This week International Guide Dog Day was celebrated. First started on 26th April 1989, the Integrational Federation of Guide Dogs started the day to celebrate all the guide dogs across the world. In 2022, there was a grand total of 20,291 dogs in service!
So where did this all begin? Well, it all started when two ladies called Muriel Crooke and Rosamond Bond decided they wanted to help the service men who had come back injured and blind from the first world war. Just in a garage in Wallasey on Merseyside, their training began. Others thought it wouldn't work, but it did!
Before long they had trained dogs who were helping the service men.
Here we see the first guide dogs and their humans.
How proud these ladies must have been to achieve something so special and help people. Especially as many people were sceptical that it would not work and they just had to get on with it and do it without assistance or trust. They proved everyone wrong.
Here you can see the video all about it. Its worth the 5 minutes - its pretty special.
Did you know that Goldie, the Blue Peter dog gave birth to a litter of puppies that all became guide dogs?
These dogs are incredible animals. I always find it amazing that they are so clever and are able to take care of their owners the way they do. It must be a very special bond between the human and dog.
What can you do to help? You can donate, buy from their shop, promote their services, fundraise - one of my clients did this last year by holding an afternoon tea event at her house and raised over £200! Just from tea and cakes. I went along and I can say those cakes were worth every penny! - or you can even foster a puppy in training.
As you may have guessed, this is something we hope to do one day.
Above is the link to the page for how you can help.
Not all puppies graduate to being guide dogs unfortunately. But that's ok, because they get to find very special homes with lovely people. Just like lovely Crompton here. There was nothing this big lad couldn't do, but sadly his hearing let him down. We had Crompton on daycare for a little while a few years ago and he was always a pleasure. As you can see he liked to help clear up all the other dog hair.
The guide Dog Association really is very special and we should celebrate how amazing they are. If you can please go to their website and see how you can help today. We plan to do something in the near future so please watch out for that.
I read a beautiful story about guide dogs on PetCareRx and then I came across your post. Thanks a lot for sharing.