Timber the Guide - Volunteering with Guide Dogs

So, 'Timber the Guide', a very Welsh expression.  Even although 'volunteering for guide dogs' wasn't actually an item on my list, it could have been.  Before I started on this 50 before 50 malarkey I read through a ton of other folks birthday challenge lists, and one very popular item is to sponsor a guide dog. A very worthwhile thing to do of course and I'm in no way knocking that. But as a challenge?  Try making the life changing decision to truly get involved.  Even though our first tenure as volunteer boarders came to an end this week I believe it has been life changing.  We SOOOO want to do it again. And hopefully we will.   It was hard, and on Monday when he left us, it was heartbreaking.  But would we want to do it again - in an absolute heartbeat.

So why, in a blog covering things I'm doing directly related to my birthday list have I all of a sudden included a post about a dog - albeit an exceedingly special dog, called Timber, the Guide.  Well, when I said goodbye to him on Monday I pretty much realised that he has been such an integral and important part of this task list.  He has been helping me almost as much as Stewart has so this to acknowledge his efforts and to say thanks.  By the way, I'm completely aware that some of these efforts are tenuous to say the least.  But, they still count.  So in no particular order I would like to acknowledge Timber's unwavering contribution to my 50 Before 50.

No.7: 50k/miles of walking 

 

Timber came with us on the first of my walks which will make up the 50 miles.  I'm calling them the Weatherman Walking walks cos of a Welsh legend Derek Brockway (an iconic (?) weatherman who wrote about a series of hikes he did in Wales and I'll be following them).  This walk was in Newport and followed the 14 Locks Trail.

No.8: Climb Pen Y Fan (highest point in south Wales)

Stewart and Timber pretty much walked up mountains for a laugh.  Every weekend.  Before I was even up out of bed. However, Stewart and Timber encouraged me to get this task completed fairly early on, so one early Saturday morning, in April, mission accomplished.  Timber - on top of the wooorld.

No.9; Compete in 50 Pub Quizzes

One of our regular quizzes is the Sunday night Wetherspoons quiz.  Basically since he came to stay with us Timber has been a regular competitor.  Our team name is the Richard Dawkins Appreciation Society but it's only just struck me that perhaps we should have been the Richard Dawgins Appreciation Society.  Crap joke I know....By the way, Timber, as a member of a quiz team was pretty useless.  His knowledge of Greek mythology, US geography and phobias was really crap to be honest.  But, all the other teams seriously loved him and know they'll miss him.


No.11: Take part in a dog walk with at least 50 other dogs

This was actually the first thing I got to completely cross of my list.  It was a huge charity dog walk in aid of Hearing Dogs for the Deaf.  We'd only had him for a couple of weeks by then so it was early days of getting to know him.  My main memory from this was realising the sense of fun and madness in him and how much he relished rolling in sh*t and jumping in ditch water!

 No.15: Volunteer at the Welsh Velothon

Don't have much evidence of how he helped me when I volunteered to be part of the Velothon Wales so you'll just have to trust me.  He was instrumental in me completing this task.  When I volunteered, I read all the notes and guidance and followed them to a T.  One of the things they asked was, due to the road closures, and due to lack of parking up Caerphilly Mountain, please could all volunteers walk up.  So I did.  And it nearly killed me.  If it hadn't been for the encouragement of Stewart and Timber, I'd have given up and gone home.  As it was, I think I was the only velonteer who walked up - the rest all went bugger this and got lifts up.  Still this was an achievement for me and Stewart and Timber even came to meet me at the end of the day to escort me back down the mountain. Ta very muchly!

No.30: Grow Strawberries, a sunflower....anything

Oh yes, this is my gardening task.  One which is still ongoing.  To be honest, as far as Timber's intention of helping me goes - it was pretty questionable.

He tried to help by digging.  If he'd dug anywhere else, I wouldn't have been best pleased!

No.49: Get 50 Selfies with people met along the way with these challenges

Think he's earned his right to be part of the selfies challenge.  If you've read this far you'll understand what a support and star he has been.  I'll miss him :(

DONE: No.11 - Take Part In A Dog Walk With At Least 50 Other Dogs

So today I managed to complete my first task!  No 11: Take Part In A Dog Walk With At Least 50 Other Dogs.  We took part in the Great British Dog Walk at Margam Park, Port Talbot which was organised by, and for, Hearing Dogs for the Deaf. To be fair, this was an easy and straightforward thing to do.  But, it was nice to have something easy that I can tick off quickly.  

For anybody who doesn't know, I have recently become a volunteer 'boarder' for Guide Dogs for the Blind and am currently looking after Timber, a guide dog in training.  Timber is 13 months old and at the moment in 'early training' for 16 weeks. Our role as 'boarders' is to take him to and from training - which coincides with our working day - and to look after him at all times outside those hours.   He goes to work basically while we do.  Early days, but I can say that although it is hard work, it is also hugely rewarding.  To learn about assistance dogs and the whole process involved in training them has been amazing.   We are involved in only a tiny way so I am completely full of awe and admiration for the actual trainers who can get these dogs to the point where they will be such help to their eventual owners.  In our case Timber will go on to a person with limited or no sight.   The dogs we went to support today will be of help to people with little to no hearing.    

So, to the actual day itself.   We arrived early, very early as it happens, signed in and Timber received his official bandanna.

Off we went, happily walking about freestlye for rather a long time.  Probably we walked around the park for one hour with a distance of a couple of miles - you can't exactly power walk and cover distance with an excitable puppy(ish) in tow.  He was constantly sniffing, constantly exploring, searching out so many new things.  Including wading through a ditch, much to Stewart's consternation.  In the space of an hour his pristine bandanna went from the above, to this:

But, a good time was being had by all.  Eventually, we saw a huge line of people with their dogs and realised that the actual dog walk had started. Had we actually listened to instructions we would have known about this but it didn't matter as we'd had an hour of fun on our own.  But, as soon as we saw the main event we jumped straight in.   It was great.   So many different people, so many different dogs all out in the sunshine, enjoying fresh air, some exercise and supporting the continuing work of amazing assistance dogs.   Something that has become very important to us.

So, one week in to the countdown to my 50th birthday and one task completed. I don't feel comfortable with calling it a 'task' right enough as it was just such an enjoyable and worthwhile day.   A very good start to the next 13 months!  Hope to be in touch again soon.

Lesley
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