Working Dogs who help disabled people -

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These dogs called A.W.A.R.E Dogs and were out raising awareness and collecting money for the Aware Dogs of Australia.

These are dogs that assist people with a handicap. We all know about seeing eye dogs for the blind but these dogs are not so well known. They assist in so many ways; they can pick up items that are dropped and bring the telephone when it rings. The different ways they help depends on the special needs of the person they are trained to assist. You can learn more about them at the A.W.A.R.E. web site.

Guide Dog statues and Maltese Terrier

When I was out and about photographing the statues of dogs around Melbourne (Check out these blogs CLICK HERE and HERE) I began to notice the statues of dogs used for collecting money for Guide Dogs. They come in all sorts of sizes and conditions but essentially they are all the same.

This one, in my local supermarket, is in good condition. As you can see it has many uses and is serving a useful hitching post to this friendly Maltese Terrier.


I would be interested to know how successful they are as money boxes for the guide dogs. It is my opinion that they fade into the background and need to be painted bright noticeable colours.

The one above is a little shabby and sits in the entrance isle of a very busy supermarket. He or she tends to disappear into the wall.

They do reflect the image of the most usual breed of guide dogs – golden Labradors. I believe the first guides dogs were Labradors and there are many in training at the moment . There one learning these important skills in my blogs Dogs at the Lavender Harvest Festival CLICK HERE

If anyone knows how successful they are as collection boxes do let me know.