Hey again everyone! I’ve spent a long time thinking about what my first post should be about and I finally had the thought, my first post should be about one of my favourite things – my dog. Not just a dog, my guide dog, my eyes, my best friend.
I am lucky enough to be able to have a Guide Dog and a pretty damn good one at that. I was worried when Willis and I were put together that it was going to be a rough journey but my furry friend has made it a super easy journey. I’m not saying that there isn’t days when we test each other’s patience and days when, especially in the first couple of years of having him, I didn’t want the attention. I will clarify, by attention, I mean from other people, not the dog, Willis can give me all the attention in the world. No, it was the attention I got from not only being a disabled young person but how much it escalated with the presence of Willis, I was never one for the spot light and for a long time, I was very uncomfortable with it.
I got Willis when I was 14, it was the summer before I started my GCSE’s. Being the only pupil in school I really stuck out like a sore thumb but I can’t complain, if I didn’t want to go to class, Willis would be able to give me a reasonable excuse for me to ditch with, without his help I would not have been able to do because I wasn’t independent enough to hide from teachers. (sorry Mam…) but as it my step-dad says, getting Willis allowed me to be a true teenager, I could have an argument with my mam, get the dog and slam the door behind me and storm out. I would be free to leave for a while, with no independence you can’t do that and up until I had Willis the furthest I went on my own was to my local shop, exciting, right?
I was lucky enough to be given a dog that deals with almost anything in his path (except hoovers, they are monsters). This means that I can put Willis in almost any situation and together we can figure it out! This goes from “where the hell is the door Willis?” To “Hey so lets go on our own to the other side of the country and figure out something to do for the day!”. We have come to understand each other on a level that I never knew could exist between two beings, one stern stare and Willis knows he’s done wrong and one too many sighs and I know he’s as fed up as I am with the relentless crowd of Christmas shoppers. (I do need to mention, what I didn’t realise before I got him; he is a dog with the attitude of a teenager, good at heart but so grumpy at times).
Speaking of before I got him, I’ll give you a brief run down of his life before we were partnered. He was born 20/1/10 he is a beautiful black Labrador x Retriever. I believe he was one of around six in his litter and only one of the litter that I know of didn’t become a Guide Dog. He then moved at just a few weeks old to go to Scotland to be looked after for a year by the wonderful Douglas Walker, whom at this point, I would not even like to try and guess how many dogs Doug has trained, I am incredibly lucky to have Willis and I will forever be grateful to Doug for bringing up such a fabulous dog – the experience that Doug has is truly outstanding and I wish I had more than words to describe how thankful I am that he used that expertise to bring up and train Willis. I know I am biased but Doug and his advanced trainer Kelly (I’ll go into that in a moment) agree, Willis is one of the most beautiful, loving and patient dogs you could meet, I’d honestly trust him to look after my 2 year old nephew, if it came to it. So thank you, Doug!
All volunteers of Guide Dogs for the Blind Association but especially Puppy Walkers, such as Doug, work so tirelessly to bring up incredible dogs who really do change lives. I know I couldn’t bring up a dog for a year and train it how to behave then just let it go after falling in love with it, it takes real dedication to the cause.
Willis then went onto to be trained in one of the Guide Dogs Training Schools, in which he learnt more skills and carried on his training until he was brought to the North East of England and was trained by the lovely Kelly Galbraith. As I said before Kelly would agree that Willis is an incredible dog and even at nearly 7 I know if she saw him now, that view would not have changed.
Once again, as a member of staff for the charity, I know everyone who helped train me and everyone I have met since gives their all to making what Guide Dogs do possible and for that I will always be incredibly grateful.
Willis and I started our training together on the 11/7/11 and we trained everyday until the 29/7/11 when we became a ‘qualified’ partnership.
I am trying not to make this too much about the training process of a Guide Dog but there is a lot of information online about how Guide Dogs are trained and the process each dog goes through to become a Qualified Guide Dog if you would like to read up on the work of the charity. If anyone wants to me talk about my experiences as a young person with a Guide Dog, I would be happy to do that but this post is mainly to introduce him onto my blog so that in the future when I talk about him you know a bit about his background.
Hopefully, You have enjoyed finding out more about my beautiful dog and I can’t wait to share more of our adventures here with you!
– Laura =)x
wilmotswritings 