Local resident Norma Stent and her husband Derek are among a very small number of individuals who have helped raise more than 50 puppies for Guide Dogs. Joanna Lewis met Norma and her latest puppy, Rhonda, to learn more about being a puppy raiser and the work of Guide Dogs, the world’s largest assistance dog organisation.
Raising 57 puppies is no easy feat. Over the past 43 years, Norma, along with her husband Derek, has been subjected to the usual puppy behaviour – food snaffled from countertops, chewed mail, and holes dug in the garden. But, as Norma notes, knowing how the puppies she has helped raise go on to transform the lives of those with sight loss makes it all worth it.
“When you see the dog working and you see the difference it makes to people’s lives, it’s just fantastic.”
Norma and Derek got their first puppy, Paddy, in 1981. As puppy raisers, they are tasked with caring for a puppy for at least a year, until it is ready to begin its official training with the Guide Dogs charity.
Norma started as a puppy raiser after she spotted an advertisement in her local doctor’s surgery.
“I was pregnant at the time with my second child, and I wanted my children to grow up with a dog,” explains Norma. “But Derek didn’t want the long-term commitment. So, this seemed like the perfect compromise. The children and I get a dog, and at the end of the year, we can give it back. Everybody will be happy, and the children will have benefited from learning how to look after a dog.”
However, Norma says that within just a few weeks, they were all smitten. “It was Derek who actually said, ‘can we have another one?’. And, we haven’t stopped since.”
Vital work
Guide Dogs is the largest organisation that breeds and trains guide dogs in the UK and is the largest employer of specialists dedicated to helping children and young people overcome the challenges of sight loss.
Puppy raisers are vital to the charity’s work. Not only do they look after the dog until it is ready to start its official training, but they are also responsible for teaching the pup basic commands, toilet training, socialisation, growing its confidence, and introducing it to new environments and experiences.
“Wherever I go, the puppy goes too,” Norma says.
As an official guide dog in training, it means each puppy goes with Norma to places that are usually off-limits, including the supermarket. Norma must also expose each puppy to as many environments and experiences as possible to help prepare it for every eventuality it may encounter in its work as a guide dog. Before Guy Fawkes Night, for example, this meant gradually getting Rhonda used to the loud bangs of the fireworks.
The vast majority of the puppies are Labrador and Golden Retriever mixes, in addition to a smaller number of Labradoodles and German Shepherds.
“They are smart and catch on quickly, especially if there’s a tasty treat as a reward,” Norma says.
Most of the puppies go on to become successful guide dogs for the blind at around two years of age.
Norma usually has an overlap, meaning that just a few weeks before her existing puppy is ready to start its formal Guide Dogs training, she takes delivery of her next puppy, which can help the new puppy quickly learn commands by following the older one’s lead.
She says she doesn’t really get attached, knowing that she will only have each puppy for a relatively short time, but admits she does have her favourites and is in touch with some of the people who go on to receive one of the guide dogs she helped raise.
“We’ve seen a lot of our dogs working, which is lovely,” Norma says. One lady in particular stands out for Norma. “We went to see a lady in Plymouth who had one of the puppies we raised. It was her first guide dog, and she explained how it had transformed her life. She had spent a lot of her time indoors and was unable to go out without help due to her loss of sight. She had lost all her confidence. With a guide dog, she was now able to go out and regain her independence.”
Norma and Derek plan to keep going, with the goal of reaching 60 puppies.
“As long as we can keep doing this, we will,” Norma says.
More volunteers needed
According to Claire Weaver at Guide Dogs, there are several active puppy raisers in Bath, but they need more to support the charity’s vital work.
“We currently have 3,078 working guide dogs in the UK and we have 1,602 puppies being raised in volunteers’ homes,” Claire says.
“Puppy raisers provide a vital foundation for the puppy’s future role as a guide dog through training, socialisation, and the introduction of new environments and experiences.”
It takes around two years for a puppy to become a guide dog at a cost of £77,000. More than 500 guide dogs are expected to complete their training this year, providing life-changing support to help people with vision impairment become more independent, mobile, and get out and about with confidence.
Sophia Haig, puppy development advisor for Bath, South Bristol and South Wales, adds: “Without the help of Norma and Derek and other amazing volunteers like them, we simply wouldn’t be able to train the hundreds of life-changing guide dogs that we do each year to support people with sight loss.”
Visit guidedogs.org.uk/puppyraising