WESTBURY resident Hilary Reed has been training puppies for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association for 31 years. 
As a ‘puppy walker,’ Hilary takes each puppy into her home for approximately a year. During this time she teaches puppies basic obedience, and helps them get used to the different environments they may encounter when they become a fully-fledged Guide Dog. As the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association say, puppy walkers ‘play a vital role in the early socialisation and education of Guide Dogs.’
Hilary is currently training her 39th puppy, Johnson. Alongside her puppy raising activities, Hilary also fundraises for the charity and her annual coffee mornings alone have raised around £11,000 over the last 11years.
Hilary started puppy training simply because she loved dogs and wanted one of her own! “I just wanted a dog; I heard about puppy walking and applied, and then got into fundraising. You get hooked and just can’t give it up, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
“People know who I am and what I do – I often get stopped and asked ‘have you got a dog on the go at the moment?’”
Hilary’s current puppy is five-month-old yellow labrador Johnson, who is sponsored by Stonar School in Atworth. The school raised £7,000 to support him and name him after one of the school’s long-serving teachers.
Hilary said, “We do more now than we every used to. We go to any noisy situation to teach them life is not a bed of roses, we take them on trains and buses. Wherever I go, my puppy goes.
“We send our puppies off at a good standard these days. They then go to do 16 weeks at a training centre in Leamington Spa, and then to an advanced trainer for another eight to ten weeks.”
