We don't want dogs grabbing food, or barging through a doorway first, or jumping up on people,' says a supervisor. Once a pup leapt into a bath a puppy raiser's daughter had run for herself. It had to hop out because a puppy raiser must insist on obedience to remain the pack leader. Puppies can board at the Guide Dog Centre's kennels when the family goes on holidays or if the puppy raiser is ill. When the young dog is about twelve months old the puppy raiser returns it to the centre.
Parting is always hard.
Five months later the puppy raiser attends the dog's graduation and watches it guiding a trainer. In The trainer helps the dog get used to climbing both solid and open stairs, and become familiar with all sorts of public transport. Eventually the dog will learn the correct way to enter and alight from buses, trams and trains. On railway platforms a dog learns to stand back from the edge. They go to indoor shopping centres and the city many times, at first to become used to crowds and noise, and later to walk through department stores and learn how to travel on escalators and travelators and in lifts.