Ticket to ride!

Puppy walker Isobel Cooper with dog Kaylea, and bus driver Steve Millen, testing the free travel scheme

Free travel for puppies in training

TRAINEE guide dogs are learning how to go on the buses after Oldham-based transport company First gave them free travel.

The guide dog puppies and their walkers can now travel across the Greater Manchester network after First re-launched the scheme to allow sighted puppy walkers on all of its buses in the UK while training their dogs.

The puppies need to learn all about buses, and the different sights, sounds and smells associated with them.

Learning about buses and bus stations is a core part of guide dog training, which cost the charity around £44 million to run in 2008.

The free travel scheme will save the charity significant sums of money every year.

John Welsman, transport policy officer for Guide Dogs, who is registered blind and uses a guide dog, said: “It is particularly important that guide dogs know how to settle themselves on public transport, understanding where to sit and how to help their blind or partially-sighted owner.

“During their training puppies could travel on the bus more than 100 times, with dogs that find the initial experience daunting exposed to it more and more until they become accustomed to it.

“The support we get from First helps us significantly.”