Guide dog visit to Nursery 2023

Nursery and Reception were delighted to Welcome Anica and her guide dog, Lassie, to Nursery today.  Anica told us that Lassie has been her guide dog for seven years and soon it would be time for Lassie to retire. It takes two years to train a guide dog and it is also very expensive.  Lassie helps Anica to walk up and down stairs, cross roads and go to her job every day. Anica explained to us that because she is blind, she is only able to see very little and so she relies on Lassie helping her all the time, wherever she goes and whatever she does.   We also learnt why it is so important not to touch a guide dog when they are wearing a harness, it can distract the dog and it can be very dangerous.  At the end of her talk Anica took Lassie's harness off and then she said that we could stroke Lassie.  Lassie really enjoyed that!  We told Anica that we had baked lots of cakes and biscuits to raise money for the 'Guide Dogs' charity and we were very pleased to present a cheque to Anica before she and Lassie went home.