Shortage of volunteers leads to training delays for guide dogs

A shortage of volunteers to look after guide dog puppies and older dogs in training means some people with sight loss are having to wait up to two years for a dog.

The charity Guide dogs for the Blind say the shortage has reached a critical stage and means its having to limit the number of dogs in training.

Helen Whiteside - who is assistant director of breeding and puppy raising - says the search for new volunteers is a big hurdle they have to get over:

"The big, big need at the moment is our fosterers. So these are roles where you will have the dog living with you but a little bit like school you'll drop the dog off at 9ish and pick up the dog from any time after 3, and you'll have the dog in the evenings and at weekends."

Helen says the shortage of volunteers has developed since the pandemic with people changing their working patterns post lockdown:

"Working from home means people aren't maybe travelling past one our sites and aren't able to drop them off every morning and pick them up in the evenings. What we really need is more people that can look after our dogs while they're in training which means that we can hopefully keep increasing the number of dogs in training and supply more dogs to people who need them with sight-loss."

Fosterers receive financial support from the charity for food and vet bills, and you can volunteer to look after puppies up until they're 14 months old, or older dogs that have started training.

You can find out more about fostering here

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• guide dogs