Seeing Eye Dogs Show, by Vision Australia Radio

On this episode of the Seeing Eye Dogs Show, Harriet is joined by Seeing Eye Dogs handler Annette Ferguson. Annette chats to us about her life, new partnership with Scotty, working as a graphic designer with low vision, and being part of the community of dog guide handlers in Australia.

If you'd like to find out more about Seeing Eye Dogs head to our website: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/

If you're blind or have low vision and are interested in becoming a handler or applying for a Seeing Eye Dog, please email us at [email protected] or call on 1800 037 773 to discuss dog guide mobility, eligibility or assessment.

If you're a dog guide handler, don't forget to register for our upcoming workshop Living With Your Ageing Seeing Eye Dog: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/news/ageing-workshop-2025. It's open to all handlers and free to attend with sessions across Australia and online.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Training program manager Kylie Gersh joins Harriet to talk about dog distraction and managing your Seeing Eye Dog or dog guide around other dogs. We then play part of the interview with Kylie about solving problem behaviours.

If you're blind or have low vision and are interested in becoming a handler or applying for a Seeing Eye Dog, please email us at [email protected] or call on 1800 037 773 to discuss dog guide mobility, eligibility or assessment.

If you're a dog guide handler, don't forget to register for our upcoming workshop Living With Your Ageing Seeing Eye Dog: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/news/ageing-workshop-2025. It's open to all handlers and free to attend with sessions across Australia and online.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Harriet is joined by Seeing Eye Dog handler Dr Katie Butler to talk about her life, story and partnership with Seeing Eye Dog Quinnie. We talk about Katie's PhD and research in diversity, equity and inclusion and work as an academic in the field of DEI and accessing study for people with disabilities. Katie shares about life with her Seeing Eye Dog, and journey as a handler paired with dogs at different stages of her life.

Quinnie is Dr Katie's first dog guide from Seeing Eye Dogs and she talks about the support from the team. If you're blind or have low vision and are interested in becoming a handler or applying for a Seeing Eye Dog, please email us at [email protected] or call on 1800 037 773 to discuss dog guide mobility, eligibility or assessment.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the Seeing Eye Dogs Show Harriet is joined by two guests.

Liv Butcher, Seeing Eye Dogs Volunteer Partnership Coordinator and puppy carer, joins us talking about the impact of our volunteers, what they do for Seeing Eye Dogs and the variety of roles where volunteers make a difference.

Kylie Gersh, Training Program Manager, joins us to talk about the lives of training dogs, what they get up to when they're not training and about the role of Training Dog Carers. Seeing Eye Dogs is looking for training dog carers who live or work locally to, or could do the daily weekday drop off and pick ups from the Kensington, VIC Seeing Eye Dogs site.

We’re looking for lots of types of carers currently including training dog carers local to SED Kensington site. Head to the training dog care page of our website to find out about training dog care or to the volunteering page to read about all volunteer roles.

If you'd like to find out more about Seeing Eye Dogs head to our website: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the Seeing Eye Dogs Show, Harriet is joined by puppy carer Catherine Bentley to talk about her life and story as a busy working mum and experienced puppy carer. We discuss raising puppies working on a university campus, what's to love about this volunteering role and what a Seeing Eye Dogs puppy learns from attending lots of busy kids' sporting commitments. Volunteers help prepare puppies for working roles as Seeing Eye Dogs, so here's some behind the scenes of how our puppies gain essential skills in their first year thanks to our amazing carers like Catherine.

If you'd like to find out more about Seeing Eye Dogs head to our website: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/

We are looking for puppy carers now so if you're keen to raise a puppy to hopefully become a Seeing Eye Dog we'd like to hear from you! It's an incredibly rewarding experience, with training provided. Carers need time, patience and love to give to a puppy, so if you want to commit to a year of puppy raising, we would love your help. We're looking for carers now in parts of Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales listed on our website. Get in touch to find out about volunteering with us or apply now via our website.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Seeing Eye Dogs Show, for our Mother's Day special we shine a spotlight on breeding dog "Lucy" and her life with her breeder carer Sharon.

Harriet is joined by Seeing Eye Dogs volunteer Sharon De Souza who shares her story of 10+ years of volunteering and talks about her volunteering as a breeder carer for Lucy and puppy carer for many puppies including two of Lucy's daughters Debbie and Freya.

If you've ever wondered about the life of a breeding dog and breeder carer, stay tuned!

We’re looking for more breeder carer volunteers in select regions of Melbourne listed on our website. Breeder carers care for the dogs in their homes full-time, and transport the dog to the Seeing Eye Dogs kennel facility in Kensington, VIC for breeding activities.  These dogs are over 1 year old accepted into the breeding colony selected for their lovely natures and maintain their manners during their time in the breeding program. Find out about breeder caring here: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/volunteer/breeding-dog

We're also open for puppy caring and training dog caring across other regions of VIC, NSW & QLD. If you'd like to find out more about Seeing Eye Dogs, the work we do, other caring roles or becoming a handler, head to our website: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In part two of our International Guide Dogs Day special, Harriet is joined by Seeing Eye Dogs client service manager Lester Chraim. We talk about the history of our organisation over the last 65 years of Seeing Eye Dogs and our origins, recent achievements and highlights, client surveys and feedback and our upcoming workshop developed from the client survey.

To read more about our 65th anniversary celebrations head to our website: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/news/seeing-eye-dogs-65th

To find out about our workshop Living with your ageing Seeing Eye Dog that will take place on July 19th head to our website: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/news/ageing-workshop-2025.
This workshop will be open to all dog guide handlers and hosted in person at 4 locations in person and online:

• Seeing Eye Dogs HQ Kensington, VIC
• Vision Australia Coorparoo, QLD
• Vision Australia Caringbah, NSW
• Vision Australia West Leederville, WA and;
• Online over Teams webinar.

If you'd like to find out more about Seeing Eye Dogs head to our website: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/

If you're blind or have low vision and are interested in becoming a handler, please email us at [email protected] or call on 1800 037 773 to discuss dog guide mobility, eligibility or assessment.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In part one of our International Guide Dogs Day special, Harriet is joined by Seeing Eye Dogs handler Kate Watkins. Kate has been a handler for over 50 years sharing her life with Seeing Eye Dogs across many life stages from a teenager to now. We talk about some of the changes she's seen, how different dogs have suited each life stage, and about life with her current Seeing Eye Dog Kramer.

If you'd like to find out more about Seeing Eye Dogs head to our website: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/

If you're blind or have low vision and are interested in becoming a handler, please email us at [email protected] or call on 1800 037 773 to discuss dog guide mobility, eligibility or assessment.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the Seeing Eye Dogs Show, Harriet is joined by two guests.

Puppy carer Maria from Geelong joins us to talk about her life, story, and role as a puppy carer. Maria is a first-time puppy carer of Pharaoh and enjoys the social and community aspects of the role.

Then, we have a repeat abridged version of the Harriet's interview with Seeing Eye Dog handler and SED Youth Program graduate Phoebe talking about her experiences on the youth program and how the program prepares young people to become handlers, and her life with her Seeing Eye Dog Angie.

If you’d like to learn about Seeing Eye Dogs, the work we do, becoming a handler, or supporting us head to our website at sed.visionaustralia.org.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the Seeing Eye Dogs Show, Harriet is joined by Puppy Development Trainer Steph Shaw to talk about managing excitability and promoting calm behaviour in our dogs and puppies. We talk about what excitability means in different ages and how to recognise when our dogs might need a little cool down with some tips on how to do that.

If you'd like to find out more about Seeing Eye Dogs head to our website: https://sed.visionaustralia.org/

We are looking for puppy carers now so if you're keen to raise a puppy to hopefully become a Seeing Eye Dog we'd like to hear from you! It's an incredibly rewarding experience, with training provided. Carers need time, patience and love to give to a puppy, so if you want to commit to a year of puppy raising, we would love your help. We're looking for carers now in parts of Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales listed on our website. Get in touch to find out about volunteering with us or apply now via our website.

Head to our Training, Handling and Enrichment Tips playlist: https://omny.fm/shows/seeing-eye-dogs-show/playlists/training-tips for more tips from our expert staff.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.