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On July 19th, Vision Australia Seeing Eye Dogs will be holding a free information session at Iramoo Primary School located at 261-269 McGrath Road, Wyndham Vale between 6 and 7pm. To book your place, please send an expression of interest to http://bit.ly/sedpuppycarers
Since October 2013, Moira Findlay has looked after five Seeing Eye Dogs for Vision Australia Seeing Eye Dogs. Having almost solely cared for Doberman’s for the previous twenty years, the shift to Seeing Eye Dogs came at a time when she decided that she was done with dogs, but quickly decided that an empty house was worse than the pain of having to separate from her companions.
“About five years ago my old Doberman passed away.” Moira says. “I’d had Dobermans for around twenty years at that stage and I decided there’d be no more dogs. That lasted about three months before I decided my house was too empty without one.”
Moira crossed paths with a lady that, at the time, was caring for a Seeing Eye Dog pup herself. The tell-tale blue coat immediately giving it away.
“Within the space of a few days, I had seen a call out for puppy carers in the local paper, as well as a woman with a pup at the local café. I introduced myself to the woman, got to talking and a few days later my viability as a carer was being assessed by Seeing Eye Dogs.”
Puppies at this stage of development need to constantly be near their carer, to both weed out any undesirable behaviour, and also to make sure that it is developing properly. As the principal of a primary school, Moira has found that constantly having a puppy around can be beneficial for both the pup, as well as staff and students.
“The employees in my office can’t imagine life without a dog nearby now.” She says. “It’s even beneficial for some of our students. I’ve had a number of students who have had a bad day come in and find relief by playing or simply sitting with the dog.”
With puppy caring, you only get to keep the puppy for around a year before its final evaluation to enter formal training. Even in this short period of time, a bond is very quickly formed.
“They’re part of my family while I have them” says Moira. “Puppy caring is like driving someone else’s really expensive car. I’ve had Doberman’s all my life, but this is something completely different.”
As a general rule, the first question any puppy carer will be asked in the wild is about how you can give the pup up after forming a bond with it for the year that you have it. It’s about looking to the future, at least according to Moira.
“You know they’re born for something really special. Compared to having a dog for 12-13 years, compared to having them put down, giving them back is easy.”
The real struggle, for Moira at least, is that you can’t leave your pup for more than three hours.
“I can’t imagine being without one now. Just yesterday afternoon, I had Jessie at the vet, it was a relief but I missed her enormously. On the other hand, having them constantly around does limit my shopping, so my purse is breathing a sigh of relief.”
Puppy caring is also quite a social experience. A lot of our business is spread through word-of-mouth. As Moira mentioned, she really got involved after speaking with another carer.
“The lady I met at the café is now a friend of mine” Moira says. “Through puppy caring I’ve met countless wonderful people.”