GJK are pleased to announce our partnership with Guide Dogs Victoria.
This is Kosan, the cute and adorable puppy that GJK will be supporting over the next 14 months as part of our new partnership with Guide Dogs Victoria.
“Our partnership with Guide Dogs Victoria is exciting as it gives our employees the opportunity to get involved and learn more about what Guide Dogs Victoria does and more importantly a greater understanding of what it’s like to be vision impaired,” said GJK Executive Chairman & CEO, Steve Taylor
Kosan is a very special and important puppy as he is training to become a guide dog. He might only be 6.5 weeks old, but he has already started his training and has learnt to sit on command.
His journey starts at CuteHQ, the name of the nursery at Guide Dogs Victoria Kew, where pups like Kosan live until they are about 10 weeks. Then he will go and live with his Puppy Raiser, where he will be nurtured, socialised and exposed to a variety of people and places.
After 14 weeks, Kosan will have completed distraction training by being taken to shops, busy areas and taking rides on public transport. He will be used to riding in cars, touch-ready, which is being used to wearing coat/ buckles) and more importantly he will be harness ready.
Sam Taylor the wife of our Executive Chairman and CEO, Steve Taylor has been a Puppy Raiser, where their family looked after a guide dog in training, called Johnno. “My family became Puppy Raisers through understanding the benefits that Guide Dogs provide to blind and impartially blind people. It’s not something we decided on lightly as being a Puppy Raiser is a commitment where you have to be with them the majority of the day, training them to take certain commands and instructions. Johnno can’t be left alone for more than 3 hours and we have specific tasks to undertake to ensure he learnt specific things, socialisation with other dogs and gaining their confidence. But we were supported the whole time by our designated Puppy Adviser from Guide Dogs Victoria who work with us and Johnno to ensure everything was on track. It was a sad day when we had to give Johnno back, but we are provided updates by Guide Dogs Victoria.
“I guess our own experience with Guide Dogs Victoria was one of the reasons GJK has become involved with them, but the other is linked to our Diversity and Inclusion Plan. We are committed to a culture that embraces and fosters diversity and inclusion. A culture that is respectful, inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities. The only way we will achieve this is by eliminating stigmas and limitations through education, awareness and mutual understanding,” said Steve Taylor.
GJK’s partnership with Guide Dogs Victoria is exciting as it gives our employees the opportunity to get involved and learn more about Guide Dogs Victoria and more importantly a better understand of what it’s like to vision impaired.
Part of our partnership will allow our employees to participate in the Corporate Challenge where they hear from clients of Guide Dogs Victoria speak about their experience and where our employees get to experience what being visually impaired is like by being blind-folded and asked to do different tasks.
If you’d like to learn more about Guide Dogs Victoria visit their website.