14 October 2024
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Abbie has a vision impairment and knows she might need a guide dog in the future - but for now she is deeply proud of her parents’ role in raising puppies like Callie, to help transform the lives of others.
Mum Lesley and Dad Andrew first volunteered to become Puppy Raisers for the charity Guide Dogs, after their only daughter was diagnosed with a rare eye disease.
Since then, the retired couple from Sunderland have given a loving home to five very special young pups in advance of their formal guide dog training.
They have looked after each of them from the age of around eight weeks to 12-16 months old. In addition to providing a loving home, they guide the pups through training, socialisation and the introduction of new environments and experiences, in preparation for formal guide dog training to become life changing guide dogs.
They are currently raising Callie, a sweet natured black Labrador, who has already made a big impression.
The pandemic disrupted Guide Dogs breeding, training and volunteering programmes, but they are determined to get back on track. They now have lots more puppies coming through, but they still have a shortage of Puppy Raisers, who provide crucial care and socialisation for the puppies in the first year of their lives.
Abbie knows her how important her parents’ Puppy Raising role is - volunteers are at the heart of Guide Dogs and they can’t deliver their life-changing services without them.
Abbie, 25, said: “I don’t know if I’ll ever need a guide dog, but being able to see my parents play a part in helping someone with a vision impairment maintain their independence has been really important.
“We never had pets growing up. I used to be scared of dogs but now I absolutely love them.
“Constantly having a puppy in the house has been great. It’s been lovely to see them develop as guide dogs.
“And it’s been really nice to see my parents get so involved with Guide Dogs and the visually impaired community."
Abbie was diagnosed with the inherited eye disease Stargardt when she was 17 years old. The condition affects her central vision, but not her peripheral vision.
Abbie said: “It was a massive relief to get a diagnosis.
“I’d gone all through my school years struggling to read the board, struggling to keep up with work in class and not really understanding why.
“While I don’t necessarily look like I’m blind, I sometimes struggle in social situations because I can’t see faces and can’t navigate around some places.
“I struggle to read small print or regular print, and I can’t drive.”
It hasn’t however held Abbie back. A member of the GB paraclimbing team, she has 5 World Cup Golds and 4 World Championship Gold medals to her name in the sport.
When Abbie followed in her older brother’s footsteps and left home for university, her parents considered getting a pet, but instead they got in touch with Guide Dogs and say they haven’t looked back.
Research by Guide Dogs has shown that half of the 360,000 people registered blind or partially sighted don't feel able to leave their homes alone. The charity, which is supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, is committed to changing this by providing life-changing services to children, adults, friends, and family that need support.
Postcode Lottery players have raised more than £8.9 million for Guide Dogs and funded the provision of 117 litters of pups for the charity.
Mum Lesley said: “We decided it was a really good way for us to give something back.
“We thought about Abbie and we thought about the fact she doesn’t need a guide dog now but who knows in the future?
“We thought too about all the visually impaired people out there who desperately need a dog.
“Without Puppy Raisers like us, Guide Dogs won’t be able to train enough dogs to meet the need there is.”
Abbie’s dad Andrew described their role as Puppy Raisers.
He said: “You look after them and give them lots of love and care.
“We take them from an early age into coffee shops, on trains and buses, places like that - to give them good social skills and basic puppy training.
“We take them into places a guide dog could go, but a normal dog couldn’t.
“We are really just looking after them until they move on to the next stage. It is rewarding.”
Lesley and Andrew admit saying goodbye to any of the dogs in their care is not easy, but they know the dogs go on to help others live active and independent lives.
Lesley said: “From the day a puppy arrives, you dread them leaving because they do take a bit of you with them when they go.
“They are part of the family and you love them to bits.
“But we know when we get them that we are only a small part of their lives.
“Seeing them thrive and seeing them be ready to go to ‘big school’, to go into training, is what it’s all about.
“We know they’ve got to move on, so we think about Abbie - and all the people with sight loss out there who desperately need a dog.
“Then Guide Dogs ask us if we’d like to take another one - and it starts all over again!”
Guide Dogs is the world’s largest assistance dog organisation and are the only body to breed and train guide dogs in the UK.
Lucy Cooper, Guide Dogs Puppy Raising Development Advisor, said: “Our puppy raisers are a unique type of person. They are a special breed. They take these dogs on and look after them through what is essentially the most challenging year and a bit of a dog’s life, through puppyhood, adolescence – until the point where they reach that stage where they are ready to move further on and into their training.
“Without the puppy raising role and what the Puppy Raisers do, we wouldn’t get the guide dogs that everybody knows.”
Janet Champion, Canine Assisted Services Operations Manager at Guide Dogs said: “I’d like to say a huge thank you to players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
“The money that has been raised by players is absolutely essential.
“Over the last year it has helped support the running of more than half of our Puppy Raising scheme nationally.
“That goes towards paying our vets’ fees, our vet costs, any medicines the puppies need, and the salaries of our staff that are involved in puppy raising.
“This means that there are more and more puppies going into that training programme and inevitably supplying more guide dogs that can become life changers for those who are visually impaired.”