We meet a Guide Dog breeder who has been looking after Guide Dogs and there puppies for over 20 years now, and take a look at Cassie's new litter.
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00:00 So Tony, we're just here in Stourbridge and we're here with Sam from Guide Dogs
00:05 and Margaret, you're better off!
00:09 And who's the star of the show here Tony? Who've we got in the middle?
00:12 Who's this girl?
00:13 Oh this is Cassie.
00:15 Cassie, cool.
00:16 And she's four years old.
00:17 Yeah.
00:18 And this is her second litter.
00:20 So this is what you do isn't it? You raise dogs for Guide Dogs?
00:25 Basically yes, we started off as puppy walkers 25 years ago.
00:30 Yeah.
00:31 And then our third puppy that we walked, they chose for a brood bitch.
00:37 Yeah.
00:38 And it sort of changed then. We kept the brood bitch.
00:43 Yeah.
00:43 We had puppies from her.
00:45 Yeah.
00:46 We had other puppies in between as well to walk.
00:49 So we've always had three or four dogs for the Guide Dogs.
00:53 Yeah.
00:54 So what, do you remember what initially got you into just walking the puppies?
00:58 Where did you even find out about it?
01:00 Margaret saw a...
01:02 Yeah.
01:02 It's your fault Margaret.
01:04 Oh okay.
01:06 Yes, yeah.
01:07 Yeah.
01:07 Interesting.
01:08 We got an old dog at the time hadn't we?
01:10 Yeah.
01:11 So we thought about doing it. It was going to do some good you know.
01:16 Yeah.
01:16 You know, get your brain around it.
01:19 Yeah.
01:20 And so instead of buying a puppy of our own, we decided we'd go down the Guide Dogs.
01:24 Yeah.
01:24 And did you think, you know, 20 odd years on you'd still be...
01:28 No.
01:28 There's no sign of stopping yet then is there?
01:31 No.
01:31 Well we're typing on another, I say another brood bitch now.
01:36 Yeah.
01:36 So she'll probably have, Kathy will now have another litter.
01:43 Yeah.
01:43 How many litters did they tend to have then in their life? About three litters?
01:48 Four.
01:49 Yeah.
01:49 And she's a lovely colour isn't she?
01:53 And you were saying it's, she's got a...
01:55 Nose down.
01:56 Yeah.
01:57 Yeah, she has hasn't she?
01:59 So Dad was a black lab, hence why we got the mix with the cream and the blacks.
02:05 So these puppies are how old?
02:06 Three weeks old now.
02:08 Three weeks, yeah.
02:09 So this is called a whelping bed, as I've learned today.
02:14 So Mum's been giving them a feed and I guess they're always hungry for more aren't they?
02:19 Like my kids at home.
02:20 [Laughs]
02:22 We're starting to, or we will do in the next couple of days, start to wean them off the dog.
02:28 Yeah.
02:28 Off the mum, onto solid foods.
02:33 Okay, yeah.
02:34 And you were saying this whelping bed, the first stage is get to an extra extension so it doubles in size.
02:39 Yeah.
02:40 And then it has a little avenue, so they've got a little outside section as well.
02:43 Yeah.
02:44 Yeah.
02:44 And so what happens, Sam, if we'll bring you in, go on, peek round, peek round Kathy there.
02:51 So people like Tony and Margaret, they're invaluable aren't they really to guide dogs?
02:56 They are, we couldn't provide the services that we provide without people like our Bruges Stockport volunteers.
03:02 Yeah.
03:03 Bringing litters for us, because if we haven't got the litters, we haven't got any guide dogs out there.
03:08 Yeah.
03:08 So they're invaluable for what we do.
03:10 So there's seven in this litter, is that right?
03:14 So what are the chances of seven making it to guide dogs?
03:17 What's kind of the ratio, like in terms of, because I guess they've got to have certain temperaments and...
03:22 Yeah, Kathy was chosen and the dad, Henderson, because they've got such fantastic temperaments and health.
03:29 So they've got a very strong, you know, chance of becoming a guide.
03:34 If they don't become a full-blown guide dog, we do a service called Brugie Dogs.
03:39 Yeah.
03:40 Where they're a cracking dog, they're just not quite the grade for a guide dog,
03:43 where they would go and help the young who are visually impaired.
03:48 Not to be a guide dog, but they would be out supporting them at school, out in the public,
03:54 and giving them up for when they're old enough to have a guide dog.
03:57 So we sort of self-supply our own other services for the dogs, as well as the guide dog scheme.
04:05 And then we also self-supply our own breeding as well.
04:08 So they could be earmarked to go forward to carry on Kathy's legacy as a future brood as well.
04:16 Yeah.
04:17 So how many people have you got in the Black Country, like Tony and Margaret,
04:22 that are doing what they do, kind of at any one time?
04:24 I've got about 30 dogs on my scheme.
04:29 Yeah.
04:30 I do Black Country, Bronze Grove, Kiddyminster and a touch of Birmingham, like Queen Kings Norton.
04:36 So I've probably got about 30.
04:38 Yeah.
04:39 We have about 230 broods across our scheme, that's an hour from the National Centre.
04:47 Yeah.
04:47 I just cover this hatch.
04:48 Yeah.
04:49 Where is the National Centre?
04:50 It's in Leamington, Bishop's Tattrapock.
04:52 Okay.
04:53 So what is it that you and Tony get out of it then, Margaret?
04:57 I mean, obviously you get time to spend with these beautiful animals,
05:01 but you have to give them up as well, don't you?
05:03 You know, so what?
05:04 You have to give the puppies up after about seven weeks.
05:07 Yeah.
05:08 But by that time, you know, they want more attention than two people can give them.
05:14 So what you're saying is by that time you're shattered.
05:17 [Laughs]
05:17 Yeah, no.
05:18 [Laughs]
05:18 [Laughs]
05:19 [Laughs]
05:19 [Laughs]
05:20 They're ready, aren't they, to learn?
05:22 They need to go on, you know, and then they go into Leamington.
05:29 Yeah.
05:29 And then they're issued out, they're fostered out to puppy raisers.
05:38 So initially they go from here to Leamington, to HQ,
05:41 and then they go on to like individually giving out
05:43 one dog to one owner kind of thing to do that next stage.
05:48 I come and collect them on collection day.
05:50 Yeah.
05:51 We van transport them all over.
05:53 The vet will be there waiting to health check them, microchip and vaccinate them.
05:57 Yeah.
05:57 And then we have the whole centre up to about a week.
06:00 Yeah.
06:01 Where they're just resting, settling, we're getting all their belongings ready.
06:06 And then they then go across the country because we're the only breeding centre.
06:10 So we supply the whole country.
06:12 Oh wow.
06:13 We worked out yesterday these guys will probably be going north.
06:17 So these will be going as far as Scotland.
06:19 I didn't realise that.
06:21 So really those patches you were on about, Black Country, Kiddingminster and so on,
06:28 is that kind of like the heart of the breeding hub for the whole country then really?
06:32 Yeah. So to qualify to be able to have a breeding dog,
06:35 you need to live within an hour of the national centre in Leamington.
06:40 Ah, okay. Yeah.
06:40 Because we have such bespoke care, we can't,
06:44 as much as we'd love to cover the whole country,
06:47 we can't because we do our own out of hours.
06:49 When Cassie was whelping I was here at half ten at night I think,
06:54 making sure she'd finished.
06:55 Yeah.
06:55 I only lived ten minutes.
06:57 Yeah.
06:57 And obviously we supply all the equipment.
07:00 Yeah.
07:01 But we supply the whole country with all the puppies for puppy raising and future guide dogs.
07:08 So how is it on that day then Margaret when Sam comes to pick them up and take them away?
07:14 Well, it is a bit on the sad side but you realise that they need to go.
07:20 Yeah.
07:21 They need more than we can give them.
07:24 Yeah.
07:24 And that's it.
07:25 So wow, there's a few dogs on here guys.
07:31 So this is your wall of Hall of Fame.
07:35 Basically, that's our first puppy.
07:37 What was your first one called?
07:39 Puppy pup.
07:39 Sophie.
07:41 Sophie.
07:42 Yeah.
07:43 And then we had, then we puppy walked, we still got her.
07:48 Yeah.
07:48 But we puppy walked Crystal.
07:50 Yeah.
07:51 And that's in her passing out gear.
07:56 Yeah.
07:56 She made it as a guide dog.
07:58 And then the third one we had is Illia and she made a lovely muppet.
08:07 She was chosen as a brood bitch.
08:09 Yeah.
08:10 So we kept her.
08:12 In the meantime, while we were having puppies with her, we had guide dog Tessa, Mac.
08:18 Yeah.
08:20 So do you get like kind of little notes, like keeping you informed,
08:23 you know, as they go through their guide dog life then, you know,
08:26 do you get a kind of saying, right, he's now doing his business, he's re-owned and...
08:31 We normally get a, we write a letter with the puppies.
08:35 Yeah.
08:35 We go to the puppy walkers, you know, it's sort of saying, you know, that they were one of seven.
08:40 Yeah.
08:41 They're, if they've been out in the garden, they're diggers and pruners and...
08:47 Yeah.
08:48 This type of thing.
08:49 And then you do get, in most cases, you get a letter back as they progress.
08:58 Yeah.
08:58 And we've made many friends with...
09:01 Yeah.
09:01 Like Cassie's puppy walker.
09:04 Yeah.
09:05 He had one of her puppies from two years ago.
09:10 Yeah.
09:10 And he was most disappointed when she didn't have him last year.
09:15 Yeah.
09:16 Because you have to have somebody else's puppy.
09:18 Yeah, yeah.
09:19 (laughing)