A safe pair of eyes in an unsafe world

[DoozyDog]

Fantastic four: The first four guide dogs for the blind in the UK and their new owners in 1931.

Seventy-five years ago, the first "seeing eye" dogs arrived in the UK. NINA JACOBS looks at the biggest revolution in the world of the visually impaired since the invention of Braille.

Guide dog owners in Sutton will mark an important milestone in the history of guide dog training this month as they help celebrate 75 years since the first dogs took to the streets of the UK.

While little is known about the origins of the first partnership between a dog and a blind person, one of the earliest known examples is depicted in a first century AD mural.

It wasn't until the First World War that the formal training of guide dogs began in Germany by Dr Gerhard Stalling, who used German shepherds to help soldiers blinded at the Front.

In 1928 Dorothy Eustis, an American trainer of police and army dogs, established her own centre called L'Oeil qui Voit (The Seeing Eye) in Switzerland.

Two years later she was contacted by two British German shepherd enthusiasts, Muriel Crooke and Rosamund Bond, after they read an article about the centre to see if a similar scheme could be introduced in the UK.

In response Mrs Eustis sent over one of her trainers and the first four guide dogs Flash, Meta, Judy and Folly were qualified to walk the streets aiding the mobility of their visually impaired owners in 1931.

The following year, a Russian captain, Nikolai Liakhoff, arrived from L'Oeil qui Voit, where he worked as a trainer, and was instrumental in the development of guide dog training in the UK.

By 1934 the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was founded and the first official training centre established in Leamington Spa in 1941.

From its small beginnings the charity quickly flourished and now has 29 district teams within which Sutton shares a district branch with Coulsdon and Wallington.

Branch chairman Gillian Walker said Coulsdon and Wallington were covered first when the branch was set up in 1987, with Sutton included in 1994.

Ms Walker said the branch's membership base was made up entirely of volunteers, headed by a committee of 12.

"We have schools in the area that fundraise on our behalf as well as scout troops and cub packs.

"We fundraise locally by holding stalls at local events where we sell our own merchandise."

In its nearly 20-year history, the branch has raised thousands of pounds to fund the training of new guide dogs, a cost which is not passed on to new owners.

The charity charges new owners a nominal 50p for a guide dog to ensure no one is prevented from having one by lack of funds.

Julie Lindup's involvement with the charity, spanning almost two decades, has been a life changing experience.

Julie, 37, who was registered blind at 16, got her first guide dog, Sonya, when she was 20.

"I still had a little bit of sight but I've also got a hearing difficulty, which meant I had trouble going out and crossing roads.

"I had Sonya for eight years and she retired when she was 10.

"They come to give you a check when the dog gets to a certain age when they are young they visit every year but when they are older it's every six months," she says.

She has been with her present dog, Renny, a retriever, since 1997 a partnership that began when the dog was about two years old, although

Julie says new dogs can be as young as 18 months.

"She will have to retire soon but I am going to keep her with me. If someone else were to take her they would have to pay the cost of her upkeep but because I am keeping her the association will pay for her."

Without the help of both dogs Julie says she would have been unable to have led such an independent life travelling around her former homes in Morden, Carshalton and now Woodmansterne.

"It's wonderful having a guide dog she gets me around. I go to Banstead and Sutton and I can go as far afield as Merton. I try to go out every day, even if it is just to take Renny for a walk."

Julie says both Sonya and Renny only had to be shown new routes once and they learnt them off by heart.

"If you have problems with a new route, they have to show the dogs. But with mine that was never the case they just learnt it straightaway."

As a voluntary worker, Julie plans to share her experiences of being a guide dog owner by giving talks to adults and children in the local area.

As part of its 75th anniversary celebrations, the association is holding an interactive exhibition called Moving Forward Together, which will tour musuems and shopping centre in the UK throughout the year.

It will bring to life the last seven decades of dog training through a range of three-dimensional, touch sensitive and audio exhibits.

This will allow blind and partially-sighted people to appreciate and understand every part of the exhibition.

Visitors to the exhibition will also have the chance to wear special glasses which will enable them to experience first-hand the effects of various eye conditions such as cataracts, retinitis pigmentosa and diabetic retinopathy.

If you would like to become involved with the 75th anniversary celebrations in your area, call 0870 600 2323 or go to www.guidedogs. org.uk.

Alternatively, if you would like to volunteer locally, contact Gillian Walker on 020 8647 8071.

http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk/disp...safe_world.php