Image of 8 sleeping puppies forming a heart shape.

The urgency of the moment.

With a long-standing commitment to changing lives in Western Australia, Guide Dogs WA identified the need for a steady supply of quality training puppies and accredited Trainers and Instructors to train and match the puppies with Western Australians living with low vision, disability or illness. Our inaugural Breeding & Cadet Training Programs have been developed to world class standards and will provide long-lasting benefits to the Western Australian community.

Image of Guide Dog Cadet Jen with a Guide Dog in training.

Guide Dogs WA’s Breeding and Cadet Training Programs will cost $10 million over the next five years to fully establish.

Guide Dogs WA has long identified the need to establish its own Breeding Program. Year on year, there are waitlists for trained dogs due to the limited availability of quality puppies. Breeders often tend to keep the premium puppies and critically, puppies bred outside of Western Australia are not accustomed to our unique environment. Because of this, they have a high vulnerability to skin allergies caused by Western Australian flora.

There was a compelling need – on many levels – to establish a local Breeding Program. But it was the COVID-19 pandemic that sparked this program to life. At the best of times, acquiring and transporting puppies from interstate or overseas Breeding Programs is costly and often unpredictable. Border restrictions and reduced flights due to the pandemic magnified the challenges enormously.

The solution was to establish a world-class Breeding Program right here in Western Australia.

Guide Dogs WA has an excellent reputation as a trainer of top-quality Guide and Assistance Dogs. The increase in the number of puppies entering the Guide Dogs WA Training Program from the Breeding Program means more professional trainers and instructors are needed.

There is currently a worldwide shortage of qualified Guide Dog Trainers (who train the dogs) and Guide Dog Mobility Instructors (who train the dog and the client together). Guide Dogs WA constantly struggles to recruit qualified staff, and the majority of its trainers and instructors are recruited from overseas.

There is also very limited training of professional instructors in Australia. Instructor training is currently restricted to the eastern states and new graduates are swiftly recruited by other Guide Dog schools.

To provide the skilled professionals needed to work with the increased population of pups and dogs in training, Guide Dogs WA has established a Cadet Training Program.

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