The Guide Dog Trainees rest a lot, which they need since they get tired both physically and in mind. They live half a year long in the home of their trainer therefore their soft bed is waiting there for them. At the end of April, we celebrate the International Day of Guide Dogs, which is the reason we show you in a series of articles how we care about the wellbeing of our trainees.

Bed or Box – There is a choice

Sometimes the dog likes to rest on its bed while others feel good rather in the box. The door of the box is open; they enter and leave it as they prefer. There is the option that the trainer covers it with a blanket since dogs like to cuddle and relax, which is not always that peaceful,
since they can follow actions from there.

“I like the box, since it teaches the dogs how to relax, and it helps them to learn how to travel in the car. This will be necessary, because guide dogs can have a long rest in the workplace of their owners. Dogs connect this with the time of sleeping and relaxing. Many owners like doing sport, and at places they do sport regularly create a bed for the dogs for that 2 hours rest” – said our Trainer, Orsolya Látrányi.

Darinka Farkas has been working as a guide dog trainer for 20 years, she trained 80 dogs for visually impaired owners, and all her own dogs and cats accompanied her on their common way.

Darinka lives in a condo in Budafok. The beds of her own and trained dogs are next to each other. “They feel good in a collective, they like to have a rest this way, and this is also useful in case they get to a visually impaired owner having a dog or a cat, then it won’t be unusual for them to live with it. My both dogs and the cat got used to the fact that Labradors are coming and going here. They really like to play with them, the kitty definitely likes the Labs, she cuddles up to them a few times a day” – said our Trainer, Darinka.

Relaxing together with the trainer

While the dogs are resting, Darinka has time to relax too. She astonished us with solving the Rubik’s Cube in 36 sec before our eyes. She could participate at competitions with this but she has a different aim with it.

“I like the Rubik’s Cube very much, it develops my skills, and it keeps me in the “here and now” and ensures a sense of achievement. It calms me down and inspires me. I started to practice with it one year ago and it helps me to connect the dots faster, which I can use in my job too. I noticed that I overview and resolve problems quicker which is useful in the Training and in connection to the visually impaired owners too.”