Twenty of us drove the three miles south from a good lunch at The Heathcote to the Guide Dogs for the Blind National Centre, south of Leamington near Oakley Wood. This is the largest dog breeding centre in the world – yes! In the world! (Who knew??). they have room to breed up to 1,500 puppies a year. And they are world leaders in “puppy socialisation and dog training”.
Guide dogs say “we’re here to help people with sight loss live the life they choose”. And unfortunately there are more and more people losing their sight each year – apparently at a rate of one every six minutes, or 20 in the time we took to enjoy our tour.
We were taken on the tour in groups of five and we learned lots. For example it takes a couple of years to rear and train a guide dog. And costs £30,000. But then they can work for 8-10 years and totally transform the lives of the humans matched with them.
The Centre is a very impressive complex of buildings which include a dad’s home, a mum’s home and a ‘honeymoon suite’, a pre-whelping area, a place for pups to be born, another for post-whelping, plus a hospital and even an isolation centre. There are playgrounds for puppies too. And they have underfloor heating!
Dogs come from all over the world to this famous centre. They have a cryogenics centres and an important DNA bank. They have incredible knowledge about how to breed dogs with just the right traits to match up with humans.
One of the intriguing and challenging parts of the tour was going through the sensory tunnel. And when the braver amongst us volunteered to take hold of a white cane, put on a blindfold and walk up an incline then back down some steps. Sounds simple doesn’t it? But not when you try it for the first time!
The volunteers are a wonderful group of people. Totally committed to what they do. And obviously loving every minute of it.
And yes – we got to see some adorable puppies too.
Another excellent MIRTH outing, for which we thank Peter Davis and others involved
MIRTH 