'Why Carter is priceless to me'

Nick Morrison finds out how a blind man got to know his best friend.

IT took about an hour for Gavin Atkins to realise that something was wrong. During that time, two buses had gone past him, and he was still standing forlornly at the bus stop.

"I hadn't realised that there was a parked car in the way and the buses couldn't see me. I had stood for an hour and missed two buses," he says. But that is an everyday hazard for Gavin: he doesn't know when people can't see him, because he can't see them.

Born partially sighted, he has been registered blind since he was nine and is now totally blind. Now 49, he has had a guide dog since he was 18. Carter is two years old, and is Gavin's fifth guide dog.

When he first trained with a dog 31 years ago, Gavin had to attend a residential centre at Forfar, north of Dundee. Now, the Guide Dogs Association is moving away from residential centres, instead carrying out training where the owner lives. By the beginning of next year, there will be 31 teams across the UK, helping owners training with new dogs in their homes.

For Gavin, this meant that when Carter arrived in June, for the first time the training was undertaken in his home town of Darlington, and in the County Durham towns and villages which Gavin visits for his job as a piano tuner.

"The changes have been upsetting for some people, but for someone like myself, who has to be flexible and work in my own area, it has been wonderful," he says. "My dog has been learning to walk in an area where he has got to spend the rest of his working life."

Guide dogs are delivered already trained to their new owners, who then spend the next four weeks getting to know how the new dog works. "You have to get used to each other," says Gavin. "It's very much a partnership, and that is what has to be established over a period of about three to four weeks. The trainer has to be confident that you can go out with a dog and come back safely."

Under a trainer's supervision, the first week was spent doing short walks around Gavin's home, starting off with trips of 100 yards down the street and straight back again, gradually going further afield, walking around the block and then making the route more complicated.

Once that has been mastered, it's time to put the partnership to the test on buses, trains, car journeys and road crossings.

"When you are training, the trainer is standing behind you, giving you little bits of information about the bus, about whether it has pulled up right to the kerb or not," Gavin says.

"It is always difficult getting on a bus because you don't know where there is a seat. Sometimes the bus driver will say 'first on the right is empty', but all guide dog owners have sat on people on buses before. Some people sit there silently and let you sit on them, but the majority of people are quite helpful.

"A bus journey can be quite stressful, and then there is the problem of getting off at the right stop. If you are in your home area, you get to know the route and where the corners are, but if you're unsure you have to ask."

Trains also present a problem, although many railway stations will provide assistance if contacted in advance. They have the added disadvantage of a large gap between the train and the platform.

"More and more these days travelling is stressful, because everything is so busy, people are in such a rush, but with a bit of planning your journey usually can be OK," says Gavin. And, as a self-employed piano tuner, he has to make more journeys than many blind people. His work takes him around Darlington, to Richmond, Catterick, Newton Aycliffe, Shildon, Bishop Auckland, Crook, Spennymoor, Durham, Barnard Castle and Teesdale. Anywhere, in fact, within a 60-mile radius of his home.

The Access to Employment service gives him the use of a car and driver for 20 hours a week, but for the rest he has to rely on public transport.

But walking can prove just as hazardous. "A walk can be quite straightforward to a sighted person, but not when you approach it from the point of view of a blind person. A guide dog is trained to go around broken paving stones or an obstruction in the pavement," Gavin says.

One of the most dangerous manoeuvres with a guide dog happens when a pavement is totally blocked, and the dog has to take its owner into the road.

"It is always a dangerous procedure, but we're trained how to do it safely. The dog walks straight up to the obstruction and turns to the kerb and sits and waits for the owner to tell it what to do.

"You have to listen for the traffic and when you think it is quiet, you say 'forward' to the dog. You have to be very sensitive to what the dog is telling you through the harness, but constantly encourage the dog to where you believe the pavement is.

"When it goes back to the kerb, it stops and waits for you to find it. You say 'up, up', and allow the dog to take you up the kerb. It is a very complicated procedure and it takes a lot of confidence to do it properly."

When Gavin first started using a guide dog, less traffic meant roads were easier to cross. But now he will only ever cross a side road, or at a controlled crossing, and using these also has to be built into the training, as does ensuring the dog can work despite the distractions of noise, pedestrians, smells, and, worst of all, discarded food, like a magnet to a labrador.

At the end of the month-long training period, the Guide Dogs district team manager will come out and observe a walk, to ensure the owner and dog are safe enough to be allowed out on their own. If that test is passed, then the owner signs a legal agreement, taking the dog on for its working life, usually around eight years.

But the support from the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association does not stop there. After Gavin was unable to get to grips with a new set of lights in the centre of Darlington, a trainer came out and spent a couple of hours taking him around them from every conceivable angle.

"You are not on your own. They will give you a tremendous amount of help if you need it. That is why a guide dog costs so much," says Gavin. Indeed, the cost is not to be sniffed at. A guide dog will cost around £35,000 during its working life, around £10 a day, but then this covers from the breeding stage through training, vets' bills and a food allowance. But to Gavin, Carter is priceless.

"I couldn't be an independent person and I couldn't run my business without my guide dog," he says. "The whole of life working with a guide dog is a partnership. The dog has been trained how to work with you, and you have been trained how to work with the dog, and if you maintain that balance you will be safe."