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Speaker 1: Leonora Flower has a job that half of the country

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Speaker 1: would envy. She is the puppy raising coordinator for Guide

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Speaker 1: Dogs doubly away and joins us.

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Speaker 2: Now, good morning morning.

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Speaker 1: You spend your working day focused on puppies pretty much?

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Speaker 2: Yes, Oh that is amazing.

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Speaker 1: So puppy raising for the Guide Dogs, I've always wondered

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Speaker 1: what's involved, And there's a few tiers that are involved,

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Speaker 1: a few different ways that you're going to do. Give

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Speaker 1: us an outline of how puppy raising works.

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Speaker 3: So we solely base our puppy raising on volunteers. Yes,

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Speaker 3: so our puppies are born here in wa majority of them,

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Speaker 3: and we do have some volunteers that are required to

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Speaker 3: help with that. But where I'm mainly focusing today on

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Speaker 3: puppy raisers. So puppy raisers start looking after our puppies

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Speaker 3: from eight weeks old. I've been tell her about fourteen

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Speaker 3: months old and they have them twenty four to seven.

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Speaker 4: How did they do that? Connection that comes in?

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Speaker 2: How do you give a dog back after fourteen months?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? It can be challenging, absolutely, yeah, sure, and you

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Speaker 3: know there are some people out there that just do

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Speaker 3: this once and think, you know, it can be a

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Speaker 3: little bit challenging, but everybody goes into this journey knowing

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Speaker 3: that they're going to be helping somebody in the future.

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Speaker 3: All our puppies are, you know, for a high purpose.

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Speaker 3: You know they're going to be helping somebody who's visually

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Speaker 3: impaired or has autism. And people will go into that

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Speaker 3: knowing that, and I think they therefore feel pride and

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Speaker 3: the community. Yeah, correct, Yeah, they're wanting to be able

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Speaker 3: to help puppies.

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Speaker 1: It's one hundred percent. The first question you've got to

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Speaker 1: ask yourself and be able to answer. I know, I

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Speaker 1: know for one, and then this is why I don't

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Speaker 1: foster kittens, because I know, for one, I would end up.

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Speaker 2: With you know, well, I'm already enough of a credit.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely so on average, because it's an incredible thing from

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Speaker 1: beginning to when to train a GUYE dog.

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Speaker 2: How many puppies do get trained each year.

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Speaker 3: We have wide variety, So we've got about seventy eight

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Speaker 3: on the whole program at my yeah, and obviously working

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Speaker 3: dogs as well that are all up throughout w A.

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Speaker 3: Everything that's invested into Guide Doogs w A or the

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Speaker 3: Dog's Day within Guide Dogs WA sort of donations and

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Speaker 3: what have you as well. But yeah, each dog costs

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Speaker 3: about fifty thousand dollars each, so there's a lot of donation.

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Speaker 3: We are a nonprofit organization, so we do rely heavily

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Speaker 3: on individuals donating. So you can imagine seventy eighty dogs

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Speaker 3: a year. You know that that goes through the system.

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Speaker 3: It's quite a lot of money. And we do have

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Speaker 3: a sixty percent success rate for our Guide Dogs at

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Speaker 3: the moment, So there's loads of people out there that

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Speaker 3: hopefully we'll get one of our dogs and be you

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Speaker 3: change their life for the better.

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Speaker 4: You raise the money issue, what about cost of living

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Speaker 4: in then and people coming? So what happens with bills

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Speaker 4: and food and all us.

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Speaker 3: Everything is covered by Guide Dogs. Yeah, So if you

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Speaker 3: want to volunteer for us in a puppy raising capacity,

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Speaker 3: all we ask for you to give us is time, time, love,

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Speaker 3: a beautiful home. We provide all the equipment or the

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Speaker 3: food or the medication, everything that that dog needs from

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Speaker 3: that journey from eight weeks to fourteen months, So there's

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Speaker 3: no financial obligation for volunteers. Our main search for the

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Speaker 3: highest criteria that we need is time. Is people giving

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Speaker 3: us us their time.

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Speaker 1: And obviously you happily accept donations from anyone who would

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Speaker 1: like to make one, because I mean, fifty thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: per dog is a lot. So can they go to

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Speaker 1: the website at any time and donate?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, guide Dogs wa if you go onto our website,

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Speaker 3: there's those opportunities to donate. We do have lots of

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Speaker 3: events that go on. Yeah, people can come along and

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Speaker 3: we've we push it throughout the whole year. You know,

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Speaker 3: even got International Guide Dog Day and all those kind

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Speaker 3: of things.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Why do labradors make the best guide dogs?

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Speaker 3: I think it's quite interesting. I think over time people

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Speaker 3: have actually said that guide dogs are becoming their own breed,

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Speaker 3: even separate from normal Labrador retrievers and Golden retrievers, because

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Speaker 3: we scientifically have adapted them over time to get them

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Speaker 3: the best they could possibly be as a guide dog.

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Speaker 3: So I feel that, over time and lots of selective breeding,

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Speaker 3: that we actually get our dogs to become very malleable,

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Speaker 3: appeasing in a nice way. You know, they're very intellectual.

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Speaker 3: They've got a lot of drive, a lot of focus

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Speaker 3: on the handlers when we want them to do work

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Speaker 3: and learn new skills, so they learn things very quickly,

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Speaker 3: but then they're really adorable too of course an emotional

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Speaker 3: point of view. People really get the empathy from them.

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Speaker 1: And they're always up there on the smart list.

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Speaker 2: So are you breeding guide dogs from guide dogs?

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Speaker 3: Yes, so we just yeah, we've actually started OWND breeding

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Speaker 3: program here in w A. In fact, little Rico that's

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Speaker 3: with me today, who is four months he's actually one

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Speaker 3: of our first pups from our first letter, so it

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Speaker 3: was pretty exciting. Yeah. So it's guide dogs with guide dogs,

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Speaker 3: line upon line upon line to create the best guide dogs.

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Speaker 3: So it's not regular. There's nothing wrong with regular golden

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Speaker 3: or labrador retrieving of course, but you know, we do

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Speaker 3: have select to bring just from other guide dogs. Yea.

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Speaker 4: The very joy and love and assistance they bring to people,

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Speaker 4: whether like you say, whether it's a siding peiod or

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Speaker 4: it's people with spectrum or whatever, correct is priceless.

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Speaker 3: It's unbelievable. I've recently just been to a graduation and

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Speaker 3: it's amazing how much it changes people's lives, provides independence,

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Speaker 3: confidence again and even not just people people who are

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Speaker 3: visually I paired, but the parents of children with waters

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Speaker 3: and so that it's changed the whole family's life.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, if someone becomes a puppy raiser, is there some

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Speaker 1: training offered for them?

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Speaker 3: Yes, it's all yeah, yeah, for sure, there's constant support.

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Speaker 3: I mean my role and my colleague and is solely

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Speaker 3: to support individuals looking after our puppies. There is a

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Speaker 3: little bit of training to begin with, and we want

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Speaker 3: people to shadow for a little while before they get

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Speaker 3: a puppy. But we meet them on a very regular

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Speaker 3: basis and they get to become part of group walks

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Speaker 3: and there's loads of social aspect of meeting other puppy

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Speaker 3: raisers as well and volunteers.

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Speaker 2: Or the big question, how does someone become a puppy raiser?

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, so if you go into a website Guide

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Speaker 3: Dog's w a dot com dot au and we are

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Speaker 3: also based in Victoria Park and Kitchener Avenue on Sunbury Road.

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Speaker 3: So if you ever wanted to pop buy, you more

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Speaker 3: than welcome if you're interested, And we do have lots

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Speaker 3: of social events as well, which is on our website.

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Speaker 3: You can come in along to any of our events

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Speaker 3: and inquire that way raised money.

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Speaker 4: At the same time, you've got it on your bed.

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Speaker 4: I bet you've got the if it's a business card,

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Speaker 4: that's a best business card you could ever have. Our

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Speaker 4: Reconde pretty cool.

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Speaker 3: It's along with the Unicorn Wranglers and very.

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Speaker 2: Leonora.

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Speaker 1: It's been really interesting to find out about how puppy

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Speaker 1: raising works. I mean, we we all know it's out

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Speaker 1: there and it's happening, that's right. Yeah, And I knew

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't be able to I wouldn't be able to

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Speaker 1: do it because I can't give anything back. But there

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Speaker 1: are people out there perfect for it. And it was

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Speaker 1: lovely to meet Rico.

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Speaker 3: Oh, thank you so much for having us.

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Speaker 4: Thanks for coming in after four months, actually after one night.

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Speaker 4: You need the jaws of life to get Rico than

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Speaker 4: that