IADW was created to recognize all the devoted, hardworking assistance dogs helping individuals mitigate their disability related limitations.
The goals of IADW are to:
- Recognize and honour assistance dogs
- Raise awareness and educate the public about assistance dogs
- Honour puppy raisers and instructors
- Recognize the life-changing service performed by assistance dogs in our communities
S A Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind (GDA) endorses IADW’s initiative to make our citizens aware and proud of our own Guide, Service and Autism Support Dogs, changing the lives of people who are differently-abled every day.
S A Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind’s founder, Gladys Evans, who had failing eyesight, brought the first Guide Dog, Sheena onto the African Continent after training at the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association in the UK. Gladys Evans established S A Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind in Johannesburg in 1953. Since those early days, the Association has gone from strength to strength, and now has a Training Centre in Cape Town.
Assistance dog breeding lines are carefully selected to produce the best possible dogs. Each puppy’s first year is spent in the family home of a volunteer puppy raiser, where the pup is thoroughly socialised before it returns to the Association at age 12-14 months for formal training. All applicants and dogs are carefully matched to one another according to factors such as size, working requirements and personalities. Training of a Guide Dog and recipient is first done at the Association’s residential Training Centres for two weeks, followed by aftercare training to assist the partnership at home and with routes in the neighbourhood for another two weeks or until they are working safely and confidently.
The Association is also training dogs to assist people with disabilities other than visual impairment. Service Dogs and Autism Support Dogs are trained and able to perform a variety of basic tasks designed to bring independence and companionship to their owners. The Service Dog becomes the physical extension of their recipients by retrieving dropped items, turning on light switches, and much, much more, while the Autism Support Dog plays a physical role in preventing an autistic child diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder from wandering away when distracted.
