Milan Dvořák, director of the guide dogs training school in Brno talks about the school "At the beginning we had to be modest, and I myself wasn't really sure if the first trained guide dog in Brno wasn't aswell the last," Milan says. "We moved to Brno after having left a guide dog school school in Prague. I was pretty surprised when people called and wanted me to prepare a guide dogs for them. Then requests came for more and more dogs, and recently there are about 60 dogs in our school ranging from little puppies to those just finishing their training. After having experience at a guide dogs training centre in Prague, which has formed my views significantly, I knew exactly what I wanted to retain and what needs to be modified in my own training programme."

The school provides help to people who want to achieve a certain level of independence and self-sufficiency through the help of a guide dog. This way, despite their impairment, they can take part in the common life of society. They only need our tolerance and respects. "Each of our clients should think twice before they decide to get themselves a dog. They have to understand that a dog is not only a good friend and helper, but it also needs to be taken care of, because, in their needs, dogs are fully dependent on their owners."

"Since the beginning we've been using so called "puppywalker families", where the puppies were growing up untill they were ready for their mission – start being trained to become guide dogs. We might be different from other schools as the dogs stay in families environment also during a training. We are really more like a normal school – foster families bring the dogs to school in the morning, then they follow their individual plans during the day and are picked up when the school is over so that they can rest at home with their people. Puppywalkers and also foster families provide the dogs with everything essential – love, play, support and a lot of activities which make the dogs happy, balanced and well sociable. It has to be said that this method is very efficient and well appreciated even by our colleagues abroad.

At first we were training just common guide dog breeds – labrador retriever, golden retriever, later on flat coated retriever, german sheperd and even not so commonly seen white swiss sheperd. All these breeds had matched the needs and requirements of our clients, untill there came a request for king poodle. Today, I would only laugh about that, but it was rather strange back then. After my first meeting with the client I was only thinking I had to make him leave that idea. However, it never happened. We've been training king poodles regularly since then, and they all do great job. Moreover, they don't lose hair and thus are suitable for families where members would suffer allergies. We get king poodle puppies every year and my personal experience proves there has never been a slightest problem with them. As the time went by, there appeared so called "doodles" in the school – a cross of king poodle and labrador or golden retriever. Recently we have in training both labradoodles and goldendoodles. They are placid, thoughtful dogs.

In 2006 we were granted by the membership of The International Guide Dog Federation with its seat in the United Kingdom. This much-valued certificate provides us, except for the must of proving the quality of training to the international inspectors, with the chance to communicate with the membership guide dog schools all over the world. So it happened that our dog hanesses are used by other guide dogs schools in different countries and all the same some of our dogs leave to work for clients abroad.

Another significant feature that makes the difference between us and other training centres is the familiar environment, that accompanies the dogs since they're puppies till their adult guide dog service as well as permanent, high quality care. Our clients appreciate this very much as well as the openness of our schools to all their needs. Me and my colleagues are honoured to be able to help these people, who, despite their sight impairment, haven't given up on positive attitude to life and are ready to take any of its challenge. The way we help them is through the guide dogs."

Milan Dvořák