Catch up with Lee and her Guide Dog Ollie

Lee and Ollie complete their Guide Dog training.

After four weeks of learning, practising and working together, Lee and her new Guide Dog Ollie have completed their training. There is still more practice ahead, including a solo trip into work. But reaching the end of formal training is an exciting milestone for the pair.

For Lee, who has had four Guide Dogs before Ollie, the experience brought some unexpected challenges. Almost 10 years have passed since Lee last trained with a new Guide Dog.

On top of that, she discovered some habits that worked well with her retiring Guide Dog, Frankie, did not work as well with Ollie. As Lee puts it, there has been plenty of “teaching this old dog new tricks”.

Learning together.

Throughout their training, Lee and Ollie have tackled buses, shopping centres, the commute to work and residential routes. They have practised finding shop doors and counters, using lifts and navigating escalators.

They also worked on several regular routes and were signed off to complete two walks independently. While Ollie was learning Lee’s routines and quirks, Lee was learning how to work differently with Ollie. “Ollie is patience canine-ified,” Lee said. “He never minds how many times we repeat something, or stop for me to collect myself, shrug stiff shoulders or just take a breather.”

Lee’s also had to get used to working with a much taller, longer dog, which has presented challenges of orienting herself in space, and not stepping up too soon on the up-kerb!

That patience has helped them work through the challenging moments, with plenty of laughter along the way.

A new partnership at home.

Training has also meant a big change at home. For the first time, Lee has been able to have her retiring Guide Dog and new Guide Dog living with her at the same time. Ollie and Frankie have been getting to know each other and working out the important details of Labrador life, including who gets which bed.

Frankie has even continued one of the habits she developed during COVID, bringing her dinner bowl to Lee after she has finished eating.

And Alfie, Lee’s parents’ Cavoodle, has been adjusting to having a new four-legged family member around too.

Ready for what comes next.

By week three, Lee and Ollie had added another regular route to their repertoire and tackled an escalator. Ollie also had the chance to test out his new yellow raincoat on a walk towards the Guide Dogs office in St Leonards. Now, after four weeks, their formal training is complete.

There are more milestones ahead as Lee and Ollie continue building their partnership and practising their routes together. For now, however, there was an important achievement to celebrate.

Their Guide Dog Mobility Instructor treated Ollie to a child-sized vanilla ice cream to mark the occasion. After four weeks of hard work, patience and plenty of learning, it was a well-earned celebration for Lee and Ollie.