Earlier this week I received a call from Guide Dogs finalising the rehoming of Isla, my retired dog. In four days, she’ll have lived with her new family for two years, but various logistical things meant this process took longer than expected. It was a routine call and yet when I hung up all I…
Category: Everything Guide Dog
I’ve been a guide dog handler to labrador retriever cross Isla since September 2012. It’s hard to believe how fast the time is going. She is excitable, friendly and most of all very hard working. I’m so pleased to say I have a dog that thrives on new experiences, we are the perfect match!
She has travelled with me all around the UK, to Spain and in the summer of 2016 she slept her way through a 16 hour journey to America. I couldn’t ask for a better dog.
On this page you will find out about my favourite dog related products, the reality of being a young guide dog handler and all the other things Isla gets up to.
What I Wish I’d Known before getting a Guide Dog
I love my dog. Isla is sweet, friendly and endlessly curious. Her independent yet loving nature makes her easy to be around and we have adapted very well to one another over the last six years. What started off as one very bouncy, sensitive dog combined with a teenager who barely had a hold on…
The People who Made Isla
The bond between service dog and handler is almost impossible to explain. It is built upon trust, I trust Isla and she trusts me. We seek reassurance from one another, and we must be there to provide that reassurance. I’ve learnt to tell what she wants by her body language and the sounds she makes….
Four Years a Guide Dog Owner
It’s hard to believe that just over four years ago I started working with my first guide dog, Isla. We have attended two schools, started university, lived in another country and travelled to the US together. We are reaching our prime as a team, we’re at a stage where for the most part we work…
I am not my dog
Having a dog can be a good thing. For some, it is a smoother, more effective way of travel. For others the cane is by far the better option. Both are perfectly valid experiences, what works for one blind person doesn’t for another. I have come to loathe the perception that my life must have…
My isolating experience in a guide dogs support group
I joined a guide dogs facebook group and it was a mistake. A really big one actually. I recently decided to join an informal guide dogs facebook group. I’ve always been interested in finding out more about my dogs parents and a friend suggested that perhaps some people there would have heard of them. So…
My experiences as a young GDO
In July I wrote quite a detailed and personal facebook post about my experiences of being a guide dog owner. It was after an interview I did for guide dogs and I shared my thoughts first of how blindness is portrayed in the media and then my experiences as a young GDO. At the time…