Guide dogs learn the ropes at Swansea’s Quadrant Shopping Centre

The hustle and bustle of a Swansea shopping centre is proving the perfect training ground for some of Wales’ very best working dogs.

Guide Dogs Cymru use the Quadrant Shopping Centre regularly and say it’s the ideal place to train the next generation of guide dogs.

And now the shopping centre is doing its bit too by making Guide Dogs Cymru its designated charity and they’re well on their way to raising £5,000 when they will be allowed to name a new guide dog.

Jon Mudd, head of Guide Dogs Cymru, says the charity, which helps hundreds of sight impaired people in Wales each year, needs places like the Quadrant Shopping Centre where dogs in training can experience a challenging environment with lots of people.

He said: “We are really grateful to the Quadrant Centre for their fabulous support. Guide dogs, like any dogs, have very different personalities and are very much individuals.

“We work hard to match a dog to a client ensuring their personalities work together. A dog’s personality and speed needs to be closely matched to that of the person it will be working with.

“The Quadrant Shopping Centre provides our dogs with lots of busy shops and obstructions and steps to be negotiated. It’s really the perfect training ground.

“And what it also has is people, lots of people. One of the biggest issues for guide dogs is people wanting to stroke them or distract them when they are working.

“It can be a difficult problem for a sight impaired person when someone, who wishes well, walks up and begins stroking or petting a working guide dog.

“People generally won’t approach a blind or visually impaired person who is using a cane. But they will approach the same person if they are working with a guide dog.”

The Quadrant played host to a special event during last year’s Guide Dog week in October when over £4,000 was raised and Centre Manager Lia Hartley said: “This is such a good cause and we have hosted them for the Guide Dog week for the last couple of years as well as being used as a training ground.

“They have had a terrific response here in the Quadrant and our shoppers have been very generous so we wanted to keep up the good work by making the connection official.

“Now we’re aiming to raise enough money to name a new guide dog and we’re well on the way with just another £1,000 to go.”

Two regular visitors to the Quadrant are married couple Ian and Helen Cant, who live in Jersey Marine with their two young daughters, and who are both registered blind.

Ian is with Gilbert, his seventh dog, while Candy is Helen’s fifth having just qualified as a new partnership last month.

The couple regularly shop in the Quadrant with their guide dogs and sometimes bring their daughters and stop for a bite to eat in the centre.

Helen said: “We have always found the Quadrant to be guide dog-friendly. We come here as a family group – two adults, two children and two guide dogs. It’s welcoming, and easy to navigate around.”

Guide Dog Mobility Instructor, Richard Llewellyn, trained both partnerships which means familiarising owner and dog with the routes they will need to use and both Ian and Helen had part of their training in the Quadrant.

Richard said: “This ensures that the dogs learn to keep their owners safe in a busy shopping area, able to concentrate on leading their owners to their destination without being distracted by the smell of food or the bustle of crowds.

“They learn commands such as ‘Forward’ and ‘Find the Door’.

“It is important that local guide dog owners receive part of their training in the Quadrant, as most will need to use the adjoining bus station with confidence.”

Another regular Quadrant visitor is Sophie Strawbridge, from Swansea, with her first guide dog, Black Labrador Pat, who is her first guide dog.

They qualified as a partnership in July 2012 when Sophie was still a teenager, making her one of the youngest guide dog owners in Wales.

Jon Mudd, who is based in Cardiff, said: “Dogs do learn what their job is. A lot is to do with repetition. It’s about the dog working with its handler and becoming a close team.

“We breed around 1,500 dogs a year nationally and then match the dog to a client. It’s so important to ensure the right match is made. It’s really like a marriage to be perfectly honest.

“Guide dogs are so important in giving visually impaired people confidence and the freedom to go where they want, when they want.

“Guide dogs need to get used to working in busy retail environments and we hope by training here at the Quadrant Shopping Centre they will learn some of the skills they need to become first class guide dogs.”

For more information about Guide Dogs Cymru visit www.guidedogs.org.uk/guide-dogs-cymru