It was all aboard for some four-legged friends at a Blantyre bus depot as they learned some vital new skills on their journey to become guide dogs.
The charity is being supported by Scottish Citylink, which is now offering free bus travel to volunteers allowing them to practice essential public transport skills with guide dog puppies across the regional network.
Puppies and their trainers visited the Blantyre base of Citylink subcontractor Parks of Hamilton to mark the new partnership, where they were able to explore a bus and practice boarding, sitting, and disembarking in a calm and controlled environment.
Guide Dogs, which has a base at Auchingramont Road in Hamilton, is “urgently seeking more volunteers to help raise guide dog puppies” – just like those currently training labrador cross golden retriever puppy George, who arrived in Lanarkshire last autumn, and his siblings.
Volunteer puppy raisers will now be able to present their Guide Dogs ID pass on any Citylink bus to travel free of charge and help their canine companions on their learning journey to become vital guides for blind and partially-sighted people.
Puppy development supervisor Fiona Fraser said: “Many guide dog owners rely on public transport and so providing real-world settings like this is invaluable to the puppies’ development, helping to prepare them for their future roles as life-changing guide dogs for people with sight loss.
“A huge thank you to Citylink for providing free travel for our volunteers and hosting this training session. The Citylink staff were very professional and didn’t distract our puppies whilst they were training.
“We know it can be tempting to approach our lovely dogs, but if you see one in training or working it’s important that they aren’t distracted from their very important job of keeping their owner safe, so please admire them from a distance.”
Scottish Citylink managing director Simone Walsh said: “Guide Dogs provide vitally important support to people with sight loss and we’re delighted to be able to help make travelling by bus that little bit easier through this initiative.
“It’s been great to partner with Guide Dogs and to learn from each other to ultimately help improve the journey experience for customers.
“Our drivers are trained in how to support passengers with sight loss, and other mobility challenges, and we are working to ensure that audio announcements will be available on all of our vehicles during 2025.”
Fiona told last year how the charity is interested in hearing from volunteers who can help with dogs’ training journeys; and more information is available at www.guidedogs.org.uk/volunteer
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