Monday 13th October 2008 - the big day

On Monday morning the kids and my dad went off to work and school and again I was here at home with my mum clearing the house ready for Guide dogs who are coming at 11am. First thing I did was clean up the utility vacuumed the floor and cleaned out the kitten pen then I vacuumed mum and dad’s bedroom because one of the foster cats had made a mess with litter on the floor. Then I went out to get some Milk from the local shops came back was welcomed by our two lovely dogs Toby and Pip and then Mum said I should take them for a walk so that they don’t get so hyped up when meeting Pearce. By this time mum had cleaned the bathroom vacuumed the rest of the house and then we sat down to pray together that this matching visit would go well. Then there was a knock at the door and it was the Guide Dog mobility instructor who I spoke to on Friday and we shook hands and went into the front room, she told us all about Pearce, his character, his working style, what breed, colour and size dog he is and then we went outside to do a trial walk with him to see how we both got on with the instructor by my side and mum a few metres behind because she wanted to see how it all worked. She taught me the different commands to use with Pearce such as Forward with hand signal (arm swing forward), Find right or left with a tap on your leg, straight to kerb, steady if you want them to slow down, hup up if you want them to carry on or walk faster and they can learn many, many more commands. Then the decision was taken that he would be a perfect match for me just the right size, right speed and right character. So we then took him into our garden through the back gate and let him sniff around but instead he went straight to the bird feeder and ate every single piece of bread that had fallen to the floor and then he started looking around, sniffing, marking the garden and he even went twice into the front pond. After he had taken to the garden we decided to bring Toby our 11 year old border collie outside to meet him and they checked each other out but Toby made sure he was top dog, while inside Pip our 3 year old Bearded Collie cross was whining and scrabbling at the door wanting to come out so my mum let him outside and tails were wagging and again they checked each other out Pearce wanted to play but Pip wasn’t so sure as Pearce was much bigger than Pip so they just sort of played in the garden following each other around and then we left Toby and Pip outside and took Pearce inside so he could meet the cats and again he was absolutely no problem whatsoever and so when that was over we let our two dogs back in and went into the front room so that she could read the consent form and me sign it and then they left at 1pm and we went straight out to little fishes at our local church to help out and everyone there wanted to find out so we had to tell them the news.

Friday 10th October 2008 - The phonecall

It was a normal Friday morning and the rest of the family had gone off to school and work and it was only Mum Silke and Me remaining in the house. We started to clean Mum cleaned the upstairs Bathroom while I cleaned the Utility Room and when we had finished cleaning Mum said get ready we are going to a few supermarkets to do our shopping. We went by car and parked in the car park and got a trolley and entered the store, now I realised that there was a sign on the shop door and I asked mum what it was and she said it was a no dog sign with no words not even except Guide Dogs which I found very obscure so I kept that in mind while going through the supermarket. I was pushing the trolley while Mum had the shopping list and was collecting the items that we needed and we had just taken out a whole frozen chicken and 3 packs of chicken fillets when my mobile rang, I picked it up and said “hello Lena speaking" and the person on the other side of the phone said they had a Guide Dog that they think would make a good match for me and she told be more about this Dog. He is a Black Lab X Golden Retriever and he is very sensitive and is fine with other dogs and animals but apparently he is totally adorable, she also told me that the other day when she was training him a confident cat came out of nowhere wanting to be stroked and he weed himself lol poor dog. His name is Pearce after Pearce Brosnan from James Bond and then she asked if I wanted to meet him and I said YES I’d love too and she asked if Monday 13th Oct 2008 at 11am would be a possibility and I said yes that should be fine and so it was put down for that date. The rest of the day was filled with Guide Dogs and I had to tell mum and she said he sounds the perfect dog but I have to see on Monday how I walk with him. Fingers crossed it works out. It sure did!

The Guide Dog Process - For information

This is my first blog and first posting so I hope to keep it up and running and hope it is of use to people around the world who are visually impaired and want to know more about general life and owning a guide dog. So here I start off with the guide dog assessment process as I wrote a diary throughout the process of getting a guide dog including the training.

I am registered as severely sight impaired and have always wanted a guide dog from a very young age but was not allowed to have one because I was under the age of 16.

I went to the hospital in March 2006 to have my general eye check up and I came out totally shocked as to what I had been told, I had been told that my eyesight had deteriorated such a lot that I was eligible for registration as blind now what I shock that was to me, mum and dad but the thing why it wasn't noticed beforehand was because my eyesight had slowly been deteriorating throughout the years but the bit of good news I had was that they didn't think I would go completely blind but tests would need to be done to determine the cause but to this day no cause has been found.

In 2007 I decided to apply for a guide dog because I found it so difficult to get around independently that my self esteem and confidence began to decrease because I couldn't just go out where or when I liked but I always had to have someone with me so I was set an appointment by Guide Dogs Wokingham for someone to come and do a general info visit on 30th March 07. The general info visit just gives you more information on guide dogs and filling in lots of forms so that they get to know you better. It went well and I moved onto the next stage which is called the mobility assessment visit and this was to establish what you could and couldn't see and they tested me on roads to see if I knew when it was safe to cross and you can then decide if you want to carry on to the next stage the guide dog assessment stage and also guide dogs will make the decision if a dog is still the right option now I moved straight on to the guide dog assessment but was given long cane training via my local RNIB rehabilitation officer to help me become a little more independent while waiting for a guide dog.

6 months later (doesn't usually take this long my team had a backlog at that point) I had the last and final assessment the guide dog assessment where you do a short handle walk where the trainer becomes the dog and pretends to "sniff" and you have to use your voice and again more forms are filled in and the final decision is made from guide dogs as to whether you get put on the waiting list for a guide dog and I was successful, I was so overjoyed that I took my family out for a meal to celebrate but then the long waiting process began.

That is the end of the assessment process training post to come soon.