Ian Ashworth
Ian Ashworth is Program Director, Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides Training Centre in Oakville, Ontario. His Dog Guide career began in April 1983 as an apprentice trainer with The Guide Dogs for the Blind in the UK. He worked as a guide dog mobility instructor and then a 'Dog Supply Supervisor' for over 10 years before moving to the National Breeding centre in the UK as Deputy Breeding Manager. He says that “There was a very steep learning curve moving from training to one of the largest breeding programs in the world, breeding 1100 puppies a year!”. In 1999, he became National Breeding Manager. In this position he continued to improve international collaborative dog guide breeding programs, and he increased the number of pups born to 1250 a year. In 2002, he moved to Canada to become the Program Director for Dog Guides Canada, where he now oversees all five Dog Guide programs at the school as well as the breeding, fostering and kenneling of the dogs.
