Making the long walk to guide dog

By the time you read this, Flossie will be gone.

Just like thousands of families across the country, we have prepared ourselves for the day our youngest family member would leave our home and head off to higher education.
For us though, the departure is final, there will be no weekends at home and no long semester breaks to look forward to. Because Flossie is a trainee guide dog and, after a year of wheedling her way into our hearts, she is ready for the final stage of her training before she is assigned to a blind person or a child with autism.

Flossie is one of over a hundred pups around Ireland that has spent a year living with, and being socialised by, a volunteer family. There are three families currently volunteering as ‘puppy walkers’ where we live in the twin towns of Ballina and Killaloe; an unusually high figure considering the population of the towns.

Barry Finegan, who has Grant, is on his third dog. When his family moved from South Africa to set home in Ireland, they missed having dogs but “were very aware that a dog is a long term commitment,” which was a real consideration as they were still settling in.

Barry said, “We had been considering puppy walking in South Africa and we realised that this was a way to have a dog in the house, a way to give something back to society and yes, we could commit ‘one year at a time’.”

Fellow puppy walker, Joanne Ballesty, agrees, adding that “it’s a really good cause and we get to have a dog for a year with support on how to look after and train her”.

While volunteer puppy walkers are not remunerated, all vet bills and food is provided for by Irish Guide Dogs (IGD). Walkers can be individuals or families. After initial vetting and approval,
the pup is placed with the family at around eight weeks, after which IGD maintains regular contact with the puppy walkers.

The training support provided by Irish Guide Dogs is critical both as a check on the progress of the pups and as a training support for the walkers. Volunteers regularly meet up with a regional trainer for individual and group training sessions. The sessions give the walkers an opportunity to address any training concerns and are also the time when the puppies are let off the leash for a ‘free run’. The free run is a rare treat for the dogs, which must otherwise be kept on a leash whenever they are walked.

Support for the dogs also comes from the community. On the whole, local businesses are supportive and understand that they are legally permitted to allow the dogs entry, though there is no legal requirement that they do so. Barry said there has only been one local business where “a manager refused to accept that the pup wouldn’t cost them their licence. All other businesses we’ve taken the pup into have been wonderfully supportive”.

The reaction of the general public has been positive. Barry said, “When the pup is younger outings are often for training purposes and we often have to ask people not to distract the pup. Most people are understanding and tend not to take offence.”

The question most often asked by curious passers-by is “how will you give her up?” For my own family, as first time puppy walkers, our answer has always been, “We know what an important job she will be doing and we focus on that.”

The truth is, knowing that Flossie will be helping someone will ease our hearts, but every time we look at our chewed slippers, shredded hand brake, decapitated teddy bears or mangled spectacles, we will feel that in some ways, Flossie will always be with us.