Phil Stanley, our Senior Guide Dog Instructor here at the Association, has recently returned from the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) Seminar, which was this year held in Ottawa, Canada.
The seminar gave professional Guide Dog Instructors from all over the world an opportunity to come together, compare notes, network and make presentations on their own training programs.
Phil considers the seminar an important event for instructors around the world to attend.
‘Delegates came from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Republic of Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States of America, China and Singapore,' Phil says.
‘The seminar enables the Association to get a global perspective of different Guide Dogs programs and allows us to monitor, discuss and improve our standards. We are able to exchange ideas and discuss different methods of how we provide our services,' he continues.
‘Of great interest this year was the progress and increase in numbers of younger people trained with Guide Dogs,' he says.
‘This year's seminar was well organised, with an interesting range of presentations and topics, and of course it is always a great pleasure to catch up with friends and fellow practitioners from the last 30 years.'
Phil hopes to include a number of new techniques and practices that were discussed at the seminar to the WA Guide Dog Program in 2011.
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