The older style blue coats with an “L” plate are no more and instead the bright style will ensure guide dogs are in the same colours across the country.

Tasmania coordinator for guide dog services Kim Ryan said from Thursday all puppies or dogs in training in Australia will be wearing the same coat when they are working.

“The idea is to have a national presence so everyone across Australia will recognise a working guide dog and a guide dog or puppy in training, so wherever you go in Australia if you come across an orange coat then hopefully give it a bit of space, allow it not to be distracted, not pat it or let your dogs go up to it,” she said.

“Our working guide dogs will still have the same harness on but they will be swapping over to an orange rain coat which will slip underneath the harness.”

There are about 20 puppies and dogs in training across the state and Guide Dogs Tasmania is looking to increase its puppy program to better service the demand.

There are four people on the waiting list and several working guide dogs are due for retirement soon.

“We hope that we will increase puppy numbers, which means we will need to increase volunteer numbers and get more volunteers into the program, so we are always on the hunt for volunteer puppy raisers and volunteer boarders and all that information can be found on our website,” Ms Ryan said.

It takes about two years for a dog to be trained to a competent level, and the process involved volunteers taking the puppies and dogs out and about in public in their coats.

RELATED STORIES:

“Their job is to take them into shopping centres, onto buses, in taxis, walk them around lots of different areas, get them really comfortable and well socialised in areas where there might be heavy traffic, noises, or lots of people around and teach them how to be a really well trained pup,” Ms Ryan said.

“Then they come into us for formal training at about 18 months.”

Puppy raiser Peter Green has been a volunteer for about 10 years and has just had 12-week-old Violet join his life.

“If you can’t see and you don’t have a dog you have no freedom …  if you can help [the dog] get to that stage it’s very rewarding,” he said.

While a bond does develop Mr Green said he can cope with giving them up because he knows they do important work.

“They’ll also normally give you a brand new little one that’s about 30 centimetres long and then it all starts again.”