Guide dog puppies taken on cave training trip

Trainee guide dogs have been taken to an underground tourist attraction to help them get used to unfamiliar surroundings.

Volunteer puppy raisers used Wookey Hole Caves in Somerset to get used to new sights, sounds and smells to help prepare them for life as working dogs in the future.

Lucy Avery, puppy development advisor for Somerset at Guide Dogs, said: "It's brilliant training for the dogs. There's different surfaces and temperatures and suddenly going from light to darker and the echo. It's actual experience for the puppies for when they become an actual guide dog.

"Dogs learn more when they are younger and can gain positive experiences from these situations to helping others."

It's the first time the charity Guide Dogs has held a puppy class at Wookey Hole, with the dogs exploring the caves and museum. Dogs, unless guide dogs, aren't usually allowed on site at the tourist attraction.

Isobel Cooper, who has been raising puppies for 27 years, said: "We've done lots of different experiences doing things like train travel, bus travel, going around the shops, all sorts of things, but this is the first cave experience I've done!

"It makes sure that they can they can handle different experiences without getting upset because when they're fully-working guide dogs they could go anywhere and it's important that they can they can handle it."

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