Nearly 100 ONCE Guide Dogs in the Valencian Community

The ONCE Guide Dog Foundation has celebrated its 30th anniversary. Three decades of history in which it has provided more than 3,200 dogs to blind or severely visually impaired people to improve their autonomy, movement and safety.

Currently, more than 1,000 guide dogs patrol our streets and villages, almost a hundred of them in the Valencian Community. In an increasingly complex environment, the need to move independently and safely forces blind people to rely more and more on an agile and reliable solution: the guide dog.
It has been carefully trained to become the best instrument of mobility for a blind person and has the mission of becoming the eyes of those who cannot see. They are trained to avoid fixed and mobile obstacles; warn the user of crossings and steps; look for pedestrian crossings, entrances and exits of all types of establishments and even locate stairs or bus stops.
But nothing would be possible without the work of the thousands of ONCE play product sellers, with whom the Foundation is financed; or the families who educate the future guide dogs, who during these 30 years have dedicated their time and love to these animals in their socialisation stage, just before being trained as guides together with the Foundation’s mobility instructors.
ONCE has as one of its maxims the inclusion of blind people in society. Employment, social and cultural relations and personal autonomy are the pillars on which this integration is based.
This is why 30 years ago it created the ONCE Guide Dog Foundation (FOPG), adopting the model of the European and North American guide dog schools. Located in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), its current facilities cover 110,000 square metres and include all services: breeding, accommodation and care of puppies, dog training and instruction, veterinary clinic, shelter for retired dogs and a residence for training guide dog users.