New breeds of guide dogs

Category: Animal House

Post 1 by redgirl34 (Scottish) on Tuesday, 08-Apr-2008 14:46:30

Hi, I have been reading the forward magazine for guide dogs and I found out they are now breeding poodles and Border Collies as guide dogs. This is in England. Has anyone else heard about this? They are also building a new training school in Forfar in Scotland.

Post 2 by Daenerys Targaryen (Enjoying Life) on Tuesday, 08-Apr-2008 18:58:46

They train Poodles to be guide dogs in the US. I'm not sure if they train Border Collies to be guide dogs though.

Post 3 by snowflower (Zone BBS Addict) on Wednesday, 09-Apr-2008 0:02:22

Hi, I have a friend who has a large standard poodle for her guide dog. She recieved her from Pilot Dogs in Ohio and they are very good guides.

Post 4 by shelly and shiloh (Zone BBS Addict) on Wednesday, 09-Apr-2008 8:51:37

pilot also uses boxers and dobermans as guide dogs as well as vishulas or however its spelled.
For me a poodle would be to much brushing and to much grooming lol and i say that about my golden girl.
God i'm gonna miss this dog!
Shelly

Post 5 by Daenerys Targaryen (Enjoying Life) on Wednesday, 09-Apr-2008 11:04:17

Dobermans? Aren't those really mean dogs?

Post 6 by tunedtochords (Zone BBS is my Life) on Wednesday, 09-Apr-2008 11:25:09

Saying a Doberman is mean is like saying a german shepherd is mean. It's all in the breeding, training and handling.

Here in the states, southeastern trains australian shepherds, GDF trains a few standard poodles (few and far between, as I understand it) and a number of lab/poodle crosses. GDB and a couple other schools have experimented with smooth-coated collies (GDB's experiment pretty much failed...). Seeing Eye breeds boxers for people with allergies.

Post 7 by fireworks77 (make sure you sparkle) on Wednesday, 09-Apr-2008 13:59:06

Hi there. I have a Poodle cross Labrodore for my Guide Dog, I'm in the UK. She is a poodledore as aposed to a labrodoodle because her father was the poodle. However, there does seam to be disagreement as to whether you can make that distinction when it isn't inter species breeding. She doesn't look anything like I imagined her to, she looks like a giant schnouser (might have spelled that wrong, lol), has a wirey coat and hardly sheds any hair. Which is the reason they were originally bred. Did you know it was Guide Dogs in Austrailia that first cross bred a poodle and lab, in 1989! I also know a lady who has a Belgian shepherd he's a very odd looking dog!