5. IGDF
About us
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The International Guide Dog
Federation (IGDF) was formed in
1989, following meetings over several
years of Guide Dog organizations
around the World.
Membership provides:
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First and foremost, membership of
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the IGDF enables Guide Dog
organizations around the world to join
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a community dedicated to serving
people with vision impairment.
The IGDF facilitates a sharing of
knowledge, experience, highest
quality standards, methodologies and
help for new or existing schools
wanting to improve the quality of
their operations.
All of this is focused on improving the
safe independent mobility of blind
and vision impaired people
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An Accreditation and Assessment process
which ensures that operational standards
are maintained and improved in relation
to the world benchmark high quality
standard
A biennial seminar to facilitate exchange
of information
The IGDF office acts as a communication
hub, which keeps members informed,
manages the website, facilitates links to
areas of expertise
A biannual International professional
journal
The ability to get advice about breeding,
Guide Dog Instructor or dog training,
facility set up and management, access,
marketing, fundraising and operational
management
The sharing of ideas and experiences
Possible exchange of puppies, dogs or
genetic material
The opportunity for personal development
5
of members' staff by being an Assessor or
member of the Board or through staff
exchange secondments
The use of the IGDF logo - a symbol of
6. History of IGDF
1 The idea of the International Federation of Guide Dog Schools for the Blind
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(IFGDSB) - as it was originally known - stems from conferences held in France
(1973) and London (1976). At the conclusion of the third international
conference in Vienna in 1983, attendees agreed the formation of a Europeanbased group to consider "the formulation of guidelines and standards for the
training of dogs and to teach blind people the use of dogs". The meeting agreed
that the Royal Dutch Guide Dog Centre would consolidate the work of a
working group consisting of representatives from the UK, Holland, France,
Scandinavia and Switzerland and that other guide dog schools could be invited
to participate.
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This led to a meeting at Leamington in September 1986 at which 28 delegates
from 15 schools and 10 countries considered the papers prepared by the Vienna
working group. Following discussion, the document was rewritten and ratified
by delegates. The next task of the Vienna working group was to draft proposals
for the establishment of an international organisation. These proposals were
considered in October 1987 at a conference attended by guide dog organisations
worldwide and were discussed with solicitors on 5th October 1987.
In April 1988, another international conference was held, attended by 40
delegates from 16 countries, representing 25 guide dog organisations. At the
end of the two day debate, delegates from all schools signed a document
6
prepared by solicitors, forming an unincorporated association known as "The
International Provisional Council for Guide Dog Schools for the Blind". They
appointed an executive body consisting of members of the original 1983 Vienna
7. History of IGDF
2 The Council then worked with solicitors to draft the Memorandum and Articles of
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Association establishing the IFGDSB as a registered company in the United
Kingdom - legal documents that were ratified on 12th April1989. The new
organisation was created to focus upon:
access
animal breeding, care and veterinary matters
funding opportunities
staff selection and training
student selection and training
This decision to found it was taken by these original schools in order to meet the
growing demand of guide dog organisations, looking for an international federation
that would recognise, and unite, all other similar guide dog service providers around
the world. This new organisation was therefore set up:
to allow the organisations to communicate with each other
to exchange information and experience in the area of breeding, training, handling
and assessing the dogs
to act as a body which would offer advice to its individual members
In 1992, inspection of member schools began. Schools were accredited by an agreed
list of assessors within agreed operational guidelines. A newsletter was also
initiated. By 1996, the Federation had 45 members and a seminar on dog breeding
and genetics was held.
By 2000, there were 61 international members, the Assessment Committee became
the Accreditation Committee and Products, Training and Research Working Groups
were formed. By now, seminars were an important biennial event, bringing
members together from across the world. In 2001, attempts were made to increase
7
9. History of Guide Dogs
1 While there is evidence that man's relationship with wolves stretches back 400,000
●
years, man's domestication of dogs coincides with the evolution of early breeds of
dogs about 150,000 years ago.
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The first special relationship between a dog and a blind person is lost in the mists of
time, but perhaps the earliest recorded example is depicted in a first-century AD
mural in the buried ruins of Roman Heculaneum. There are other records from Asia
and Europe up to the Middle Ages, of dogs leading blind men.
However, the first systematic attempt to train dogs to aid blind people came around
1780 at 'Les Quinze-Vingts' hospital for the blind in Paris. Shortly afterwards, in
1788, Josef Riesinger, a blind sieve-maker from Vienna, trained a Spitz so well that
people often questioned whether he was blind.
In 1819, Johann Wilhelm Klein, founder of the Institute for the Education of the
Blind (Blinden-Erziehungs-Institut) in Vienna, mentioned the concept of the guide
dog in his book on educating blind people (Lehrbuch zum Unterricht der Blinden)
and described his method for training dogs. A Swiss man, Jakob Birrer, wrote in
1847 about his experiences of being guided over a period of five years by a dog he
had specially trained.
The modern guide dog story, however, begins during the First World War, with
thousands of soldiers returning from the Front blinded, often by poison gas. A
German doctor, Dr Gerhard Stalling, got the idea of training dogs en masse to help
those affected. While walking with a patient one day through the hospital grounds,
he was called away urgently and left his dog with the patient as company. When he
returned, he saw signs, from the way the dog was behaving, that it was looking after
9
10. History of Guide Dogs
2 Dr Stalling started to explore ways of training dogs to become reliable guides and in
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August 1916 opened the world's first guide dog school for the blind in Oldenburg.
The school grew and many new branches opened in Bonn, Breslau, Dresden, Essen,
Freiburg, Hamburg, Magdeburg, Münster and Hannover, training up to 600 dogs a
year. These schools provided dogs not only to ex-servicemen, but also to blind people
in Britain, France, Spain, Italy, the United States, Canada and the Soviet Union.
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Unfortunately, due to a reduction in dog quality, the venture had to shut down in
1926, but by that time another large guide dog training centre had opened in
Potsdam, near Berlin, which was proving to be highly successful. This school's work
broke new ground in the training of guide dogs and it was capable of accommodating
around 100 dogs at a time and providing up to 12 fully-trained guide dogs a month.
Around this time, a wealthy American woman, Dorothy Harrison Eustis, was
already training dogs for the army, police and customs service in Switzerland. It
was to be Dorothy Eustis's energy and expertise that would properly launch the
guide dog movement internationally.
Having heard about the Potsdam centre, Eustis was curious to study the school's
methods and spent several months there. She came away so impressed that she
wrote an article about it for the Saturday Evening Post in America in October 1927.
A blind American man, Morris Frank, heard about the article and bought a copy of
the newspaper. He later said that the five cents the newspaper cost him "bought an
article that was worth more than a million dollars to me. It changed my life". He
wrote to Eustis, telling her that he would very much like to help introduce guide
dogs to the United States.
10
11. History of Guide Dogs
3 Taking up the challenge, Dorothy Eustis trained a dog, Buddy, and brought Frank
●
over to Switzerland to learn how to work with the dog. Frank went back to the
United States with what many believe to be America's first guide dog. Eustis later
established the Seeing Eye School in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1929, but before
this went back to Switzerland to do further work there. Meanwhile, an Italian
Guide Dog organisation, Sculola Nazionale Cani Guida per Ciechi was also
established in 1928.
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The success of the United States experience encouraged Eustis to set up guide a dog
school at Vevey in Switzerland in 1928. She called this school, like the one a year
later in New Jersey, 'L'Oeil qui Voit', or The Seeing Eye (the name comes from the
Old Testament of the Bible - 'the hearing ear and the seeing eye', Proverbs, XX, 12).
The schools in Vevey, New Jersey and Italy were the first guide dog schools of the
modern era that have survived the test of time.
In 1930, two British women, Muriel Crooke and Rosamund Bond, heard about The
Seeing Eye and contacted Dorothy Eustis, who sent over one of her trainers. In
1931, the first four British guide dogs completed their training and three years later
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was founded in the UK.
Since then, guide dog schools have opened all round the world, and more open their
doors every decade. Thousands of people have had their lives transformed by guide
dogs, thanks to the organisations that provide them. The commitment of the people
who work for these organisations, and the people who financially support them, is as
deep today as it ever was, and the heirs of Dorothy Eustis's legacy continue to work
for the increased mobility, dignity and independence of blind and partially-sighted
people the world over. The movement goes on.
11
13. History of Guide Dogs
4 79 Excavations in Pompeii reveal a wall-painting of a blind man apparently being
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led by his dog.
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1200 A Chinese scroll, now in the Metropolitan Museum in New York shows a blind
man being led by a dog.
1260 An Irish reference, attributed to Bartholomew, of a dog guiding a blind man.
1500-1700 Similar references appear more frequently throughout the 16th Century
in woodcuts, engravings and paintings throughout the world.
1715 The "Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green" is a ballad about a knight who lost his
sight in a battle and subsequently became a beggar. His friends gave him a dog on a
lead and, also, a bell.
1727 Gainsborough (1727-1788) painted "Blind Man on the Bridge" which depicts a
dog leading its master.
1755 William Bigg (1755-1828) depicts "The Blind Sailor" crossing a narrow bridge
with the help of his dog.
1790 Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) produced some engravings for his book "A
General History of Quadrupeds". One engraving showed a blind man being lead
across a bridge by a dog.
1813 An engraving was published in the magazine "Das Auge" (The Eye) by George
Joseph Beer, a leading Viennese eye specialist. Beer wanted to highlight the man in
the foreground wearing glasses, but in the background there is a blind man working
13
14. History of Guide Dogs
5 1819 The earliest surviving description of a systematic method of training guide dogs was
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published by Dr. Johann Wilhelm Klein in Vienna. Klein became the Director of the
Institute for the Education of the Blind in Vienna. His book describes a method of
training the dogs with a stick attached to the collar and held in the left hand. The stick
had a crossbar, which may have given information about the sideways movement of the
dog, as well as the forward movement. Klein no longer had the dog on a leash and the
blind man no longer used a walking stick. Unfortunately the idea of using a primitive
type of harness was not built upon and remained unused for almost 100 years.
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1847 Jacob Birrer (blind Swiss man) published a book highlighting the use of training
dogs as guides. Once again the strategy was back to leads and walking sticks. His ideas
were not developed any further.
1864 In Trollope's novel, "Can You Forgive Her", Lady Glenorca tells the Duke of St.
Bungay that she will lead him as "the little dogs lead blind men".
1878 British Parliament exempts licence fees for "shepherds' dogs and "those kept by the
blind as guides".
1899 A drawing from "The Graphic" shows how dogs trained by the German Red Cross
Ambulance Dogs Association were used to help the wounded on the battlefield. The
Director, Dr. Gerhard Stalling, used these same dogs in early attempts to guide blinded
veterans. This is the start of using larger breeds of dogs, mostly Collies, as guides.
1914-18
World War 1 re-sparked interest in guide dog due to so many young men being
blinded following exposure to mustard gas or as the result of shell shock. The German
Red Cross Ambulance Dogs Association established a training centre in Oldenberg. The
first guide dog was issued in 1916 to a blinded veteran, Paul Feyen. Within a year there
were 100 guide dogs issued and 539 guide dogs had been issued by 1919. In 1922, the first
14
15. History of Guide Dogs
7 1923 Blinded Veterans were now dealt with by the German Shepherd Dog
●
Association, which opened a training school in 1923 in Potsdam. This group
formalised the training methods that are common to most guide dog schools today,
i.e. selecting good dogs, careful matching, following-up in the home environment. By
the 1930's there were around 4,000 qualified guide dogs in Germany.
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1925 The original school in Oldenberg was formally taken over by the German
Association for the Blind.
1927 George and Dorothy Eustis, who were selectively breeding German Shepherd
dogs in their Fortunate Fields kennels in Switzerland, visited the Potsdam School.
Highly impressed, Dorothy Eustis wrote to an American newspaper with her
account of the visit. This was published in November 1927. Many letters flooded
back from the United States, and one, in particular, from Morris Frank, stimulated
Dorothy Eustis and Jack Humphrey, the head trainer at her Fortunate Fields
kennels, to work with Potsdam trainers to prepare a dog for Morris.
1928 Morris Frank arrived in Switzerland in April and trained with Guide Dog
"Buddy". Morris and "Buddy" returned to New York in June. They faced sceptical
journalists, but won them over by crossing a wide, busy street without injury, and
this incident received wide press coverage.
15
16. History of Guide Dogs
7 1929 Mrs. Eustis established the Seeing Eye School in Morristown, New Jersey.
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Realising that the major problem would be training suitable Instructors, she
returned to Switzerland. There she established a training school near her Fortunate
Fields kennels. It was here that she also started training her own guide dogs.
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1931 Mrs. Eustis trained and supplied ten dogs to Italy, eleven to France, and
three to Switzerland. Mrs. Eustis also qualified four Guide Dog Instructors that
year. Two went to the Seeing Eye School in New York one to Italy and one, Captain
Laikhoff, went to the UK. There, he established a centre in Cheshire where the first
four British guide dogs completed their training. Quarantine regulations hindered
trained guide dogs being sent to Britain and a search commenced for other suitable
breeds to train. These were predominantly Labradors.
1932 Mrs. Eustis loaned Georges Gabriel (from Switzerland) to run the second
guide dog class in Britain.
1933 Mrs. Eustis, again, loaned Georges Gabriel to run the third guide dog class in
Britain.
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1934 Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (GDBA) was established.
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1940 Leamington Spa opened as the first UK guide dog Training Centre.
16
19. Leader dogs For the Blind
19
Leader Dogs for the Blind
Rochester Hills, Michigan
U.S.A
www.leaderdogs.org
20. Leader Dogs for the Blind
About us
Founded by three Detroit-area
Lions Clubs members in 1939,
Leader Dogs for the Blind
provides guide dogs to people who
are blind and visually impaired to
enhance their mobility,
independence and quality of life.
Each year, over 270 clients attend
our 26-day residential training
program to be paired with a guide
dog.
In addition to our guide dog
program, we offer programs
that enhance a person’s
independence and quality of
life in other ways, including:
Orientation and mobility
training
GPS training
Seminars for Orientation and
Mobility professionals.
This is a life-changing event that
opens the door to independence,
safety and self-worth for many of
our clients.
20
21. Breeds Used: Labrador Retriever 80%,
Golden Retriever 15%, German Shepherd
Dog 5%, and Labrador/Golden cross
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22. Puppy Raising: local, distance, inmate prison
program
A puppy raiser is
responsible for raising
a Future Leader Dog
for a period of
approximately one
year according to
Leader Dog
guidelines.
The raiser will
provide the puppy
with a safe
environment, love and
nurturing,
socialization
Puppy raisers are
guided by:
Leader Dog Puppy
Raiser Manual
In for Training (IFT)
Standards
Monthly meetings
with the continued
support and guidance
from area volunteer
puppy counselors.
22
29. Seeing Eye
About us
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The Seeing Eye, Inc. is the
oldest guide dog school in the
world.
Twelve times a year, as
many as 24 students at a
time visit the Morristown,
N.J. campus to discover the
exhilarating experience of
traveling with a Seeing Eye
dog.
Since 1929, The Seeing Eye
has partnered with people
who are blind who seek to
enhance their independence,
dignity, and self-confidence
through the use of Seeing
Eye® dogs.
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Our students – people who
are blind or visually
impaired – come from all
over the United States and
Canada to spend up to a
month training with a new
Seeing Eye® dog.
They range in age from 16 to
senior citizens, their home
environments may be rural
or urban, and they may be
homemakers, volunteers, or
judges.
But they all have this in
common: They are motivated
by a sense of independence
and armed with the
knowledge that Seeing Eye®
dogs will provide an extra
edge to attain success,
however they may choose to
define it.
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30. ●
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In 1927, a young man named Morris
Frank read an article about dogs being
trained as guides for blinded veterans
of World War I.
Morris Frank and
Buddy
Frustrated by his own lack of mobility
as a blind person, he was inspired to
write its author for help. Dorothy
Harrison Eustis was an American
training German shepherd dogs in
Switzerland, and when she received
Morris Frank’s letter, she agreed to
help him.
He promised he would return to the
United States and spread the word
about these wonderful dogs.
In 1928, having completed instruction
in Switzerland, he arrived in New York
City, proving the ability of his dog
Buddy before throngs of news reporters.
His one-word telegram to Mrs. Eustis
told the entire story … “Success.”
The Seeing Eye was born, with the
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31. Puppy Raising and 4-H Program
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In 1942 the school
partnered with 4-H to
organize and maintain
puppy-raising clubs.
Although many of our clubs
still have a strong 4-H
connection, there are also
many clubs independent of
4-H.
Clubs meet regularly to
plan outings, provide
socialization and share tips
on teaching good puppy
behavior.
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When Seeing Eye puppies reach
the age of 7 or 8 weeks, they are
delivered to the homes of
volunteer “foster families” who
nurture and care for their
charges until they are about 16
to 18 months old.
Families in New Jersey, eastern
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and
parts of Maryland and New
York, give the dogs abundant
affection, teach them basic
obedience, and expose them to a
variety of social situations they
will later encounter as working
dogs.
Many of these volunteer families
have children, while a number of
retired adults also volunteer
their time for our puppies.
31
36. Fidelco
About us
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Charlie and Robbie Kaman's
intiuitive knowledge of how
German Shepherd dogs could help
people who are legally blind live
more normal lives was the genesis
of the Fidelco Guide Dog
Foundation.
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Beginning in 1960, the work done
by this innovative couple and
ever-growing group of dedicated
and tireless staff, volunteers and
supporters has reached out and
touched thousands of clients' and
family members' lives.
Today, Fidelco is an
internationally-recognized leader
in the guide dog industry. And the
legacy of dedication and quality
given to the organization by the
Kamans will guide Fidelco for
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Each Fidelco Guide Dog takes two
years, 15,000 hands-on hours and
$45,000 to produce. They are given
to clients at no cost. Fidelco
provides 24/7 client support for the
entire working life of its guide dogs
– typically 10 years. Fidelco relies
solely on the generosity and
financial support of individuals,
foundations, corporations and civic
organizations to help Share the
Vision®.
Fidelco has trained and placed over
1,350 German Shepherd Guide
Dogs throughout North America –
in 41 states and five Canadian
provinces. Fidelco pioneered InCommunity Placement in the
United States — a process that
allows all guide dog users to be
trained in the communities where
they live and work.
Fidelco also has placed hundreds of
its German Shepherd Dogs with
law enforcement agencies, first
responders, search and rescue, and
missing child recovery
36
37. A breed within a
breed
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The Fidelco German Shepherd
was created from Bavarian
stock. It is an outstanding and
exclusive product of selective
breeding from strong working
lines and has evolved to be
truly a breed within a breed.
Our dogs possess the
characteristics of the ideal
working guide; intelligence,
temperament, stamina and
stability.
They are responsible for our
clients’ safety at all times. This
formidable task requires us to
have an uncompromising focus
on the quality of the breed,
which is a hallmark of the
Volunteer Puppy
Raisers
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In terms of pure selflessness, it is our
volunteer puppy raisers that rise to
the top. They take our pups at about
eight weeks of age, love and care for
them, participate in weekly
socialization and training activities at
the Fidelco training center and then,
when the pups are approximately 14
to 16 months old, return them to us for
formal guide dog training.
Thousands of families and individuals
have participated in the Fidelco
volunteer puppy raising program over
the years. They expose the pup to a
wide variety of experiences in the
home, on the street and in the world at
large; the very things that the dogs
will be required to deal with as a guide
for someone with a visual disability.
The payback is immeasurable. The
freedom and independence that the
pup brings to its human partner is
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43. ●
Southeastern
About us
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Established in 1982, Southeastern
Guide Dogs currently has more
than +400 active guide dog teams
across the country and continues
to create more than 70 new guide
dog teams annually
Located on 35 manicured acres in
Palmetto, Florida, Southeastern
Guide Dogs is accredited by the
International Guide Dog
Federation in Reading, England
and is a member of the Council of
U.S. Dog Guide Schools.
Southeastern Guide Dogs is one of
only 10 fully certified guide dogs
school in the country and the only
one located in the southeastern
US.
Southeastern Guide Dogs' mission
is to create and nurture a
partnership between a visually
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Paws for Independence™ - pairs
individuals with visual impairments with
professionally trained guide dogs during a
26-day residential training class based at
our campus in Palmetto, Florida. Training
begins on the mile-and-a-half-"Freedom
Walk", a virtual outdoor classroom that
presents the guide dog teams with a
variety of navigational challenges (e. g. a
railroad crossing, bridges, etc). As students
progress, the training expands to outside
locations, including shopping centers and
urban areas with high pedestrian and
vehicular traffic.
Paws for Patriots™- provides guide dogs to
veterans with visual impairments; service
dogs to veterans with Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder; and facility therapy dogs
to military hospitals such as the Walter
Reed National Military Medical Center,
Quantico, Andrews Air Force Base, and
Camp LeJeune.
Gifted Canines™- provides law
enforcement agencies, hospitals, assistedliving facilities, nursing homes and
individuals with special needs with dogs
who excel in narcotic or arson detection,
43
search and rescue, therapy and other
specialized careers. Our school places dogs
in the Gifted Canines™ program only if
they do not meet the specific criteria
44. Fast Facts
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Our school operates its own breeding colony, with approximately 50
breeder dogs.
Three Breeds: Labradors, golden retrievers and goldadors
(Labrador/golden retriever mix)
Number of puppies currently being raised by volunteers: approximately
300
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Number of puppies born on campus each year: approximately 250
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Number of dogs currently in training: approximately 80
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Number of miles a Southeastern Guide Dog trainer walks in a year –
approximately 2,300
Most common names sponsors choose for puppies – Maggie, Buddy,
Rose/Rosie
Number of dogs currently deployed: more than 1,000, including over 410
active guide dogs, more than 100 Gifted Canines, approximately 250
puppies in puppy raiser homes, and more than 200 dogs and puppies in
the school’s kennels
44
45. Our Puppy Raisers: Where the Transformation Begins
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Training an exceptional guide dog
begins before a puppy is even born.
Our intentional breeding program
means our puppies come from
parents who are known for their
intelligence, loving personality, and
trainability. Newborn puppies are
tickled and stretched as part of our
early socialization program.
Before they’re weaned, young
puppies are exposed to sights,
sounds, textures, and plenty of
puppy-hugging volunteers. House
training starts early to make the
next step in their training that
much more enjoyable for everyone.
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Puppy raisers are volunteer
families who agree to
welcome a future guide dog
into their home.
These homes are where our
young puppies’ training and
socialization takes an
important turn; it is here
that they become comfortable
with home life, learn basic
obedience, and begin to
experience the world.
Puppy raisers take our
puppies everywhere—to
work, out to eat, on trips, and
even grocery shopping. This 45
real-world training imitates
the experiences that our dogs
need to successfully guide a
59. The Mira Foundation Inc
59
Saint Madeleine, Quebec
Canada
http://www.mira.ca/en/
60. Mira
About us
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On 21 octobre 1981, Éric St-Pierre proudly
presented two blind individuals with the first two
guide dogs trained in Quebec. In so doing, he
began a charitable endeavour completely
dedicated to helping the handicapped. His first
order of business was to ensure that both users
and partners would be willing participants as he
sought to establish both a viable range of services
and funding to provide dogs free of charge.
In 1991, MIRA creates a guide-dog program for
blind youngsters. Since that time, MIRA has been
the only school in the world to provide guide dogs
to blind individuals under 15, having given more
than 85 guide dogs to young teenagers in Quebec,
Ontario, the Maritime Provinces, France and
Mexico.
In the beginning, MIRA trained mostly with
Labradors and Bernese Mountain dogs. In 1991,
Éric St-Pierre developed a breed—the Labernese
(a cross between the Labrador and the Bernese
Mountain dog)—that was to become the first
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In 1992, MIRA continues in an
innovative vein and explores
how a service dog could be
trained to help children with
multiple disabilities and
individuals with physical
handicaps. MIRA has since
expanded its programs by
providing service dogs to such
individuals.
In 2003, MIRA has put in
place a research program to
help children afflicted with
pervasive development
disorders (PDD) such as
autism. To date, 92 dogs have
been assigned to this program.
In 2006, MIRA became 60
member of the International
Guide Dog Federation (IGDF).
61. ●
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MIRA owns a 49,140 square meters lot on which five
buildings stand—a housing facility to accommodate
10 guests at a time during a month in the guide dogs
program; another housing facility to accommodate
10 guests at a time during a 21-day period in the
service dogs program; a canine maternity ward for
gravid females with a production capacity of 500
puppies per year; a veterinary clinic equipped with
high-tech technology instruments, an examination
room, an operating room and an X-Ray room, a
kennel able to board 100 dogs in training. The
buildings and grounds are also used for training
dogs.
Since its founding in 1981, MIRA has given away
over 2,000 guide and service dogs.
The cost of a guide or service dog is $ 30,000 and
each dog is given free of charge. MIRA does not
receive any government funds, its financing depends
●
At MIRA, we subscribe to a
principle of physical
equality. Namely, we
believe that anything that
is accessible to the public at
large should be accessible to
handicapped individuals.
Our work consists in
helping individuals with
one or many disabilities to
adapt to life with these
disabilities.
We concentrate our efforts
on improving the functional
abilities of individuals, in
particular in regard to
mobility and orientation, 61
so
that they can get around
freely in their living
environment.
62. Guide dog for the blind
youth
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Since 1990, with guide dogs being made
available to blind youngsters, a great step
forward has been taken in the area of
orientation, mobility, integration,
organization of guide dog services and social
inclusion.
It is important to emphasize the major
contribution that a guide dog makes to a
youngsters’ social development. As one of
the parents bluntly stated, “It’s easier to
hook up when you have a guide dog.” Guide
dogs help the kids to interact socially and
avoid isolation. Finally, the dog’s
contribution to the youngsters’ emotional
life appears to be important, but this
remains to be demonstrated conclusively.
The youth class, like the adult program,
lasts 30 days. The youngsters are housed on
site. Average class size is six.
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During the four weeks of their stay,
the youngsters get to know their
animal and learn to interact with it.
Gradually, they assimilate the skills
needed to work with a dog and
orient themselves in a regulated
outdoor environment, such as the
downtown area of a densely
populated city with significant
automobile traffic
When the class is over, with their
guide dogs in tow, the kids return to
their daily activities—family
activities, orientation and mobility
work, and school. The youngsters
are the sole users of their guide
dogs; they have worked very hard to
earn this right. Immediately
following the class, the training
staff monitor and provide guidance
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to the kids as they put what they’ve
learned in class into practice.
Subsequently, follow-up can be
according to a regular schedule or
71. The Guide Dog for the Blind
Association
71
Reading, England
U.K
www.guidedogs.org.uk
72. UK Guide Dogs
About us
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We will not rest until people who are
blind or partially sighted can enjoy the
same freedom of movement as everyone
else.
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The ability to get around is vital in order
to live a full life yet 180,000 people who
are blind or partially sighted rarely leave
home alone. Guide Dogs is committed to
changing this.
We breed and train guide dogs which
provide life changing mobility and there
are currently 4,700 working guide dog
partnerships in the UK. Guide dog
owners only have to pay a nominal 50p
for their dog to ensure no-one is
prevented from having one due to a lack
of funds. The full lifetime cost of a guide
dog from birth to retirement is around
£50,000. The guide dog service receives
no government funding.
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The Guide Dogs story started
in 1931 with two amazing
British pioneers, Muriel Crooke
and Rosamund Bond. These
remarkable women organised
the training of the first four
British guide dogs from a
humble lock up garage in
Wallasey, Merseyside.
We’ve come a very long way
since those early days. Today
Guide Dogs is the world's
largest breeder and trainer of
working dogs. And thanks to
our dedicated staff and
volunteers – and your vital
donations – we’ve helped over
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29,000 people to achieve lifechanging independence.
73. What we do
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We provide mobility and freedom to blind and partially sighted people. We also
campaign for the rights of people with visual impairment, educate the public about
eye care and fund eye disease research.
Independence
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We have been expertly breeding and training guide dogs for more than 75 years,
providing many thousands to blind and partially-sighted people of all ages and from
all walks of life.
We also deliver confidence-building rehabilitation services to adults, young people and
children - including long cane mobility training and communication and daily living
skills.
Research
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Guide Dogs carries out research that provides sound scientific evidence on which to
base our services, campaigns, policies and operational procedures (the way we do
things).
We fund ophthalmic research projects, and carry out canine research in-house.
Equal Rights Campaigning
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Visual impairment is a fact of life for thousands of people, and with an ageing
population many more will be affected by sight loss in the future. We campaign
alongside visually-impaired people for rights that most sighted people take for
granted. These include access to services and transport, freedom of mobility, and
provision of better rehabilitation services. Working closely with guide dog owners,
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