Guide dogs Tinker, Hamish and Java were reunited once again in Busselton to celebrate their graduation day, along with their owners, puppy raisers and sponsors.
Hamish’s owner Stephanie Crozier said she could no longer imagine life without her guide dog and having Hamish had given her more confidence to do things on her own without having to rely on other people.
Ms Crozier said her day-to-day life had improved quite a lot since she had Hamish and she no longer felt depressed as much as she did before she had him.
“It is a big confidence booster,” she said.
“We like going for walks down to the shops and we go to the beach a lot - Hamish loves the beach - it is pretty great.”
Before the guide dogs are handed over to their owners, they are raised by a family known as puppy raisers for a period of nine months.
Dinesh Burah and his family raised Hamish and went along to the graduation day to help celebrate the successful partnership with Ms Crozier.
Mr Burah said it was the fourth time his family had bordered a guide dog puppy and they had the pleasure of giving Hamish a home for the start of his journey.
“Hamish got really accustomed to our way of doing things but effectively he knew the boundaries which made him a really good dog to raise,” he said
“Working for Guide Dogs WA made me realise how important it was to be a puppy raiser and providing accommodation to the guide dogs is a great thing to do for people.”
Mr Burah said anyone could become a puppy raiser but they would have to complete a course to learn a few do’s and don’ts that were critical to the guide dog’s training.
“It is about boundaries and sticking to those boundaries, once you get those basic things it becomes really easy,” he said.
“Anyone can do it but you have to be committed to the program and be responsible as well. You have to know at the end of the journey you have to let them go as well.”
Guide Dogs WA partnership manager Margie Bradley said the graduation ceremony was to acknowledge the partnership of the guide dog users and their dogs.
Ms Bradley said the ceremony celebrated their success and acknowledged the people who volunteered to raise the puppies and their sponsors who donated $35,000 per puppy.
According to Ms Bradley, there are 53 working guide dogs in WA and 42 puppies that were various ages undergoing training.
“We always have guide dog users and people needing puppies but it is a combination of people to fund the puppies, people to raise the puppies then we source puppies from around Australia.”
