EDDY

Born: 25th October 2001

Breed: Golden Retriever x Yellow Labrador

Sire and Dam: Warner and Irene

Littermates: Earl, Eaton, Echo, Edie, Ember, Emma, Eric

Puppy Walkers: Steve and Lorna Biczysko, Northamptonshire

Trainer for advanced stage: Jim Powell

Qualified: 12th June 2003

By the time Eddy and I were trained together in May 2003, Guide Dogs for the Blind had relocated from their base in Cathedral Road to a purpose-built training centre on Newport Road in the Rumney area of Cardiff. I can’t remember the reason why we made the decision, but Eddy and I did almost all of our training at home – complete with all the various daily distractions of home life. That’s not to say we didn’t go to the training centre at all, we did, but only a few times. While we were training at home, there was also a class being held at the training centre with two clients.

Just as the training Isaac had been given differed from that of Troy’ in certain ways, Eddy also had some slight differences. Rather than sit at a kerb or at a flight of steps, he would stand. His pace would slow down noticeably, but he would very rarely sit to indicate anything – other than when he was having one of his “I’m not doing it!” moments!

Eddy took longer to qualify than both my previous dogs. That’s not because we weren’t well matched, and it wasn’t because he couldn’t do the work properly. Far from it! The problem, if it’s fair for me to call it that, was that he had an extremely strong bond with his trainer, Jim Powell.

Picture this: You’re walking through your town centre, and you see a guide dogs trainer and a blind person with their guide dog nearby. Suddenly, you see the dog rearing up on its hind legs while in harness and doing kangaroo bounces! That’s exactly what you would have seen if you’d been in Abertillery town centre while Eddy and I were being trained! If He’d have been in harness with Jim, he would have behaved himself impeccably. But for me, nope, no way! He was making that very clear! I’m pleased to say that we finally qualified, about two weeks more than average, but it involved Jim having to take a gigantic step back, and sending someone else out to complete our training.

Our qualification walk took place on 12th June on a route around Abertillery. I was ever so pleased that Eddy kept all four of his furry paws firmly on the ground! I don’t remember much about the walk, I can’t even remember who came out to observe us and decide if we qualified or not. What I do vividly remember was when we were on the home straight.

Heading up our street from town involves a relatively short area where there is no pavement on either side of the road, a lane going down diagonally to the right, and an iron railing separating the road from that lane. At the end of the railings, the pavement reappears. Eddy was used to this section and had been handling it really well. But on this day, of all days, there was a lorry parked alongside the fence with scaffolding poles overhanging the back. As we headed towards the lorry, Eddy needed to keep us tucked in to the right because of some traffic coming along our left-hand side. When the road was clear, we headed out around the lorry . . . well almost. Eddy didn’t quite get it right and walked me into the end of the scaffolding poles on the rear left of the lorry, and it hurt! Remembering what I’d been taught, I stopped Eddy from going any further, turned us around, and headed back to the pavement so that he could have another go at it. Thankfully, this time he did it beautifully! I was half expecting us to fail, but I was told that we’d qualified because of the way I’d handled the situation.

Eddy was a gorgeous, lovable character, which helped us stick by him through an initial problem. When he needed to go out the garden for a wee, he had absolutely no problem at all letting Su know. He had excellent visual contact with her, and she realised very quickly exactly what he wanted. His visual skills were totally wasted on me! He wouldn’t winge or wine, he wouldn’t paw at my leg, he wouldn’t even bark. Apparently, he’d just stand there looking at me in the hope I knew what he wanted. No chance! More often than not I didn’t even know he was stood there. So we had quite a few puddles because he couldn’t get through to me what he wanted! On several of occasions, I told Su I couldn’t cope with it anymore, and he’d have to go back. Thankfully, good old Su got through to me, begging me to be patient with him because she honestly thought things would work out in time. She was absolutely right! Things did work out, and Eddy soon learned he needed to give me non-visual cues as to what he wanted.

Of course, we kept Isaac in his retirement, and he and Eddy got on exceptionally well. I had previously made the decision that when Isaac was retired, I’d still like to take him out for walks. Obviously, I wasn’t allowed to keep his harness, so I had to use my long cane instead. I think Isaac enjoyed those walks as much as I did! I had to ultimately rely on my long cane of course, but interestingly, Isaac often gave me cues through his body language. Although he’d retired, his brain was still doing what it had done for almost 8 and-a-half years . . . bless him!

Meanwhile, every time I went to one area of town with Eddy, he always insisted on going into the Somerfield Supermarket. I thought maybe Jim had taken him there when he’d brought Eddy up to introduce him to our town. So, the next time I spoke to Jim, I asked him, only to be told that he had never taken Eddy in there. Right up until the time that supermarket closed, it was a battle to get him to go past it. but when I needed to go in there, he was clearly very happy and excited!

Su named one of his favourite games “bum-bums.” He’d stand himself in front of you, facing his rear end towards you, and then start wagging his tail while furiously dancing his bum from side to side. He often did this when you were just about to walk through a doorway, and there was absolutely no way you could get past him! the other time he was very likely to do it was when you were sat in an armchair or on a sofa. He would reverse at you, and make you feel almost imprisoned by his dancing backside!

Eddy, unlike Troy and Isaac, didn’t bark! In fact, from the time I trained with him in May 2003 until almost eight and-a-half years later, I think I’d only heard him bark about three times, and that was during our training. Su and Paul hadn’t heard him bark at all! One night though, Su heard something, something that she will never forget!

During one extremely hot spell of weather, she was woken up about 5 a.m., by the most loud and blood curdling wolf howl! She promptly woke me up, and told me: “There’s a wolf howling outside!” I told her not to be silly and that it must have been in her dream. The words hadn’t left my mouth when I also heard it! Any film director would have been very proud of it! What apparently happened was that, somehow, poor little Eddy had got shut out in the garden when we had gone to bed around 1 a.m. By 5 a.m., he’d had enough and wanted to be let back in!

During another hot spell of weather, Su, Eddy and I went to the Olympia Wetherspoon’s in Tredegar. As we walked in, Su noticed a man outside the pub opposite had a dog that wasn’t on a leash. Because of the heat, the staff at Wetherspoon’s had decided to leave the doors open to try and get some air circulating. Su went to the bar, and I was sat sideways on the chair with Eddy’s leash around my wrist. I’d just started to do something on my mobile phone when the dog outside the pub opposite came over to say hello to Eddy. Eddy saw him coming over to our table and was equally as eager to say hello! Before I knew it, Eddy had lunged forward in excitement, dragging me head-first off the chair onto the floor! Su couldn’t help me up for laughing, she left that to a member of staff and the couple who were sat at the table next to us! It was far from funny for me at the time, but looking back on it, I can’t help but laugh at how funny it must have looked!

Nearly every time we went on holiday to the Cliffden Hotel in Teignmouth with Eddy, Chris from Nottingham and his guide dog Dale would be there too. Eddy and Dale loved going out for walks around the town together, but the part Chris and I liked the best was when our walk involved going all the way along the Promenade. We could guarantee what would happen! Chris and Dale would always start off in the lead, with Eddy and I following. Once on the Promenade, Eddy would speed up and overtake Dale so that we were in the lead. A moment or two later, Dale would speed up and overtake us, and it wasn’t long before we had overtaken them, and so on and so on! That’s the way it was nearly every time.

On one occasion, Chris, Dale, Eddy and I had a few days away at Teignmouth staying at the most gorgeous place, the Lynton House Hotel. While there, we decided to go to Shaldon, which involved a short journey on a small boat. To get into the boat, we had to walk down the beach and up a gang plank. Eddy took one look and totally refused to walk up it! We gently coaxed and encouraged him, but there was no way was he moving. His brakes were firmly on! One of the boatsmen suggested that if I got on with their help, Eddy might follow me on. So, we gave it a try, and sure enough, he walked about halfway up the gang plank before coming to another grinding halt. Some more coaxing and encouraging and he bravely took those last few steps and was safely in the boat. I was absolutely dreading getting the boat back later that afternoon, but Eddy’s attitude towards it was totally different! Very confidently, he walked up the gang plank and into the boat as if he’d done it all his life!

Teignmouth is the venue for some more stories – courtesy of Eddy of course! Chris and I decided one evening to go up to the Lifeboat Inn at the top end of Town. this included the Formula 1 race track – otherwise known as the Promenade. the plan was to get a taxi back later in the night, but, for some reason, Eddy got a strop on and refused to get in the taxi. No encouragement, coaxing or bribery would get him in! I told Chris to carry on and Eddy and I would walk back to the hotel. All was going well, for a while. About halfway back, Eddy pulled over on to some grass for a wee, which I guess may have been the reason why he didn’t want to get in the taxi in the first place. Whatever the case, he managed to turn me in circles a few times, and I didn’t have a clue which direction we should be heading. It was dead quiet. There was no one around, and only one car had passed us. It was Eddy and I against the big bad world. “Right Eddy,” I said, “I’m relying on you 100 percent to get us back to the hotel, you know the way, I don’t.” I encouraged him to “find the way,” and he quite happily walked along the street, but where we were headed, I didn’t have a foggiest! After a little while,he came to a definite stop. Nothing I did or said could make him move. His brakes were firmly on, and that was it and all about it. I tried listening out for clues as to where we were. To my right I could hear a few seagulls, which in the nighttime tended to be over on the sea front, so I had a rough idea where the promenade was. But, how to get there was quite another thing. Eddy wasn’t budging! There was not a soul in sight, or in hearing for that matter. I got my mobile out and called Su. “I don’t know where I am, but Eddy’s got his brakes on and I can’t move him, and my phone’s battery is just about to die on me.” The only clue I could give Su was that I knew we were in a precinct because I could feel a rain trough in the pavement right by me. Su got in the car, and our friend Liz got on her electric scooter, and they both came down looking for us. Su glanced left at one point and spotted us, and came to the rescue! OK, so where were we? Stood right outside the pet shop! To my right was the fountain, which during the day I’d be able to hear and know exactly where I was. but the council in their wisdom turn the fountain off overnight, so that was my most important landmark gone!

On one visit, Su, Eddy, our friend Liz and I were going to get a train from Teignmouth to Plymouth, but there was quite a bit of time to wait before it was due to arrive. So we decided to go to the outdoor cafe and have a drink. The area where our table was situated was on a slight slope, but we didn’t think much of it. We were quite happily sat there, talking and drinking, when Eddy spotted a dog off leash with its owner walking towards us. Eddy lunged behind me to greet the other dog, pulling me and my patio chair over backwards. I can still remember the slow motion effect as the chair tipped over, and hearing the back left leg snapping off. The dog owner, seeing what was happening, dropped his shopping, and dived forward like a goalkeeper to catch my head in his hands, preventing my head from hitting the pavement!

Another example of Eddy’s braking system happened when I’d gone into Teignmouth town to get a few odds and ends. I decided that we’d go back to the hotel via the promenade for a change. All was going well until we got on the promenade. To get to the hotel, we needed to turn left, but Eddy was having none of it. Once again, no coaxing, encouragement, or bribery would work, and his brakes were firmly locked on. A number of people came up and asked me was everything OK, and I had to explain that he didn’t seem to want to go back to the hotel for some reason. In the end, it involved a phone call to Su to ask her to come and rescue us! The following day, Su and I both went to town with Eddy, and she suggested doing the same route, and if he doesn’t turn left, let him go where he wants to go.

What a fabulous idea that was! Up to the Promenade we went, and once more, Eddy refused to go left. Su fully expected him to want to go straight ahead, down a slope and on to the beach, but he didn’t want to go there either. So, we let Eddy show us where he wanted to go. Turning right, he very happily started going along the Promenade towards the Lifeboat Inn! Eddy had made good friends with Pete and Helly, the landlord and landlady, and unfortunately had got into a bad habit of begging and getting dog biscuits from them. All my gorgeous boy wanted was some love and affection from his friends – and no doubt a biscuit or three as well!

Listen to a recording of Eddy wagging his tail and saying “oo”