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Aimée Ní Bheirn
My mother Christine made the decision to participate as a Breeding Dog Volunteer after a conversation with our friend Catherine,
Read Aimée's Story
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My mother Christine made the decision to participate as a Breeding Dog Volunteer after a conversation with our friend Catherine,
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Rinne mo mháthair Christine an cinneadh chun páirt a ghlacadh mar chúramóir deonach madra pórúcháin tar éis comhrá lenár gcara Catherine.
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Aisling tells us about how her Guide Dog, Kali, enables her to lead an independent life.
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Ali joined IGDB in January 2019 as a member of staff and is now working as an instructor within the organisation.
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Puppy Raisers Anne & Gerry O'Riordan from Tralee give us insights into their life-changing volunteering with us.
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If you've met one child who is autistic, you've met one child whose autism is unique to them; there's no one size fits all. It's a broad spectrum and presents in many ways.
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Puppy raising is very rewarding but is very hard work if you are going to do it properly. If people are not 100% committed to this, then they should not even consider doing it.
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I have had Guide Dogs since I was 25 years of age and Valley is my 6th Guide Dog.
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I have an eye condition called Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (“LCA”) which presented when I was 6 months old.
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A poem by Guide Dog owner Carol about her wonderful Guide Dog Arlo.
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I can’t believe it’s been 7 and a half years since Iona came into our lives and in February 2025, she turned 9.
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Before I got Umar, I used the long cane. It was more challenging maneuvering in crowds as I was having to find obstacles, whereas Umar will navigate freely. All I do is follow him.
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Imagine you’re out for a walk with your child or grandchild, holding his hand like you always do.
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From the day Conor was diagnosed with autism, our life as a family became more and more limited.
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Since joining our family over 1.5 years ago, Yazzi has given our daughter Daisy more independence.
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We are so grateful to Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind for the amazing addition of Clover to our family.
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Puppy Raiser Declan got his first Puppy Eldin in May 2018. There are several reasons why we became Puppy Raisers.
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In the spring of 2020, we had Covid. In the summer, I had 2 months of radiotherapy for prostate cancer and in the autumn, I was matched with Paige
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In July 2020 I commenced training with my third Guide Dog, Minnie, a 27-kilo white Labrador, who was born on 25th August 2018.
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Imagine you’re a 10 year old again – just an average kid. You love watching television. Playing football with your friends.
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I have been blind since birth, and have been fortunate enough to own four wonderful Guide Dogs.
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I’ve communicated with some wonderful trainers over the years who have done a fantastic job with the puppies I’ve been lucky enough to raise.
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Mum Helen explains how Assistance Dog Aggie has changed her family’s lives.
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We applied to become Puppy Raisers because we’ve always admired the work that Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind do.
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The Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind is extremely close to my heart as my Granny lost her sight and with that her independence.
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Writer Jackie Austin was looking for a way to give back to the community that welcomed her with open arms when she moved to Ireland three years ago.
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November 2024, I celebrated 30 years of being blind. A far cry from that November night so long ago on the fifth floor of Sligo General Hospital.
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Fun, consistent fun. And a consistent responsibility which sometimes is not always fun. But, we totally recommend puppy raising.
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Hi, we are the Kenna Family from Cork. We are puppy raising our second Puppy Zac!
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Before Freida arrived, Kevin found some aspects of daily life more challenging.
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Can you imagine what it’s like for your whole world to change overnight? To feel like a different person, to have people treat you differently
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I was matched with my Guide Dog Pepper in September 2023 and it’s easy to say he has been a great success.
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Our family's involvement with the charity dates back to the late ’70s and early ’80s.
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In November 2014 Luke was diagnosed with autism and an intellectual disability. He was only two and a half then.
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It is such a unique volunteering experience where, as a family of dog lovers, we gain as much as we give.
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Marcel is a 6-year-old Golden Retriever who took on a life-changing role in Co. Kerry and was the overall winner of the Irish Kennel Club’s Golden Paws Hero Dog Awards 2022!
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I’ve always been a dog person, and ever since I was little, I knew I wanted to get involved with Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.
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When my first Guide Dog Yaz was retiring and I was preparing for my next Guide Dog, Leon, my daughter wrote Yaz a lovely letter:
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Volunteer Marie Deegan’s Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind journey first began in a pub in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.
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How was my life before I got my Guide Dog Yazz? It was difficult. From having vision till I was 19, then to losing my vision when I was 20.
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In the quiet countryside of Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, a tale of resilience unfolds, where Monica Wims, once a vibrant part of her family's farm, found herself grappling with darkness after a tragic accident in 2011.
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The way we look at it is, the work we put in as Puppy Raisers could be the reason somebody gains back their independence.
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After losing one of our cats to cancer, I was chatting with a friend, and she mentioned that there was a huge drive ongoing seeking Puppy Raisers.
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We started puppy raising as we felt it was good voluntary work that we could manage around our family life and allow us to have a dog in our lives that we could bring with us wherever we needed to go.
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My son Oisín was just 4 years old when we got our Assistance Dog Villy. We couldn’t believe it, we were so lucky.
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So before we got our Assistance Dog my son would not leave the house. We tried everything to get him some exercise and get him out of the house but he would just refuse.
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I always wanted a dog but felt that it would be unfair to the dog to be home alone while I was at work.
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One morning in January 2011, Paraic Barnes woke up with a big ink blot obscuring his vision but he walked his daughter to school as normal.
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I began 2020 feeling excited and a little anxious as the week before Christmas I had got the wonderful news that I would be joining a Guide Dog class towards the end of February to commence training with my first Guide Dog whose name is Gaston.
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One of the most prolific volunteers we have ever had, Phil Geoghegan has helped raise over €1 million for the charity.
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I wake up every morning looking forward to taking on the day with Ezra as my partner.
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Having him by my side has provided me with many opportunities that I would never have had without him.
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I was diagnosed in my late teens with a degenerative eye condition and struggled for some years to come to terms with what seemed at the time to be rather a bleak future.
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Before Esme entered my life, I never liked to leave the house much. I always felt the need to be with someone or would have someone do something for me.
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While classified as registered blind for the last 30-odd years, for the few years up to 2018 my eyesight had started to impact my life more than ever.
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The Guide Dog Trainers came to my home for a matching visit with a dog I had never met before – Jira.
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My name is Claire from Tallaght in Dublin.My son Tom is 8 years old and in Dec 2021 he was lucky enough to be accepted onto the list for an Assistance Dog.
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After years of her son begging for a puppy, Zita O’Brien from Dublin compromised and took on a Guide Dog-in-training “just for a year” to see if they could commit to a family pet.