Hi, so as you may know I am visually impaired, there was a bit of a palava about whether I was classed as blind or visually impaired, so now we have that and I am a officially registered visually impaired. But also there has also always been a bit of debate between my doctors whether its my eyes that don't work, or my brain. It turns out after going to moorfields eye hospital in london and doing this set of tests, which makes up one big test, its my brain that doesn't work. It's called a cortical visual impairment. So with that update on my sight I get to my actual adventure. I recently got in touch with guide dogs, to start the process off with possibly getting a guide dog, I had a lady from Blind Children uk (they help from birth to 25 years old)who work with guide dogs, called kirsty and we discussed all the help they could give me, and also about getting a guide dog. So I got invited by kirsty to go to a guide dog training centre and to see what it would be like to have a guide dog. I had a walk with someone holding the harness, to experience what it would feel like with a dog in the harness before getting to walk with an actual dog. The dogs were all trainee guide dogs and so their was about 5 golden retrivers and 1 black Labrador. I went and did a grooming experience with a golden retriever called Ramsey. I then went out for a walk with Pearl, the black labrador. Although she may have walked faster than me when we went for the walk, she was the ideal temperment. Very calm, which I think is what I need as I wouldnt want a dog who jumps up and is very excitable. I loved Pearl, I wanted to take her home with me, strangely she reminded me of my cats. I also did a bit of training in some of the commands with Pearl. Throughout the whole day the guide dog workers were very friendly and helpful and made sure our activities went smoothly.
One of the activities I found most interesting was just before we started the journey home, we got to speak to a guide dog owner. It was nice to talk to someone who had an insight into the pros and cons of having a guide dog. I asked about whether the dog is allowed to lick your face or hands, which is something I am put off by, she then said she forgot to mention if it tries to lick you, to say no, as she was completely blind she couldn't see my brother getting his hand licked for the whole time we was talking to her by Layla, her guide dog.
Then we got in the car to go home, on the way home we got a mc donalds as it had been such a long day.
Photos from the day
Pearl, I wanted to take her home with me!
Close up of pearl
As there were quite a few golden retrievers, I couldn't really remember there names but here is one of the dogs
Sophie
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