“The dog doesn’t think you are blind, he just thinks you are really clumsy.”
In one sentence Logan Anderson has summed up how a Guide Dog approaches its job.
As the training school manager at the Guide Dogs Centre in Forfar, Logan is one of the most experienced trainers in the country and has agreed to help me understand the difficulties faced by those without sight.
And what better way to help me understand than by showing me?
That’s why I am standing on Dundee’s Ward Road with a blindfold and a dog named George.
George is in the final few weeks of his training, and in the New Year will be off to live with a 77-year-old Dundee man but for now he is forced to endure me.
While I am vaguely familiar with this section of Dundee Logan explains to me that someone using a Guide Dog will have a detailed mental map of the area to help them find their way about.
Additionally dogs will learn their handler’s favourite haunts and have a tendency to take them towards them.
George’s task is to move me around anything he feels I may trip over cars, street furniture and even other human beings.
I have to become much more reliant on my hearing and sense of touch to work out what is going on around me.
The first thing that strikes me is that every little crack in the pavement becomes a major obstacle.
It’s incredible easy to trip over a slightly raised paving stone if you can’t see it.
Improvements designed to aid those with mobility impairments also provide problems for those without sight.
At one point in Meadowside I almost walk straight across a street, as the kerb and road merge into one.
Luckily, George is smart enough to spot the double yellow lines and stops me in my tracks.
He also has to spend around a minute working out how to get me into the Keiller Centre whilst avoiding some cars which have been parked on the pavement.
Modern life has also created major challenges for those with visual impairments.
“We now have a street caf culture in this country, which is great, but it causes problems for blind people,” Logan says as George steers me around some tables.
It seems I am not the only clumsy, or even blind, person out today on two occasions members of the public walk straight into me.
The cause of their ‘blindness’ is that their eyes are glued to their mobile phones.
As I take my blindfold off at the end of the day I’ve gained a new appreciation for Guide Dogs, but an even greater respect for those they assist.