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Monday, 11 January 2010
Bolton School Girls' Division would seem an unlikely setting for
guide dog training but needs must in the cold snap! The
Greater Manchester Team of Guide Dogs for the Blind Association has
a constant need to train up dogs before handing them over to be
used by blind people, but the current bad weather is hampering
their efforts to train and walk dogs. The Girls' Division
came to their rescue through employee, Mrs Julie Stone, who
suggested the girls' corridors as a location for their training to
the Association. The Guide Dogs is one of many charities
that the School supports and also offered up its corridors for dog
training in the 1990s.
Local Guide Dog Mobility Instructor Allan Drysdale, of the Guide
Dogs' Association, introduced the first dog on Friday before
the start of term but is hopeful the school may provide a long term
venue for dog walking and training, particularly when the weather
is bad. He said: "We are delighted with the offer from
Bolton School as dog-walking space is at a premium in this kind of
weather. The girls' school provides an ideal venue with its
three floors of long, wide corridors and sets of stairs.
It will be good when the pupils are back next week as the dogs do
need to be exposed to people and hustle and bustle, although we
will keep the dogs off the corridors during really busy
times. I would normally be out on housing estates doing this
but until the snow clears or pavements become useable this is a
great help to us."
The dogs are extremely well behaved, under strict control and in
the advanced stages of training. The Guide Dogs for the Blind
Association has recently relocated from Lowndes Street in Bolton to
Atherton.
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