Most students spend their time at their lectures, studying in the library, in the pub, or joining societies. But 20-year-old Megan Davies however has gone down a slightly unconventional route which has made her Wales' youngest guide dog puppy raiser.
The Animal Health and Welfare student from Cardiff adopted Cariad at seven weeks old and will raise her for the first 14 months of her life until she is fostered for guide dog training. The first year of a guide dog's life is crucial for them to master the basics and settle into life before the guide dog training begins.
Megan, from Cardiff, was inspired to volunteer to raise a guide dog after a university visit from the charity. She said: " Two puppy raisers from Guide Dogs came into the talk at the university when I was in first year. I was trying to see if I could find a way to get into it and I applied last year. It just seemed like something really amazing to do and quite a rewarding thing as well."
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Last year Megan's time came and she was teamed up with Cariad, a seven-week-old labrador retriever who will hopefully go on one day to help someone visually-impaired. "I do the basic training – sit, lay down, all the things that you do with a puppy. I then take her on walks so she knows how to walk on a loose leash next to me.
"She'll go on to buses and trains and into shops and so she has the exposure to different environments that she'll need to be used to when she's fully trained," said Megan, who structures her day around Cariad. That begins with waking at 7am to take her out to the toilet.
“I can then sit and work until 10am when I take her for her first walk. She has her routine and I work around it," she said. The only time Megan will be apart from Cariad is when she goes to university. At that point Megan's dad Stephen steps in.
Megan recalled her puppy development adviser's surprise at her age when she applied to be a guide dog puppy raiser. "She said they don't normally have many university students applying so I assumed I'm one of the youngest but when I was told I was the youngest I was surprised."
But it's not just Megan and her dad raising Cariad, however, with family pet border collie retriever cross Misty, who is eight and a half, chipping in too. If you're a dog lover like the family you can keep up to date with our latest dog news with our TeamDogs newsletter. Megan added: "When we first got Cariad [Misty] was a bit uncertain, like 'What have you brought into the house?', but now they'll run around and play then lie on the floor together it's quite cute."
Misty, while mostly a positive role model, has also had her fun teaching Cariad all the mischievous things, " She knows how to open the sliding door into the kitchen so by the second day we had Cariad opening the sliding door."
Megan hopes raising Cariad is just the start of her journey with Guide Dogs – whether that is moving onto fostering and doing more active training or a role elsewhere within the charity. Her family all support her goals too as they have first-hand experience of conditions that can lead to sight loss.
"It's a really cool thing to do because you get support so they teach you all the different training things the puppy needs to know so it's not like you're stuck on your own," Megan said. "Last week I met the people who named Cariad – they've sponsored her or donated money that allowed them to name her and that was cool because the man we met had sight loss so he had a guide dog of his own.
"He just talked about all the things they've done together and how much it changed his life so it was really nice to see and reaffirming that this is such a good thing to be doing. I would encourage people to do it because it's a lot of fun, really rewarding, and for a good cause."
