Guide Dogs are being trained with remote controlled squirrels

Guide Dogs just dropped a wild innovation in the world of canine training – remote control squirrel cars.

The move is designed to help future guide dogs resist one of the most chaotic distractions known to dogkind: the flash of a fluffy tail up a tree.

With 35% of everyday pups chasing squirrels and 60% of dog owners admitting their pet could never hack it as a guide dog, the bar is high and so is the creative bar for training.

Karen Brady, training and behaviour partner at Guide Dogs, says the aim is simple: get dogs so used to the chaos that it becomes background noise.

“One moment of lost focus could endanger both parties,” she said, explaining how these roving squirrel-bots are part of a push for more immersive, real-world sim training.

While most of us are trying to stop our dogs from losing it at the postie, Guide Dogs are out here building squirrel simulators to train for calm.

 

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