SOPHIE

Born: 28th March 2017

Breed: Golden Retriever x Black Labrador

Sire and Dam: Pasco and Hetty

Littermates: Beth, Radar, Ringo, Wendy

Puppy Walkers: Karon and Eirian Thomas, Torfaen

Trainer for advanced stage: Keita Sigston

Qualified: 22nd March 2019

Having suddenly and unexpectedly lost Max to cancer in late August 2018, I needed to revert to using a long cane to get about on my own. Those were several months I’d rather not have to repeat! It’s strange how I used to get around so confidently back in the mid 1980’s, but having had those four trusty guide dogs at my side had totally improved the quality of my mobility. I found using a long cane again after nearly thirty years very nerve-racking to say the least! Thankfully, Guide Dogs Cymru came to the rescue, and Ann Mudd gave me a refresher course. Although she helped me build up some confidence, it still didn’t feel up to the level it had been many moons ago.

After having completed the paperwork and assessment, I was once again on the waiting list for a guide dog. So many things go through your mind while you’re waiting. Boy? Girl? Name? Colour? Breed? Size? Well with regards size, all my four boys had been fair sized, ranging from 38 kg to 42 kg, so it seemed likely that number 5 would also be around that size.

One afternoon in early February, I had a phone call from Keita Sigston at the Guide Dogs training centre in Bristol. They had some dogs on their system that they couldn’t match with anyone in their area. So, they’d been in touch with Guide Dogs Cymru to see if they had anyone who would match their dogs. Details on the computers at Cardiff indicated that one of the dogs would be a suitable match for me! Keita asked if she could bring the dog over to see if the match worked as well in real life. Of course she could! She even answered some of the questions that had been niggling at me. Girl. Sophie. Yellow. Retriever Labrador cross ... it was all sounding fabulous! Possibly my first girl!

The day we met Sophie was exciting on one hand, and anxious on the other. I don’t remember why, but when they arrived, I was laid on the floor, half on half off Max’s fleece which was patterned all over with wolves. Possibly I felt some sort of comfort lying on his fleece, or maybe I thought being down at floor level with Sophie would encourage her to come directly to me. Whatever the case, she headed way over to my left to the sofa that Su was sat on. Well, that was a great start I must say! I’m not being sarcastic, all four of our boys absolutely totally and utterly adored Su. In my mind, this was a massive positive! Everything seemed to be falling into place, but we soon discovered it was everything bar one.

I stood up, and that was when one thing that matched on the system suddenly didn’t! Keita took one look at me and asked: “Jon, how tall are you?” “About 5 foot 10 I think,” I replied. Problem? It appeared that the info sent from Cardiff to Bristol included my height, which gave the impression I was several inches shorter than I am. Sophie was a small dog weighing in at around 28 kg. It seemed a short Jon would work great, but a 5 foot 10 inch Jon may not work so well. Keita said that as she’d brought Sophie all the way from Bristol to meet us, we may as well give things a try, a walk or two with Sophie in harness being the main thing.

Things were going OK, generally. I tended to walk facing in slightly towards Sophie which was having a negative effect on her. She wasn’t happy with me facing in and towering over her like that. Our boys were fine with it, they were taller, stockier, and could manage my positioning without any issues. Keita went through some re-positioning with me, and things began improving. We stopped off at the Deja Brew café in town for a chat, and Keita said she knew that the quality of Sophie’s work was not up to her usual standard. This was the first walk with me after all, I thought Sophie had done remarkably well considering! Keita decided to do another harness walk home as she felt that things would be noticeably better this time. She was absolutely right!

So, with my height problem having been eliminated – without the need of amputation, my positioning having been corrected, and this totally adorable little girl already having made massive in-roads into our hearts in such a short time, Keita said she’d like us to do some more harness walks the next day. Great! I couldn’t wait! Things just got better and better! Sophie was allowed to stay with us overnight in readiness for those extra harness walks! Wow, we weren’t expecting that!

Those walks proved to be as good as Keita had expected, and she put Sophie and I on an upcoming class together. There was something else we weren’t expecting though. There was a little bit of a problem back in Bristol. Nigel and Jannette, who had been boarding Sophie during the latter part of her advanced training, were going away. So, Keita asked if we’d mind boarding her ourselves! Silly question! Although there were some restrictions on what we could do with Sophie while she was with us, none of them really affected us. So, we agreed, and Sophie got to spend some extra time with us, getting to know our home area, as well as our neighbour’s cat, and our other neighbour’s two dogs.

The time absolutely flew by, and on Monday 18th February, Su took Sophie and I to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in north Bristol. We were there with two other trainees, Ben from Frome with Radar, and Lisa from Pontypool with Henry. They were ten fabulous days, the three of us getting on like a house on fire – as did our dogs. In fact, it wasn’t at all unusual to find Sophie and Henry canoodling under the table at mealtimes – and at any other time they thought they could get away with it!

Our qualification walk took place in Abertillery on Friday 22nd March, just six days before Sophie turned 2 years-old. The route we chose was from our home down to the Deja Brew café in town, Keita being joined for the walk by Marcus Roberts of Guide Dogs Cymru. Friday was bin day in our area at the time, so heading up out of the top end of our street meant we came across bins and a car completely blocking the pavement. There was also a dog on the opposite side of the road barking furiously at Sophie, but she was excellent and just carried on with what she needed to do. When we’d crossed over at the crossroads behind our house, we then came across a council truck parked entirely on the pavement. It made me wonder whether Keita and Marcus had purposely arranged for it to be there! Keita had a nice word with the driver, and he kindly moved his truck out of our way. Keita had told me that airbrakes startle Sophie, but I’d not experienced that with her until now! As he moved his truck off the pavement, it gave a blast of air from its brakes, which made Sophie jump. As we headed down into the top end of town, we came face to face with Alison and her guide dog Innis, which got Sophie overly excited. Then there was the Coffee Bean that had just taken a delivery, but most of the boxes were still on the pavement. In addition to the table they had outside their café, there was also a mobility scooter parked very close by. Sophie managed it ever so well, moving us slowly through, inch by inch, getting us safely past without bumping into any of it! We made our way on to our destination, where Keita and Marcus told me they were very happy with how things had gone. After signing my name on a document, Sophie and I became a fully qualified partnership.

There are two things about Sophie that I really love when we’re out together. The first is her speed. My boys had all been quite fast paced, especially Max. As Sophie is around 10kg or more smaller than the boys were, her walking pace suited me far better. I suppose as I get older, things will slow down a bit, that’s to be expected. She occasionally increases her speed if she’s excited about where she’s going, but I still find it manageable. The second thing is how cautious she is. A classic example of this was the chaos outside the Coffee Bean on our qualification walk. She’ll slow down nicely, even stopping if she feels it’s necessary. I’ll give her a moment or two to suss out the best way to deal with the situation, and she’ll cautiously deal with whatever it is. Max, on the other hand, could sometimes be a little too confident. He’d take a look, and think: ‘Oh yeah yeah we can do this no problem...’ Which would then be followed by: ‘Oops sorry dad!’ Not my little Sophie! She simply will not go rushing into anything, she takes her time and makes sure she gets it right.

There’s something else that Sophie does that none of my previous dogs had ever done, and that’s barking furiously at motorbikes travelling directly behind our car. The first time she did it I nearly had a heart attack! If they keep their distance, she’s happy enough, but when they come too close for her liking, she really gives them what for! She’s only a little girl, but she has one massive bark when she feels the need to use it! We hoped that over time, with some gentle reassurance, this would gradually stop, but that hasn’t been the case in the slightest. To save me from having any future heart failure, Su very kindly warns me if there’s a motorbike behind us so I can prepare myself for the inevitable!

Sophie was the second out of my five guide dogs to let out a blood curdling growl, the first being Troy almost thirty years earlier. At the time, our son and daughter-in-law, Paul and Kate, were living in our basement flat. One day, we’d let them know we had a package for them, and that we’d leave it on our kitchen worktop so they could grab it whenever they wanted. Su and I were quietly watching the TV, when suddenly Sophie went tearing off into the kitchen while barking and letting out the most horrific growl! We wondered what on earth was going on, it sounded like she was ready and raring to rip someone’s throat out! It was only Paul fetching the package. As soon as Sophie saw who it was, she went totally nuts, jumping about and frantically wagging her tail because it was her Paul! We couldn’t help but wonder what she might have done if it was someone she didn’t like coming uninvited into our kitchen! So far, that’s the first and only time she sounded so threatening.

As June 2019 marked my 30th anniversary as a client of Guide Dogs for the Blind, I thought what a wonderful opportunity it would be to celebrate the occasion by arranging some events that would highlight the work of the charity, and bring in some much needed funds. My goal was to raise enough to name a Guide Dog puppy. I decided to combine the events under the title “TIMES to Remember,” TIMES being a sort of anagram of the five initials of my guide dogs, Troy, Isaac, Max, Eddy, and Sophie. On two occasions I dressed up in a dog costume supplied by Guide Dogs Cymru, and wore an oversized white t-shirt with the words “Isaac the Blind Dog” printed on the front of it. Under the careful supervision of Paul, I did a solo walk wearing the dog costume from our home to the Iceland Supermarket in town, where a very successful bucket collection was also held. I used no mobility aids at all, just feeling my way through my enormous furry feet! This was a particularly hot day, and I felt as though I was cooking inside the costume! Over the next few months, incredible support came from the staff and customers of the Deja Brew café; the Abertillery Ladies Orpheus Choir who made a very generous donation, and put on an amazing concert with special guests Molly Bradley and Paige Coles; adverts sponsored by local businesses that financed the concert programmes which were produced by Old Bakehouse Publications; the staff at the Abertillery and Llanhilleth Community Council who hosted a Guide Dogs Awareness Event; local guide dog owners and puppy walkers with all their gorgeous pooches; and the generosity of the residents of Abertillery and surrounding areas. The target was finally reached, and as this was my 30th anniversary, the name I chose was Pearl. It wasn’t long before we heard the news that my chosen name had been given to a beautiful German Shepherd puppy.

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic and its resulting lockdowns caused severe disruption for Guide Dogs for the Blind in the UK. It halted the charity’s breeding and training programmes, leading to a backlog on the waiting list. Volunteer fundraisers and puppy raisers were also negatively affected, there were dangerous distractions for working dogs in public places, and serious mental health problems regarding independence were experienced by many guide dog handlers.

Despite the pandemic, in June 2021 Su and I had the opportunity of spending a week with Sophie in a static Caravan at the dog-friendly Whitehouse Leisure Park in Towyn on the north coast of Wales. We had a thoroughly enjoyable time, which included meeting up with Jean and her guide dog Wendy, Sophie’s sister. The girls really enjoyed each other’s company, which was only slightly marred by Sophie’s poorly paw. We had taken her to what appeared to be a gorgeous beach, but unfortunately she managed to cut her paw on some broken glass. This meant our holiday also included a couple of trips to the vet, as well as to our own vet once we were back home.