Maidstone guide dog trainer Hettie Hollister discusses what it takes to be a guide dog trainer

Maidstone guide dog trainer Hettie Hollister walks through the training programme dogs have to undertake with KOL reporter Ben Austin.

Transcript

00:00 Really, you want to be as close to his back legs as possible and the handle should be exactly where you've got it now.

00:05 My favorite thing is when I find a match for somebody and

00:10 I get to call them and tell them that we think we have the right match for them and it's always such an exciting moment

00:15 for them because they've been waiting for however long and it makes such a difference to their life.

00:20 And yeah, it's the most rewarding part of the job to see them go the whole way through training and do exactly what they were meant to.

00:27 Yeah, it makes you really proud. It's a really tough job and they have to put in a lot of hard work.

00:33 So not all of them make it and some of them have had health issues as well.

00:38 So, you know.

00:39 I have had to go on boats with guide dog owners before just to make sure that their dogs are settled on boats.

00:46 There's actually a surprising amount of guide dog owners who do

00:53 clubs where they go sailing. So yeah, I've had to go down to sail clubs before and make sure that dogs are comfortable on a

01:00 variety of vessels.