Profession guide dog instructor

Guide dog instructors train dogs to be responsible in guiding blind people to travel effectively. They plan the training sessions, match guide dogs with their clients and ensure overall routine care of the training dogs. Guide dog instructors also provide advice to the blind people in the use of techniques that facilitate dog's travel skills and mobility.

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Personality Type

• Realistic / Social
• Enterprising / Conventional
• Realistic / Investigative
• Realistic / Conventional

Knowledge

• Guide dog training methods

  The methods that are used to train dogs to guide people who are visually impaired.

• Visual disability

  Impairment of the ability to naturally discern and process viewed images.

• Dog behaviour

  Natural behavioural patterns of dogs, how normal and abnormal behaviour might be expressed according to dog breeds, environment, human-animal interaction and occupation.

• Animal welfare legislation

  The legal boundaries, codes of professional conduct, national and EU regulatory frameworks and legal procedures of working with animals and living organisms, ensuring their welfare and health.

Skills

• Protect health and safety when handling animals

  Protect health and welfare of animals and their handlers.

• Implement training programmes for animals

  Implement training programmes for animals for basic training purposes or to meet specific objectives, following a developed training programme, and reviewing and recording progress against set objectives.

• Create animal records

  Create animal records according to industry relevant information and using appropriate record keeping systems.

• Control animal movement

  Direct, control or restrain some or part of an animal's, or a group of animals', movement.

• Assess the compatibility of individuals and animals to work together

  Ensure work harmony between humans and animals, regarding to physical characteristics, capacity, temperament and potential.

• Provide animal training

  Provide training in basic handling, habituation, and obedience to enable the completion of day-to-day tasks while minimising the risks to the animal, the handler, and others.

• Train animals and individuals to work together

  Train animals and individuals to work together, including the match between individuals and animals, the design of integrated training programmes for people and animals, implementation of integrated training programmes, evaluation of integrated training programmes for people and animals against agreed outcomes and evaluating the compatibility between individuals and animals in relation to physical characteristics.

• Assist social service users with physical disabilities

  Help service users with mobility problems and other physical disabilities such as incontinence, assisting in the use and care of aids and personal equipment.

• Implement exercise activities for animals

  Provide exercise opportunities that are suitable for respective animals and meet their particular physical requirements.

• Deal with challenging people

  Work safely and communicate effectively with individuals and groups of people who are in challenging circumstances. This would include recognition of signs of aggression, distress, threatening and how to address them to promote personal safety and that of others.

• Show social competences

  Ability to interact effectively with other people.

• Evaluate dogs

  Assess whether certain dogs are ready to work as a guide dog or not, whether certain dogs should be withdrawn from the training programme, need extra training or a different approach, etc.

• Advise customers on appropriate pet care

  Provide information to customers on how to feed and care for pets, appropriate food choices, vaccination needs, etc.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB