Guide Dogs and the search for a perfect match

Guide Dogs made national and international news last week.

Just in case you haven't seen, heard or read about it, the story of Graham Waspe, his blind former guide dog Edward and his new guide dog Opal, went global! From New York Daily News,to iAfrica.com, to Welt Online and CCN TURK.com.

Having worked with Graham and both dogs, it’s been very interesting for me to see the attention this story has attracted. While it’s fantastic that it’s had so much coverage, I wonder if people realise just how much work goes into building the right partnership and how carefully we pair each guide dog and owner?

To get it right, you have to think not just about whether the dog has the right temperament, but also technical questions like ‘does it walk at the right speed for the guide dog owner?’ ‘how much work can it handle?’ ‘what are its toileting habits?’

From Graham’s point of view, it was a massive blow when Edward had to retire due to glaucoma. He and his wife Sandra are very outgoing and do a lot of volunteering work for Guide Dogs, which suited Edward perfectly, and they had been together for almost seven years.

But despite the upheaval, things were fortunately able to move forward quickly. I remember not too long after the bad news about Edward, a young dog came to us from training and I thought ‘she’s a nice easy going thing, very sociable, a bit young but she’ll grow into the role’. And so she did. Graham and Sandra now take her to schools to talk about Guide Dogs and Opal is right at home. In fact, Edward has really helped her settle in.

It’s always sad when a great partnership is cut short early by circumstances beyond anyone’s control, but what we can do is work hard to make sure we’re well placed to help build the next great partnership.

The District Teams keep a close eye on the dogs that are graduating from our training centres and they use their knowledge and expertise to develop the best possible match for each guide dog owner. A dog that’s graduated from Atherton may be ideal for someone in the south west of England and if that’s the case, it’s our job to make it happen. This is what building extraordinary partnerships is all about.

If you are a guide dog owner and you have had a similar experience to Graham, we’d love to hear from you.