Balto brings new hope to visually impaired people

Balto, a two-year-old golden retriever, will be the first guide dog specially trained by an overseas school and destined to be the eyes of a Maltese owner with sight impairments.

The guide dog, trained by the Helen Keller guide dog training school in Messina, Sicily, was handed over to Ron Colombo, Malta Guide Dog Foundation chairman, this week by Tommaso Daniele, the national president of the Unione Italiana dei Ciechi e degli Ipovedenti in the presence of Malta's Ambassador to Italy Walter Balzan.

When Mr Colombo was appointed chairman of the new non-profit foundation last year, his goal was to introduce the first guide dog service on the island.

Roy Perry, foundation spokesman, explained that Mr Colombo, Balto's future owner, went to Sicily to take part in the final stages of the dog's training after which a mobility trainer will visit Malta to train it in the owner's house.

Alex, a puppy from a litter of three, which qualified to be trained as a guide dog, is now in the hands of the Helen Keller school. Alex was reared by the foundation and is expected to complete its training in six weeks, Mr Perry said.

He added that a further two dogs were being bought by the foundation from a Slovakian school in Bratislava and they should arrive in Malta early in the New Year. These dogs are intended for two Maltese owners who will be chosen from a shortlist of five. Guide dogs are an expensive business and each one will cost the foundation €10,000. Training a puppy to become a guide dog is a lengthy process. Pedigree puppies, usually Labradors, are specifically bred for a temperate bloodline.

When merely a few weeks old they're homed with puppy walkers for a year to learn basic obedience after which they attend a guide dog school for another eight months. This intense process usually only reaps four dogs that can work as guide dogs from every 10 trained. They then undergo three to four weeks training with their new owner. Guide dogs usually work for eight to nine years, before getting tired.

The foundation estimates it needs 45 to 50 guide dogs in Malta, where there are about 800 people with sight problems registered and receiving benefits. However, the society believes that if one takes into account the number of people with acute sight impairment, the figure would rise to 3,000. Yet, not everybody would need a guide dog.

Speaking from his personal experiences with his own guide dog Zac, Mr Perry said living with a guide dog was "magic". "Guide dogs give visually impaired people enormous confidence," he said, adding that it took away all the worry of being out and about.

A guide dog and its owner are essentially a team, he said, explaining that a dog assisted its owner by sensing an obstacle while it was up to the owner to work around it. It is a "real partnership", something which is very rare, he said.