Service puppies put through their paces on transit

It appears that even service puppies can't escape the changes of the pandemic.

Bill Thornton, the CEO of BC & Alberta Guide Dogs, says the new recruits are far behind on their transit training schedule because of COVID-19.

The puppies are usually introduced to buses in the field and gradually trained, however that method has been suspended during the pandemic.

TransLink, Metro Vancouver's transit operator, opened its doors at the Vancouver Training Centre on Wednesday, allowing the dogs-in-training to get repeatedly familiar with several buses.

As part of the dog's graduation process, trainers need to know if they will behave on several styles of buses and that they can get on and off easily.

Thornton says they're happy to be able to speed up the training with its partnership with TransLink.