 What about maybe raising a pup to become a guide dog? Well, they're looking for puppy raisers. The challenge would be to raise a pup up to a certain age and great reward, obviously, for seeing a pup develop in your own home. And additionally, puppy raisers and temporary borders get the satisfaction of knowing that they have played a role in providing guide and assistance dogs that enable people who are vision impaired or families of a child with autism to enjoy the same freedom and independence as everyone else or as close as they can anyhow. And it's a chance to learn some new dog training skills as well if you already have a dog. And I would imagine that it might be preferential if you do. Well, now I'm joined by two people with plenty of experience, Annie Gollacher and Leslie Newbury. You're both welcome. Thank you. Thanks for coming in. And let's say hello to the two dogs as well. Annie, yours is? Sally. Yes, Sally is a... Sally is a six-month-old black lab. Now that I spoke, she looked up at me. She's here beside me. She's licking away at her licky mat. Hopefully she'll behave herself. Mm-hmm. Well, hopefully. Fingers crossed, but sure, you know. They don't, they don't. And Leslie, yours is? I have nutmeg. Nutmeg is 11 months old. And she's doing very well. And she's got a lovely dog treat there, so hopefully it'll keep her nice and quiet. Oh, yeah. Nutmeg's a bit of a communicator, so she likes people to know she's around. Oh, OK. Excellent. Well, as you say, I'm happy there at the minute with the dog he treats. Absolutely. So hopefully that'll... Sorry, her is it? Her. Or it'll keep her distracted. Leslie, both these dogs now will be handed back after a certain time. Is that how it works? They will, yeah. We're guide dog puppy raisers, so we basically foster the puppies from around nine weeks of age until around 14 months. So we do a little bit of training, but I would say we're more socialisers. So what guide dogs look for us, the dogs live in our home. Mm-hmm. They're with us 24 hours a day. And we go through sort of a protocol and the pups live with us. We take them out, we socialize them. Everywhere we go, the pups go. So that when they go down to cork, there's nothing that's strange or new to them. So in shops, dentists, hairdressers, bus, train, pups sometimes go on a flight as well. So everything. So they have a well-rounded, reasonably well-behaved pup ready to start training in the next stage. So the idea would be to bring this growing dog with you as many places as possible. Absolutely. Yeah, the more places that we can get them out, the more socialized they are. Okay. Obviously, we have to remember that they are puppies. They're no different to any other puppy. So when we get them at nine weeks, they come their complete blank canvas. And we have to do everything that anybody would do normally with a puppy. We puppy, we toilet train them. We feed them certain ways. They go through all the normal phases that all the other puppies go through. Of the chewing and the barking and the zoomies and everything else. Yes. You know, but yeah, so it is a bit of a commitment, but it's great fun. And it's, we have a wonderful team in Donegal. We do. Not just the puppy raisers. We have our volunteers, our fundraisers, our temporary borders. So important to me as a puppy raiser. My grandchildren over in England, I had to get away. So the temporary borders would look after my pup when I'm away. And it means they go through a certain amount of training and they keep the pups in the same routine and the same boundaries as we would do. So it's great. And it's good for the pups. It makes them a little bit more adaptable. Because when you have a dog, it's a bit of a worry then when you have to go off on holidays, especially if they're spoiled, you're thinking, do I have to put this dog in the kennels for like the week that I'm going to be away? And how, you know, how will it be treated? And, you know, will it be socialized when it's there? Will it get enough exercise? But Annie, it seems like there's a good community here, good supportive community. When you're raising these dogs. There is, there really is. Like the temporary borders, all you got to do is send them a wee text and say, are you free? The state to the state. And they'll say yes. And then you give them all stuff, maybe a list of what the dog's routine is like and they follow it. So it means then there's no break and the dog isn't confused when it comes back to you. They don't go into kennels this day with the person in the home the whole time. But now there's great support. And Leslie always says they're never born guide dogs. They're born a puppy and they become, they're molded into a guide dog. So, you know, you are told and guided what to do. The support is great. But as Leslie was saying there, really, it's your job just to raise them as you would any dog that you want to raise properly, mind you. And they'll be, I'm sure there's a few outlines. But by and large, it's not your job to train them as guide dogs. It's just your job to raise them up to be a fairly well-behaved doggy. Well-behaved dog that'll listen to the commands and is trainable, you know, and that wants to listen and is happy to do things. And if you get them a good grounding, those first six months, isn't it, Leslie, are very important? And if you just treat them well, they'll, you know, it'll work out for them then, it does. And Leslie, do you have to have, is it a preferential that you already have a dog to take on these? Not necessarily, not necessarily. You're a, I think the guidelines say that we can have up to two pets in the house. Another dog can't be an advantage for a small pup because invariably they show them the way to go and do some a few manners and things like that. But it's not essential if you don't have another dog, that's not an issue. What about a cat? Cat, I have cats, I have hens, I have geese, I have pigs, if you name it, and they're great for the dogs. Because on the train, that's all part and parcel of creating this rounded socialized dog. We can't have a guide dog running after cats. You know, we can't have a guide dog running after pigeons or whatever in the street. So it's little weak things that we concentrate on just to have that social rounded pup to hand to the trainers. And they do have a fantastic job down there, absolutely. They dot the eyes, cross the teeth, introduce the dogs to the harnesses. Is Dynan Cork. Dynan Cork, absolutely wonderful. We're a little bit away from there, but I have to say the support that we get from our guide dogs is phenomenal. We have a supervisor, Killian, who is amazing. And he's always on the phone checking up. We have Zoom puppy classes. He comes up to Donnie Gold to check on us on the pups and does a bit of training with us in and around Letter County or wherever we are. And then we have the puppy manager, Shreen, who is, again, very, very supportive. And there's a big demand for these dogs. Oh, the waiting list is extraordinary, especially with the assistance dogs as well. You know, when you think of it, these, as Annie rightly said, you know, these are just pups and we train them a certain way and raise them a certain way. But it can take up to two years to train one dog. You know, so it's a huge investment in time and energy and money from our guide dogs as well, you know. And Annie, the assistance dogs are different. Are they to guide dogs? Are they more for comfort? Assistance dogs will go to families that have a child with autism and it can be used to comfort the child and to use it away so that the child isn't both, you know. And sometimes families may never have been able to, let's say, visit Santa before or go to family events, but when they have the assistance dog, it gives them extra support and comfort and the child feels reassured and they're able to go and do things. Yeah, yeah. Brilliant, good idea. And is, I mean, for somebody listening in, they're thinking, especially somebody maybe who wouldn't have had a dog, that sounds like a lot of effort and hard work. Yeah, there is, but there is that with raising any pup. Absolutely, it's no different from raising any other puppies, you know. We have great support, as I say, from our guide dogs, from and each other. The other puppy raisers round about as well are fantastic support. But it is a bit of a commitment, but it's such good fun and it's so good for us, you know. It's changed, I've been doing it now for 14 years, nearly. And I've met so many wonderful people. We've great friendships within the branch now and everywhere you go, people talk to you. People stop and talk to you. So it's a great social thing, getting out for a walk. Annie and I were in Archfriar this morning. Beautiful sunny day, out getting out for a walk. You know, so it's... There's an unofficial dog park here in Leroy County and it is, it's very... Well, it's great for the dogs because they get to socialise, but it's great for the owners as well, because then automatically you're going to chat to the owners. If the dogs are getting on great, then you want to let them run around together and you stand and chat. So it is socialised. But the other thing about puppy raising as well is, you know, these pups have to adapt to their new lives as either an assistance dog or as a guide dog. So puppy raising fits in very much to most people's lives. You know, I work part-time. So that's not an issue. When the pups are of a certain age, a little bit bigger, not much comes to work with me. So it's all part of the training because that's what their life may be like once they're qualified, you know? So if you work a couple of days a week, it's not a problem. If you work from home, it's not a problem. You know, it can fit in. Solutions will be found. Solutions will be found. And it's, yeah. Must be hard to hand them over, you know, at 14 months. I just handed one over about four weeks ago. I've still not over. She was called Heather. I had her for a bit longer than the year because she was a bit immature. And I think about her all the time. But even the pup I have now, Sally, I call her Heather all the time by mistake. You never forget them, unless he's gone through it a lot more than I have different pups. But still, it's the... I was driving down to Cork and dropping her off and thinking somebody else is going to see her every day. Which is, you don't realise, like, the way that she would hopefully impact someone's life, you know, giving them the gift of independence or something, or, you know, the way that they could change somebody's life. So I've got to keep telling myself that, you know, it's for a greater good, and I can't be selfish and hold on to her one. That's what hopefully her life is supposed to be like. Absolutely. To help someone. Absolutely. It is a great thing. And pups at guidedogs.ie, if you want more information, it's pups at guidedogs.ie. And there'll be plenty of help and support there should you decide to take one of these on board and raise them. Anyway, listen, that's the first for the show, having a couple of dogs in the studio. So thanks very much. And the best of luck with both Nutty and Sally. Thank you. John, thanks very much. We also have a Facebook page, if I don't mind me saying, just as Donnie got a branch of Guide Dogs. And so all the information, you can follow the pups progress, all the pups and Donnie go. And if anybody wants any more information or wants to join the team, we're desperate to find some new puppy raisers, temp boarders, or even volunteers. As much as an hour and a week or you can do the full whack. And we'd love to have you on board. Before there's a day coming up in Glen Bay in May, is that right, May 24th? We're having our National Guide Dog Day. And on the Saturday 25th, we'll be the walk in Glen Bay. And more details will come. But it'll be from about two to four. We'll have a nice walk with all the puppies and everybody's welcome. On the 25th. 25th of Saturday. And the 24th, we're having different collections around Donnie Gall. OK. As you might see us in supervalued different places and things like that. And come in and say hello and meet the pups. Brilliant. OK. Thank you both. Annie and Leslie, appreciate it. John, thank you very much. Thank you.