On April 1, 2004, Japan Guide Dog Association (JGDA) founded a school forguide dog trainers for the first time in Japan.

It has been a common practice that a would-be trainer gets employed as an apprentice by a guide dog organization and learns, while working, what he/she needs to. JGDA has started to give education to the students at its school and to employ guide dog trainers from among the graduates.

It often happens that an apprentice is discouraged on the way, because learning from working requires a lot of time, is stressful and burdensome,and makes it difficult for him/her to obtain all-around knowledge as well as experience.

Guide Dog Trainers' School aims at providing those students who would like
to be guide dog trainers with a place where they can systematically acquire the knowledge and training skills based on science and develop into guide dog trainers worthy of the name.
In order to become better guide dog trainers with deep understanding of the problems which visually impaired people would face, the students are given lectures and practical training not only on guide dogs but also on the rehabilitation of the visually impaired and the welfare of the disabled.
They are also given chances to make field trips to or get practical training at other rehabilitation facilities for the people with visual impairment.

The training skills and the knowledge about dogs the students acquire here at our school are essential to the training of all the other dogs, including other service dogs, living in our human society as well as to that of guide dogs.

The number of students admitted to the school is ten or less every year.
When the students finish two years of Basic Course for Training Guide Dogs, they will be qualified as Junior Guide Dog Trainers, and if they go through additional one year of Special Course for Training Guide Dogs, they will be qualified as Guide Dog Trainers.