres, can confuse dogs trained to avoid height hazards. 'Just seeing that the floor beneath them is moving up and down can be worrying for the dog,' said Brady. Shared spaces, where cycle and scooter paths are integrated with pedestrian pavements, present issues too. 'We have to familiarise the dogs with new schemes — cycle lanes, floating bus stops and so on,' said Laurie's sighted handler today, specialist trainer Wayne Townley. 'You have this real grey line of where traffic sits.' Some distractions are more traditional. This year, Guide Dogs ran a training session at Ascot to ensure the animals would not be unnerved by enormous, garish hats and fascinators. The charity said many are scared and confused by oversized headgear, which can make a familiar person look strange. London dogs have always had to get used to the Tube. Shallower lines such as the Hammersmith & City are easiest to cope with: only those with the strongest nerve can endure the high-decibel screeching of the deep Northern and Victoria lines. Laurie has taken it all on board, and is a model of calm purpose as he guides Townley, 58, through the pandemonium of London's West End. He effortlessly tacks around an approaching phone zombie, is unfazed by deafening sirens and traffic, and ignores a tempting discarded kebab. 'They're a lot more common than they used to be — it's littered with them round here on Saturday morning — but the dog must know it can only eat food when it's given to them,' said Brady. 'We call it food manners.' She said most of the public are kind and considerate around guide dogs, but often do not notice that one is near them. 'People are involved in their own worlds, expected to do emails on the way to work. The modern world is such that people are looking down a lot of the time.' There are about 3,000 working guide dogs, mainly labradors, golden retrievers or crosses of the two, which are purpose-bred. It costs £38,000 to train each dog, all of which comes from donations. Their training begins when they are 14 months old. Most will then stay with one owner until about ten years old, when they retire to a volunteer's home to become a family pet. Laurie will soon be matched with a visually impaired person on the Guide Dogs shortlist, which could be anywhere in the country: there is then another five weeks of training specialised to their needs. 'Sight loss has no regard for background,' said Townley, who has been training dogs for 36 years. 'We've had to familiarise them with visits to a church, or mosque, even to Emirates stadium for Arsenal games. A businesswoman user had to fly a lot, so we did trips through the airport and a couple of flights. Every owner, and every dog, is different. 'But I've been doing it for 36 years and it's still a privilege. You see the change it makes to people's lives, the freedom, the confidence. It's humbling.' To donate to Guide Dogs, go to
Fox News
07-06-2025
- General
- Fox News
Evening Edition: How Guide Dogs Are Trained To Help The Visually Impaired
For people who suffer from problems with vision and need the help of a guide dog, for companionship, safety and the ability to live an independent life, they can turn to the world's oldest guide dog school in the world. The 'Seeing Eye' is a non-profit located in Morristown, New Jersey which has been in operation for almost a century. They breed, train and pair guide dogs to those who need them. FOX's Tonya J. Powers speaks with Lauren Christie, director of canine development at the 'Seeing Eye', who explains how you can be a part of training adorable puppies to become guides for those who are blind or visually impaired. For more information visit: Click Here To Follow 'The FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
BBC News
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Guide dogs attend Royal Ascot as part of training
Guide dog puppies have been attending Royal Ascot as part of their socialisation training ahead of the race research from the Guide Dogs charity suggests nearly one in eight dogs can be "confused and scared" when confronted with oversized puppies, who range from 12 weeks to 10 months, were exposed to "new sights, sounds, and scents" to help their development advisor at the charity Chloe Southby said Royal Ascot offered a "unique training opportunity" of being exposed to "extravagant hats and fascinators". Ms Southby said: "Some dogs are wary of new or unusual objects like hats and may find them unsettling, especially when worn by someone they know. "It can make familiar people seem unfamiliar."That's why environments like Ascot are so valuable for socialising our puppies – helping them grow into confident guide dogs who can support people."Corporate social values manager at Ascot Racecourse Jacqui Greet said: "We are proud to provide an accessible environment for all racegoers and welcome any guest with an assistance dog." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
RNZ News
04-06-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Dogs attacks could lead to lack of guide dogs in South Auckland.
Blind Low Vision New Zealand is now reluctant to place guide dogs in South Auckland due to roaming dog attacks. File photo. Photo: 123RF Sight-impaired people living in the Southern Auckland could miss out on a guide dog after a savage attack on a handler and his guide dog. Blind Low Vision New Zealand said there had been several incidents, including a roaming dog attack last year that saw one of its clients taken to hospital and the guide dog relocated out of Auckland. It is now reluctant to place guide dogs in South Auckland. Blind Low Vision head of guide dogs Pete Hoskin told Checkpoint it was having a significant impact on the independence of their clients. "This has been an increasing problem over the last two years with no real trigger that we're able to put it down to, but what we're experiencing on a daily and weekly basis is a number of events that are causing us to redeploy our resources across different parts of Tamaki Makaurau." A handler and dog were attacked last year, he said. "He subsequently ended up being in hospital and as a result of the treatment had an allergic reaction to the medication. That was a result of the infection from the dog bite and subsequently spent eight weeks in the hospital requiring a couple of blood transfusions. "The dog still is working and is working very well, but that's not to say that if it was ever put in a situation where it was sprung by another dog, that it would be able to work effectively after that." He said the situation was made worse for clients, as they could not necessarily see or identify the risk before it was right before them. "The incidents that are occurring to able bodied people within Tamaki-Makaurau, one yesterday in the botanical gardens, a four-year-old killed a couple of months ago, they've got the benefit of being able to see and hear. "The vision impaired community don't have that benefit so they're not able to mitigate or minimise that risk." Clients who were deaf and blind were also vulnerable, he said. "[It] just exponentially creates that problem even further for them in the sense that they can't hear any dog approaching them." He said with trainers, there had been seven incidents related to roaming dogs. "Recently, we had one trainer [who] had two incidences in one week where other dogs have physically jumped out of moving vehicles down the main street and then chased them along the street where they've had to then jump into a shop." Blind Low Vision were now reluctant to place dogs in South Auckland, he said. "We do unfortunately have a client in South Auckland that we have said no to placing a dog to due to the severe risk of the environment that the community that the client is in." He said the person had already been attacked twice in the area, while walking with a guide dog. "With no reduction in the amount of dogs in that area and the increase in attacks in that area, that risk is too severe to place a dog." They were investigating potential solutions with AI, although it was in its infancy, he said. "I think there's a couple of things before technology. [We] fully support the release with the SPCA and the council around desexing. "We [also] strongly advocate for some personal accountability. As owners of these dogs, ensuring that their dogs are secure at all times, whether that's in a vehicle or in their home environment, to prevent them from getting out into the community and causing this chaos." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
CBC
21-05-2025
- General
- CBC
CNIB to host its 6th annual Pup Crawl
The event asks people to complete five kilometres of movement to raise money and support guide dogs and buddy dogs that are increasingly in demand in Canada. Hannah Veinot has the story.
