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A litter of yellow Labrador puppies looking at the camera.

The Paw Print August 2026.

2 days ago

Puppy Development Manager update.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the August edition of The Paw Print! We have a short and sweet update for you this month.

We’ve introduced a new Puppy Central experience to make accessing manuals, policies and forms easier for Puppy Raisers, check out the new Puppy Central.

If you are a home boarder or temporary carer, you may not have received the link yet. You are included in the next phase of the rollout and will receive access in due course.

We have also refreshed our website. We encourage you access the Guide Dogs website(opens in new tab).

Finally, we are looking for Puppy Raisers who can welcome puppies into their homes in August and September. If you are not currently puppy raising and would like to get involved again, we would love to hear from you. Please email us or, if it has been a while since you last volunteered, please reapply via Rosterfy(opens in new tab).

Thank you for your support in helping us raise the next generation of Guide Dogs.

Honour roll.

Guide Dogs:

These incredible dogs have recently graduated as Guide Dogs. Well done to all these dogs!

Wendell raised by Jude Bullock

Black Labrador Wendell sitting in harness.

Tango raised by Melissa Massih & Chiara Berlusconi

Yellow Labrador Tango sitting in harness.

Therapy Dogs:

These lovely dogs have recently graduated as Therapy Dogs. Well done!

Occhi raised by Allysia Pugh

Arlo raised by Narelle Hutton & Leah Omar

Emily raised by Leanne Houston

Emma raised by Dianne Biggs

Petra raised by Belinda Gray

Rocky raised by Chris Gill

Hawk raised by Lee Danks

Yengo raised by Gavin Schofield

Yayla raised by Sandra King

Georgie raised by Michelle Graeve

Ukey raised by Evie Tate

Reff raised by Jessica Du

Lou raised by Jenny Glerean

Clara raised by Christine Brickenstein

Upcoming events and wrap-ups.

Puppy raising sessions at Accor and Commbank Stadiums.

Puppy Development Advisor (PDA) My has been hosting puppy raising sessions at Accor Stadium and CommBank Stadium, giving our pups and Puppy Raisers the opportunity to practice important skills in a unique, real-world environment. The stadiums offer plenty of valuable learning opportunities for the pups. Feedback from these sessions has been positive, with both the Puppy Raisers and the pups getting a lot out of the experience. If you would like to know more about these sessions, or if you are interested in attending one in the future, please reach out to your PDA and we can send through the upcoming available dates.

PDA My

Eight Puppy Raisers stand in a line against a wall outside, each with a Labrador in harness sitting below them.

A nature walk offers some valuable puppy downtime.

As important as lead skills, obedience training, shopping centre walks, house manners, and other puppy training skills are, it’s also important to remember that we can’t always be ‘on’ and ‘working’ and neither can our dogs! It is just as important for our pups to have some downtime, some fun and some freedom. That’s where our Nature Walks come in.

It’s really nice for our Puppy Raisers to be able to relax and have a break as they walk along, letting their dogs sniff, wander, and just be dogs. One of my favourite walks for this is a bushwalk in Glenbrook, starting from Knapsack Reserve, out to Marge’s Lookout, and back again. It’s beautiful, especially the lookout at the end where we stop, take in the view, have a chin wag and a chuckle or two, and just enjoy the scenery. Our pups love it, and I think my Raisers enjoy not having to listen to me give instructions for a while!

This group was small but mighty, and lots of fun, so thank you to Edith, Frank, Yonda, Rock, Rodger, Quade, Ellie, and Ruth. I do like to have friendly pet dogs come along when we can, so our pups get to see other breeds, and Rock and Ellie are always happy to oblige!

PDA Kez

Five people and seven dogs stand on a large rock outside, with bushland behind them.

Bus familiarisation sessions in South West Sydney.

PDA My has recently been running bus familiarisation sessions with U-Go Mobility in South West Sydney. These sessions have been a fantastic opportunity for our pups and Puppy Raisers to build confidence around buses, depots, and public transport environments.

PDA Sabrina was also able to host a bus socialisation session in the Camden region this month, which was caught on Channel Seven! We hope to offer similar sessions in more areas soon. If you would like to attend a future session, please contact your PDA so they can share upcoming opportunities.

Eleven people wearing high-vis vests stand outside in front of a bus. There is a Labrador in harness sitting with each person.
The aisle of a bus with two Labradors in harness lying under the seats. One Labrador is looking back at the camera.
Two Labradors in harness sitting and looking at the camera. A subtitle below with Channel Seven branding says, ‘Learning the ropes. Guide Dogs-in-training get feel for public transport.’ 

A Foundation Class focuses on novel objects and surfaces.

As part of our Foundation Classes with our young pups, we like to start introducing novel objects and different surfaces and under footings. I often bring novel things along to class, but I much prefer to use what is already in our environment. It’s amazing what you can find to play with when you have a good look at your surroundings! While the Foundation Classes are designed for the younger pups, I often like to add a couple of my older pups as they are good confidence builders and demo dogs for the babies. It is also really cool for them to go back to basics themselves, too.

For this class we had lots in our environment to play with: moving swings, sandstone blocks to climb on and walk along, metal slippery dips for them to put paws up on (not to slide down), ropes to climb through, wooden poles to weave through, things that spin when you stand on them, climbing walls to put feet up on, and even a trampoline built into the ground! I’m not sure who enjoyed playing more, the pups or the people!

We also had lots of different surfaces and substrates to walk over or step up on. Everyone did really well with letting their pups work things out, giving them plenty of encouragement but also giving them space to say, “no thanks” and move away if they wanted to, and by the end of the session all the pups were confidently playing with and walking over everything, which was awesome!

Thank you to Quade, Rodger, Hettie, Rae, and to their support crew, Java and Yarni.

PDA Kez

A special visit to a retirement village.

As I am always on the lookout for new and novel areas for our pups and Puppy Raisers to practice their skills in, I jumped at the chance to take a small group into a retirement village for a look around and to chat about all things Puppy Raising! We were welcomed in with open arms. Everyone was very happy to see us visit, and the pups were all outstanding ambassadors for the Puppy Raising program. They got to mingle with the crowd, got loads of pats and cuddles, then wowed them all with a demo of their skills. They were perfect!

I chatted about all things puppy raising and Guide Dogs in general, and a couple of my Raisers got to tell them all about a day in the life of a Puppy Raiser. This crowd had the best questions, including quite a few I’d not had before even in my 15 years with Guide Dogs, and they were so engaged. We had a great couple of hours in with them all and we would love to do it again, one day. A big thankyou to Puppy Raiser Karen Burley and her lovely Mum for being our ‘in’ for this novel experience, and a big congratulations to the superstar pups and their raisers for doing such a great job of it!

Pups in attendance: Dreya, Hettie, Annie, Ruth, Java

PDA Kez