Seeing Eye Dogs Australia has turned to Buderim for help, asking for volunteers in the community who are willing to house and take care of their puppies for 12 to 15 months.
Occasionally, Seeing Eye Dogs Australia and Vision Australia will request the help of short term foster care for their puppies if their permanent caretakers are away or unwell. As of now, the organisation is looking for caretakers in Buderim to take care of some of their puppies, who are only eight weeks old.
Currently, they are too young to receive the training necessary to become full-fledged guide dogs dedicated to helping blind and vision-impaired people across the country. With their primary caretakers unavailable, the puppies are in need of caretakers.
Fortunately, the requirements to care for these pups won’t require any amount of professional experience, which means anyone who can reasonably attend to these dogs’ needs will be able to fill out an application form. There are general requirements that applicants must meet, however:
- The caretaker must be willing to keep a dog in their home.
- The caretaker must have a secure yard.
- The puppy must be regularly socialised.
- The puppy must be able to receive basic training.
- The caretaker must be available for group training.
- The caretaker must be able to commit to caring for 12 to 15 months.
Applicants who are approved to care for these puppies will be given a puppy pack that contains the bare essentials such as a lead, a collar, food, as well as veterinarian care that should last them one year.
Though the six-month puppy carer program is currently full, the full-time puppy carer program is still accepting applications from the North Brisbane region and the Sunshine Coast region, as well as their surrounding suburbs — Buderim included. Those interested in applying to become certified puppy carers can do so via this link.
For more information, visit the Seeing Eye Dogs Australia website here. Follow their social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates concerning the puppies, as well as any other special announcements.