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West Bridgford
Friday, February 7, 2025

Guide Dog puppies get free bus travel again

Guide dog puppies, and the volunteers who care for them, can travel on buses for free in Nottingham, thanks to support from Nottingham City Transport.

 

The transport operator used to allow volunteers and pups from the sight loss charity Guide Dogs to travel for free, but this was halted when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

It has now been announced that, from last month, this offer has been reinstated, allowing guide dog pups and their handlers to use the city’s bus network for important training, free of charge.

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The charity’s Puppy Raisers, who are all volunteers, look after puppies for their first year, teaching them basic commands and introducing them to different social environments, with essential costs covered.

Anna Standing, Puppy Raising Operations Manager for the area, said: “We’d like to say a big thank you to Nottingham City Transport for reinstating their offer of free travel for our guide dog puppies and volunteer Puppy Raisers.

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“It’s essential that our pups learn to travel on different modes of transport with ease, to help prepare them for their future life as a working guide dog.

“Being able to travel on the city’s buses free of charge will make a real difference, helping our local volunteers and puppies to carry out their important training.”

Anthony Carver-Smith, Head of Marketing and Projects at Nottingham City Transport, said: “After supporting Guide Dogs for several years and adopting a number of guide dogs, we are delighted to reinstate the arrangement that allows guide dog pups to travel free on our buses, as part of their training, for the important work they’ll do when they’re older to help people with sight loss retain their independence.”

The charity has a community of 17,000 volunteers, who gave around 20 million hours of their precious time last year.

Guide Dogs is currently recruiting more volunteer Puppy Raisers in Nottingham. To find out more about this role, email volattractcentral@guidedogs.org.uk or visit guidedogs.org.uk/volunteer.

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