Increasing numbers of quiet electric vehicles are one of the challenges that face guide dog trainers, a charity has said.
Guide Dogs representatives were speaking at an event at the Yorkshire Air Museum that exposed puppies in training to a range of sights and sounds.
Many people with sight loss rely on hearing traffic to judge when it is safe to cross roads, but face risks from quieter vehicles such as electric cars, scooters and bikes.
The charity’s puppy development supervisor, Wendy Huggins, said: “These days the hardest environments that our dogs are having to work in are where we’ve got electric cars, things that are silent, things that our dogs aren’t expecting to have to deal with.”
She added: “It’s a partnership, the owner and the dog work together to navigate the environment, so when vehicles that are coming up that are quite quiet, that can be quite challenging sometimes.”
Although the dogs are not trained to recognise vehicle types, they are prepared for a variety of situations they may encounter.
The puppies are also taken to places such as the cinema, theatre, aquariums, shops and restaurants as part of their training.
The aircraft museum, a former RAF base in Elvington, near York, was chosen because of the unique surroundings it offers.
Guide Dog puppies in training got to experience the sounds and sights of exhibits at the Yorkshire Air Museum [Katie Radley/BBC]
Twelve dogs and their handlers gathered at the museum to help build the puppies’ confidence.
Annelise Gyte, a volunteer puppy raiser from North Yorkshire, brought her 15-week-old puppy, Badger, a labrador retriever cross, to the museum and said it was his first time seeing aircraft.
“The big aeroplanes, the people, the other dogs. The different surfaces that he’s been walking on, it’s all different experiences for him. The darker hangar had all the noise going on inside but he’s been really good.”
Annelise Gyte is one of the volunteer puppy raisers for Guide Dogs [Freya Eady/BBC]
Gyte said she volunteered with Guide Dogs because it was important to give back to the community.
“I think for anybody that’s got sight loss, you know, the world is a daunting place and if you can give them something confident, giving a dog that is going to give them that more of a sense of independence, I just think it’s so important.”
Huggins said the difference a guide dog can make to a person with sight loss was huge.
“It’s life-changing. The most important thing is that not only do they get a guide but they get the companionship that these dogs offer and nothing can replace that.”
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