Stuart Beveridge, Seescape’s Head of Accessible Technology writes about the recent retirement of his Guide Dog Ron, who has been navigating life with Stuart since 2013.
For the last nine years, I have had the privilege of working alongside my constant companion and the best Guide Dog in the world, Ron. However, it’s now time for him to hang-up the harness and enjoy a well-deserved retirement after many years of devoted service.
Ron is my second Guide Dog and we were matched in 2013. In all honesty, the first few months were a bit tricky, mainly because I found it quite difficult adapting to a new dog, but in the words of my instructor at the time, “stick with him because when you settle down, you’re going to be great together”. How right he was! Ron has worked every day without complaint, all he needed was encouragement, support and praise from me and that was enough.
Until the first lockdown back in 2020, Ron was in a routine of going to work with me Monday to Friday and guiding me around the building at Wilson Avenue and every lunch time, we would go a walk to the Golden Gates area where he could then have some free time to run, play and have a good sniff around. Most weekends, we would be walking in our home area. In the morning, Ron would take me to the baker’s to get breakfast, then to the local shop to get some essentials. In the afternoon, we would go for another walk, usually to listen to our local football team get beaten soundly and finally it was off to the pub to drown our sorrows.
Then came the lockdown and while I had to adapt to a new way of working from home and a completely disrupted routine, I was able to cope well all through this difficult and challenging period, because Ron was always there by my side. We were even still able to go into our local shops and do a lot of new walks, all thanks to the support of people in my local community and help of my parents, family and friends. So, for me, this made the lockdown situation bearable and helped me mentally as well. I think Ron was happier too in all honesty, as by then he was a lot older and loved being out-and-about more in his home environment.
Thankfully though, things are starting to return to normal.
However, Ron’s time as a working dog is coming to an end. He is still extremely
willing to work, but a recent visit from Guide Dogs helped me to make the decision that it was time for him to retire and enjoy his last few years in comfort. Even at the age of 11, his remarkable brain is still as sharp as ever and his guiding is impeccable, it’s unfortunately his age that’s against him and he just can’t walk at my fast pace anymore.
This is obviously a slightly uncertain time for me, but Ron is going to stay with my
Mum and Dad who live in the same street as me, so the great thing is that I’ll still see
him every day and he’ll hopefully have a new friend to play with soon when I get my
third Guide Dog.
His final working day will be 31st October and while this will be a sad day for me, it will be a happy one in a way as well, because if any Guide Dog has earned a rest, it’s my Ron.