What We Do: 1. Puppy Raising
2023. 3. 22
NewsFrom this article, we will post a series which describes the details of what we do in our guide dog movement. The first article will be about our puppy-raising projects.
Puppy Raising in JGDA
In 2022, JGDA sent 101 puppies to our puppy volunteer homes. These puppies will be our future guide dogs and breeding dogs, so we need to whelp an average of 100 puppies every year.
We organise puppy lectures at our training centres to see how each puppy is developing in their volunteer homes. Lectures would be about feeding, toileting, how to play and walk with puppies, socialisation, and so on. We take great care of our volunteers so they can enjoy raising their puppies safely. The puppies will receive much love from their families and start building relationships with humans, which will be particularly important when they leave their volunteer homes and start training in each centre at the age of one.
Shimane-Asahi Guide Dog Puppy Project
The Shimane-Asahi Guide Dog Puppy Project (PP) is the first attempt in Japan for inmates to breed guide dog puppies.
Two black Labrador puppies of the 2022 PP.
In April 2009, three puppies were entrusted to the Shimane Asahi Social Rehabilitation Centre (a prison), and 12 inmates were in charge of raising them. The project started as an animal-mediated educational programme to raise guide dog puppies in cooperation with local volunteers and is still ongoing. The project is expected to promote the reintegration of inmates into society by allowing them to experience the joys of being trusted, being helpful, and achieving goals. JGDA implements the project in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice's PFI project (a project in which the national and local governments borrow funds and wisdom from the private sector to provide public services). It is also a ground-breaking project for the guide dog puppy raising programme.
Two black and two yellow Labrador puppies of the 2022 PP in a cage entering with a staff at the ceremony venue.
What makes this project unique is that there are two "homes" for the puppies. The puppies are raised Monday through Friday in the Rehabilitation Centre. Every Friday afternoon through the weekend, they spend time at the home of a Weekend Puppy Walker (WPW), a local volunteer.
WPW family with a yellow Labrador puppy on their lap at the 2022 PP.
In November 2022, four puppies came to the Shimane Centre to be in this year's project. Now, 19 inmates are raising the puppies until July, when the puppies will start official training to become guide dogs.
A WPW cuddling a black Labrador puppy in a sling.