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Puppy walking - guide dogs I
training, and the ultimate reward of a reliable dog whom you can take anywhere is worth all the hard work. Puppies are so adorable – cute, cuddly, friendly and just yearning to be loved. Without firm discipline they turn into unruly teenagers and uncontrollable adults, jumping up at people, running away and destroying everything in sight. Guide dog puppies are no different, they are not born knowing how to cross roads and behave in restaurants. Behind every guide dog you see in any country there's a volunteer puppy walker with chewed slippers.
f you love dogs, bringing up a puppy to be well- behaved and good company is a pleasure. It's fascinating to see how they respond to kind, patient
My husband Chris and I are currently training a beautiful golden retriever, Gershwin. He's the twelfth puppy we've walked for the Centre Aliénor school for guide dogs for the blind at Mérignac on the outskirts of Bordeaux. We collected him at 2 months old, and are expected to turn him into an obedient, calm, confident dog by the time he's a year old. He'll then go back to Mérignac to be trained by their professional staff, learning all the special skills a guide dog needs. At around 18 months old, if he's passed all his fitness and ability tests, he'll be carefully matched to a blind person, taking into account their lifestyle and Gershwin's character. It's impossible to describe how happy and proud you feel when you see 'your' little puppy transformed into this wonderful, life-enhancing companion who guides his master along the streets of
Toulouse or through the market at Villenueve sur Lot. They give their blind owners so much joy and freedom. It makes all the hard work and puppy mess worthwhile.
Puppy walkers here, as in the UK, are unpaid helpers who fit puppy duties into their daily lives. Many are active retirees, whilst others like us work from home. We run a busy property management business, combining my skills as a Chartered Surveyor with my husband's Mr Fix-it abilities. We also look after my 92-year-old mother who lives nearby. Our busy social life involves classic car and motorbike clubs, and the usual round of apéros, dinners and barbecues.
When a puppy first arrives we spend time settling in the youngster and getting the all-important toilet training sorted. This can only be done with constant care and attention – and patience with the inevitable lapses. We take the pup into local shops, to the bar, up in the lift at the Mairie, to the village school as the children come out – anything to accustom it to everyday noise and bustle.
Having a puppy makes you very tidy, as anything lying around is liable to be chewed or played with – shoes, remote controls, hoover accessories and trailing houseplants are favourites. Even so, doormats go walkabout, plant pots are emptied and garden shrubs are pruned with gay abandon and a cheerful wag of the tail. There are also fortunately long periods of peace and quiet as young puppies, like babies, sleep a lot.
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