Stacey Donnelly interview about Guide Dogs Maidstone

Maidstone guide dogs worker Stacey Donnelly discusses the benefits of guide dog training

Transcript

00:00Touch!

00:02Lovely, good boy.

00:04For me, I always like to have a dog that can be,

00:06it's going to be a really good pet.

00:08So if it can be at home and it's settled

00:10in the home for the client or whoever

00:12has it, the recall

00:14of the dog's really nice and general sort of

00:16soundness and overall temperament. You want that

00:18dog that's quite easy going, quite happy

00:20to go out and work and enjoys what they're doing.

00:22You want the dogs to put the harness on

00:24and enjoy going out.

00:26But can also go home and just

00:28relax at the same time and not have to

00:30kind of be on the go all the time.

00:32So it's just finding that fine

00:34balance with them. There's a lot of

00:36trial and error so our

00:38team's very good at kind of putting ideas

00:40together and brainstorming kind of

00:42what we could do for

00:44a situation. But a lot of it does come down to

00:46trial and error with the dogs. We've had

00:48a client that has

00:50you know, that potentially has had like

00:52on medications and stuff,

00:54come off medications, they've like

00:56lost weight, they're getting out, they've joined clubs.

00:58So just to hear that you've

01:00been a part of literally

01:02improving someone's health, improving someone's

01:04mental health and also

01:06helping them grow like a social life

01:08and that kind of thing, I just think

01:10like a big, it's just a big

01:12win for what we do.

01:14Just helping someone feel better about

01:16their day and giving them a friend that

01:18you know, on those days that aren't so great

01:20they've still got their buddy with them

01:22and the dog becomes that ultimately.

01:24They do become their best friend.