Simon De La Mare is now relying on a long cane to get around after his guide dog Cyril died suddenly late in December, and is having to be reassessed before he can be matched up with another guide dog.
‘At the moment various people are going through the application process and I am having to be reassessed,’ he said.
‘It can be a long time, up to a couple of years. It makes a huge difference.’
The latest statistics show that it costs £102,000 to raise, train and support a guide dog from birth to retirement.
‘It takes 16-18 months to train up a guide dog,’ said Mr De La Mare.
‘From six to eight weeks they go to a puppy raiser who gets them socialised before they go on to formal training, where they learn skills such as obstacle avoidance.
‘The second stage is teaching them how to get their partner around obstacles too.’
To match a person up to a guide dog, characteristics such as height, build and lifestyle need to be taken into account.
Sidney’s Sponsored Events raised more than £2,000 at its New Years’ Eve event for Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, Guernsey Branch.
‘Sidney’s does different fundraisers for charity,’ said founder Corinne Connolly.
‘For Guide Dogs we got an Abba tribute over for our New Year’s Eve event and it went down very well.’
Mr De La Mare said a donation of that size was a great help to the charity.
‘We’re very grateful for funds raised for us, it takes a lot of money to support a guide dog from a puppy to retirement,’ he said.
The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association Guernsey Branch has its first flag day coming up at the beginning of March, and Sidney’s Sponsored Events’ next event is on Liberation Day.
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