Please allow me to introduce you and your readers to one of our Guide Dog Partnerships who’ve been roaming the streets of Alberton for the past few weeks.
We wish the guide dog and his new owner many, many happy kilometers of travelling together.
Marlene resides in Verwoerdpark and leads a very active lifestyle. She recently qualified with Phorest, an 18-month-old German Shepherd male, and he is Marlene’s fifth guide dog. Phorest shares his new home and owner with two Yorkshire Terriers as friends. Apart from working as a dog groomer, Marlene is very energetic and enjoys the gym, tandem cycling, mountain hiking; and still works towards her dream to do tandem sky-diving. Phorest was puppy raised in Cape Town; and trained by our Western Cape Branch.
SA Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind’s (GDA) founder, Gladys Evans, who had failing eyesight, brought the first guide dog – Sheena – to Africa after training at the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association in the UK. Evans started the S A Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind in Johannesburg in 1953.
Guide dog breeding lines are carefully selected to produce the best possible dogs. Each puppy’s first year is spent in the family home of a volunteer puppy raiser, where the pup is thoroughly socialised before it returns to the association at 12 months old, for 6 months of advanced training. All applicants and dogs are carefully matched according to suit each other’s needs. Training of the guide dog and recipient is first done at the association’s residential training centres for two weeks, followed by additional training in the guide dog owner’s home and work environment. If you happen to encounter Marlene and Phorest on their daily routes’, please don’t distract, call, pat or feed Phorest.
Owning a guide dog is a life-changing experience for someone with visual impairment. It’s an all-inclusive package of independence, mobility, and companionship – a priceless gift!
To find out about how GDA can make a difference in your community through either a guide dog for a person who is visually impaired; a service dog for a person whos physically disabled; an autism support dog for children with low functioning autism spectrum disorder; plus orientation and mobility training for a person who’s lost some of their sight and needs training that can restore their independence. Please visit our website at www.guidedog.org.za for more information.
Your support to GDA can also give someone like Marlene and Phorest the independence, mobility and companionship they deserve.
Pieter van Niekerk, Head Public Relations
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