'Star' puppy takes
her world on-line

Winsome the guide dog puppy takes her new 'screen star' status in her stride. In an education first, schools from around New Zealand can follow Winsome's progress and view her on-line as she grows up. Go to www.manurewa.school.nz and navigate to Winsome's Web World.

The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind's guide dog breeding and training programme, The Manurewa High School, and sponsor Kimberly-Clark, reside in the same South Auckland neighbourhood. The three parties are working together to create a window for New Zealand schools on the life of a real guide dog puppy.

It's all part of a science project led by Year nine students from The Manurewa High School. The 13-year-olds have designed a website featuring Winsome, the soon-to-be-famous seven week old guide dog puppy from litter "W". The template for Winsome's Web World at www.manurewa.school.nz features information about Guide Dog Puppy Winsome, her impressive lineage, her mother Whim, father Fonz, brothers Wiremu and William and sisters Wella and Wisha.

Over the coming months, the website will come alive tracking her progress as she goes through her guide dog puppy paces. The student project team will measure Winsome's physical development and monitor her behaviour as she visits new places and learns particular skills to prepare her for life as a guide dog. The information gathered will be published on the website and regularly updated, together with photographs.

Students throughout the country can follow Winsome's progress, by visiting www.manurewa.school.nz and following the link to Winsome's Web World.

One of the students, Samantha Vuleta, was so enthusiastic about the project she persuaded her parents to volunteer as puppy walkers. After interviews and assessment by the RNZFB Guide Dog Services team the Vuleta family was accepted. Winsome is now with the family until she's ready to train as a guide dog.

The class was also asked to suggest a name, beginning with 'w', for the guide dog puppy who would become the star of their website. The students chose the name Winsome, meaning cheerful and agreeable.

Project supervisor Christine Howard, director of the science faculty at The Manurewa High School, says: "The students are really enjoying working on such an interesting project. As well as the educational benefits it is an opportunity for them to develop skills as part of a multi-disciplinary team, as they would in the workplace. The students are taking responsibility for different aspects of the project including data collection, interpretation of results, presentation, copywriting and web design."

Kleenex (r), the premium brand of toilet tissue made in New Zealand by sponsor Kimberly-Clark, will be running a parallel initiative in supermarkets reinforcing their support of guide dog puppies. Families can collect a set of four beanie guide dog puppies and their training school by sending in tokens from promotional packs of Kleenex toilet tissue. With this promotion, and for the past four years, Kleenex(r) consumers have been helping real puppies become guide dogs through Kimberly-Clark's sponsorship.

Kleenex brand manager Tracy Leach says: "Guide dogs give blind and sight-impaired people independence to live more active lives. Through this project with Manurewa High School we're hoping young people will learn more about what makes puppies like Winsome so special, and how guide dogs and their handlers work in a unique team relationship 24 hours a day."

Some Guide Dog facts:

• The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind is the only organisation in New Zealand that trains guide dogs and they currently have around 300 working guide dog teams.
• One of the most popular breeds for a guide dog is a Labrador retriever, like guide dog puppy Winsome, but German Shepherds, Boxers, Dalmatians and even Standard Poodles are trained too. Poodles are ideal for people who have allergies to pet hair because their woolly coat doesn't moult - instead it is clipped like a sheep.
• It takes up to two years to fully train a guide dog and it costs around $22,500 although they are provided to blind or sight-impaired people free of charge.
• Winsome comes from a guide dog breeding line that goes back 60 years. Her mother, Whim, has had two previous litters of 12 and nine, and Winsome is one of five, making 26 in all.
• Every new litter that is born at RNZFB Guide Dog Services is allocated a letter. Winsome is from Litter 'W' which means that all the names of the puppies begin with a 'W'.
• For the first 12 to 18 months, guide dog puppies live as one of the family with their volunteer puppy walkers to learn all about human habits and routines as well as learning special skills like toileting on command that will prepare them for life as a guide dog.
• When guide dog puppies are between 15-21 months old, they are assessed to see if they will make a good guide dog. They are tested on 21 guiding tasks, 13 health aspects, and 65 traits of personality and temperament, including cat distraction and reaction to sudden loud noises to see how they react and perform.
• Guide dogs are carefully matched to their user according to the dog's characteristics and the blind person's needs and lifestyle. Very active blind or sight-impaired people are usually matched with energetic dogs, and people with quieter lives are likely to be paired with an easy-going dog.
• Not all guide dog puppies are cut out for life as a qualified guide dog but they often make great police or customs dogs or a loyal companion to a disabled person.
• Adult guide dogs work for about eight to 10 years. When they retire, they often stay on at their home as a pet and a new guide dog is matched with the blind person to form a new team.