A Royal visit for the opening of the Guide Dog Training School in Forfar

Princess Alexandra, patron of The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, toured the flagship training school, which incorporates the latest ideas in environmental and dog care and welfare facilities, taken from dog training organisations around the world. The site features an indoor all-weather training area, and purpose-designed outdoor area featuring permanent street obstacles, essential for dogs to experience as part of their training to one day guide a blind or partially sighted person.

The design of the kennels also reflects the latest thinking in dog welfare, being in an ‘L’ shape so the dogs can see and interact with each other and staff. The Guide Dog Training School, Forfar, will also become the focus of Guide Dogs’ fundraising and volunteering support in Scotland, and home to the East Scotland District Team.

Guide Dogs’ Chief Executive Bridget Warr commented: “This is a fantastic day for Guide Dogs as we celebrate the opening of our world-class guide dog training school that supports our position as a world-leader in the breeding and training of guide dogs. We also cement our commitment to Angus, and thank Forfar and its residents for all the support they have given us in our 43 years of training guide dogs here.

“Guide Dogs’ top priority for the future is to improve and expand the guide dog service so that it is accessible to everyone who could benefit from a guide dog, in Scotland and across the UK. The Guide Dog Training School, Forfar, will play a huge and important role in this for many years to come”.

To see the photos from our 2008 Forfar opening, you can visit our flickr photostream. All photos have been captioned and alt-text has been added.