Centre leads guide dogs down right path

Important lessons for a vital role

- GEORGE LYTHGOE

A QUICK school run, lessons in safety and walking, break times and plenty of kibble that is all in a day's work for a trainee guide dog.

In an industrial estate in Atherton sits a massive training complex for the charity Guide Dogs, which helps support the blind and visually impaired.

To see how the dogs get in shape to match up with their new owners, the Manchester Evening News went down to the Guide Dogs Regional Centre North West on Gibfield Park Avenue.

The centre itself surrounds an activity space where dogs learn to avoid obstacles, pick out chairs for their owner to sit on and go through the basic first steps. Dogs will then take to the outdoors where there are faux traffic lights, zebra crossing and pavements littered with blockades to simulate dayto-day scenarios for the guides.