The important role of guide dogs

Guide dogs are a godsend for many blind and disabled people."

Guide dogs play a huge role in many peoples lives. Not only are they a pet, they can also be trained to carry out certain tasks to aid people who simply cannot perform these duties themselves.

Either they may be physically disabled or have some other form of disability which prevents them from doing even everyday things that you and me take for granted. This is a real role reversal as the guide dog takes care of the owner and gets nothing more than food and thanks for its trouble.

The training that guide dogs go through is a vigorous one. They are trained in many skills from fetching things through to guiding their owner (often blind) to the shops or wherever they may want to go. Many of their tasks include the following:

Guiding their owner to certain places

This involves walking their owner to a certain place. This sounds simple but in effect it is a very hard thing to do for the guide dog. They must avoid all distractions from other dogs, other people, negotiate traffic to name but a few. They are even trained to stop at curbs and wait for their owner to give them the signal to continue.

Helping their owners around the house

This again may sound simple but it really does give their owners a real lifeline in doing everyday things. They can be trained to fetch items such as clothing, the telephone, the mail and dozens more things. They can even help their owners get dressed and perform other everyday duties.

A guide dogs role is basically to help their owners as much as they possibly can. They are trained in various aspects but maybe not all are needed. It really depends on the owners disabilities. They can also be trained to do bespoke tasks that are required by their owner. This really does require a very intelligent breed of dog. The most common type of guide dog breed is a Labrador Retriever. A labrador is very mild mannered in nature but also highly intelligent and tend to be very easy to train. Guide dogs really help people to lead normal lives and should be commended for that fact.