I had the pleasure recently of spending some time with the lovely people at my local sight loss group I’m involved in, which also included some of my friends lovely guide dogs!
We went on a trip to Bridlington. We’ve been before and we all really enjoyed it. Laughs, walking, drinks, dinner, sunshine, making new friends and spending time with old ones. If you are umming and arring about joining a group like this, please go. I was the same, but it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
We are a mixed aged group. I’m around in the middle somewhere. They are a very funny, welcoming and caring bunch.
Anyway, back to the doggos.
Exceptionally clever. These dogs cost approximately £35,000 per dog to train as a guide dog for people with sight impairment or total blindness. Which is rare as, between 2 to 8% of people who are visually impaired cannot see anything at all. Total blindness.
Most people with a Guide dog or a white cane of any sort can see something. Even if it’s just colours, shapes and shadows.
There are currently 2 million people living with sightloss in Britain today. 340,000 of these people registered as Blind or partially sighted.
You have to be matched with a dog once you’ve been accepted for one. Then there is extensive training with you both to make sure you are compatible and suit each other.
Here are a few photographs from the day below.
One Vision Blog 