The life-changing impact of guide dogs in sport
Sky Sports meets four guide dog owners to discuss how their companionship has helped shape and alter their lives within sport...
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"I feel whole again with him."
"I feel like a normal person with him."
"I used to feel like I had to pretend I was more blind than I am."
"He became the booster back to where I came from."
Josh Murphy and Lois Turner have dreams of representing Team GB at the Paralympics, Gavin Griffiths is a Team GB tennis and former cricket player with 30 years of decorated international experience, Vicky Heil is an American Football and Equine photographer who chuckles in the face of cliche enquiries over her credentials with a camera. All have slalomed through misconceptions and all have encountered the barriers posed by vision impairment while pursuing their sporting ambitions - all have done so with the support of a guide dog.
Their canine companions are model professionals steering their designated parents/owners/nap buddies/rent payers towards coveted independence and reassurance. They also remain a source of unconditional loyalty and providers of unrivalled affection as both loveable entertainers and fluffy canes. One has been known to lick self-spilt beer (before being abruptly stopped!), another has been known to quietly amass balls belonging to other dogs on walks, another groans and moans like an over-protective guardian while his owner sprawls out on a goalball court, one seemingly fancies himself as an NFL wide receiver.
Between ease of access and a promise of security, their presence continues to uphold a life within sport for those who seek it...
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"It feels like that puzzle piece has been put back in with a guide dog. It's a constant companion and constant comfort."
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The American Football photographer who 'blows people's minds'
Guide dogs can empower visually impaired athletes with the freedom and confidence to partake in sport, but so too do they allow others to pursue unsung passions behind-the-scenes within the industry.
As much can be said for Vicky Heil, who has sought to shatter misconceptions over vision impairment by virtue of her role as a photographer for the Somerset Wyverns American Football Club.
'How can you be a photographer when you are part blind?' - Heil has heard them all, in addition to questions over why and how somebody at the age of just 28 would need a guide dog.
"I actually got asked if I was just training my dog in the shop earlier - nope, he's mine," she laughs in an interview with Sky Sports.
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Heil suffers from what she describes as a rare genetic condition called Ehlers Danos Syndrome, with its limitations only really becoming evident around 12 years ago when her family relocated from Brighton to North Devon. She had known home like the back of her hand, and only when stepping into a new and unfamiliar layout did she realise she had been navigating life primarily through feel and memories.
"I think I was about 19 when I first got Courtney, my first guide dog, and I waited a good couple of years for her to arrive," she recalls. "I then went to live at college at Bicton to do Horse Care Management, and I wouldn't have dreamed of doing that even two months prior to having her.
"I've always worked with horses, which is why I do all the equine photography as well. Because it's just a big part of my life. And I couldn't have a horse without a guide dog either because I couldn't get there otherwise."
Heil affords herself the chance to laugh over times when she would bump into objects or trip over before the arrival of her current guide dog Caldie, nonetheless finds herself blessed with an artist's eye through which she observes the world and sport in her own unique way.
From a young age she had a love for drawing, before eventually gravitating towards photography where she would find a natural home, such is the comfort it provides - not to mention a lens's ability to aid her sight.
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"People assume somebody with vision impairment is somebody who is kind of blundering around and with a little bit of grey hair, who doesn't go very far and isn't doing very much," she says.
"When you're with a camera or people see me drawing, it just kind of blows their brain a little bit because they don't really get there is a variation to sight loss. It's not just black and white, people assume you can see or you can't.
"My condition is particularly rare as well because it's the muscles that are affected rather than the eyes, so it's more that they get tired, especially with the camera, it can screw up my eyesight for a little bit for about an hour or so until my eyes start working together again. I think people just sort of assume that I'm a young person, therefore, I don't need anything. And I can't really get to be disabled or anything like that, so people don't move out of their seats or anything like that, again, because they think well, she probably can see."
She credits her ability to travel largely without detection to Caldie simply "doing his job."
Before him, Heil admits to being house-bound. Her photography had been put on hold, both due to travel and the struggle of coping with crowds or stalls.
"I just didn't go anywhere. I just didn't feel able to, it was horrible," she explains. "Whereas now I can literally pinpoint where I want to go in the world. With the American Football it was a brand new sport, it was more that I had to learn the movements of it and how the game worked, then I was able to sort of deal with it better.
"Whereas obviously horses have been around for so many years that I know the movement of jumps and even just hearing them means I don't always need to see them."
For Heil to integrate herself into an alien sporting environment was perhaps the most meaningful testament to the impact of Caldie, who would encounter a new learning curve of his own amid temptation to pursue a quarterback's pass as if he was the wide receiver being targeted.
"At first he was a bit confused," she laughs. "If any of the players were warming up and throwing the ball around then he was quite happy to go and chase it, and he actually joined in several games while we were waiting for the other team!
"They would pass the ball around in a big circle with him running around and they loved it, but once the game starts he isn't chasing it and probably feels from me that this is work now and he has to concentrate.
"I have a long double lead I have over me so I'm attached to him but not holding him so I can get on with things with the camera. He's brilliant, he'll come with me every move up and down the field, probably wondering what the hell we're doing!
"Sometimes somebody else will sit with him while I go up and down the field and he will just lay and watch me from afar, the only thing he gets worried about is me going out of sight, not the ball!"
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When it comes to gridiron etiquette, Caldie has had the opportunity to learn from the behaviours of Heil's former guide dog Courtney, with whom she still lives.
"We went on the coach actually down to Bristol for an away game and he was so good, it's not a long trip but it just felt totally comfortable with doing it, even though it was a brand new environment," said Heil.
Work or not, Heil will always take her camera to sporting events such has become her love of photography and the 'binocular' effect it happens to have on improving her vision. Once a stranger to the complexities of football, her work with Somerset has not only inspired her to remain within the sport but granted her a sense of belonging. Without Caldie, that might have never been possible.
"I do miss the American Football and wanted to contact another team possibly in the South West to see if I could carry on with one of them, because I really enjoy it," she says. "It was nice learning a new sport, because it was not like anything I've ever been exposed to before. It is also the mentality of the players, and it was very, very family orientated. So once you're in there, you're part of them.
"The guys on the team at Somerset always encouraged me to have a go at playing - I'm not sure that would be a good idea! I would love to do more sports and all sorts of sports, I just love taking photos of all sports and having to get that image is really empowering for some reason and gives me so much pleasure."
With a guide dog comes heightened accessibility, enhanced ease of travel and a beacon of security for Heil, who thanks to Caldie is able to embrace the thrill of lining up her next shot, or hop on buses to go and see her horses, or ride with the knowledge he is on hand to warn of oncoming cars.
"I don't suffer with social anxiety or anything like that, but because it's not quite the right information that's being fed through, my judgment is always off, so I'm constantly feeling a bit under confident, unless I have him," she admits. "If I don't, I'm constantly doubting myself.
"Just having that and knowing he is with me is knowing I'm safe as well, because I have been attacked before. I've had men being difficult with me in public, so having him I feel safer as well.
"I feel a little bit more whole again with him, because you do feel lost, you do feel like you've lost something. And it kind of feels like that puzzle piece has been put back in with a guide dog in all ways, it's a constant companion and constant comfort."
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"He allowed me to carry on and do all the things I did before in a happy and independent way."
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'The dog who couldn't care less about tennis balls'
Gavin Griffiths lives in the fast lane. He represented Great Britain on the World Athletics stage in 1990, as well as competing at the first visually impaired Cricket World Cup in India in 1998 and for the England VI football team from the late 90s into the early 2000s.
He previously played VI cricket for 33 years, before taking up tennis in 2019 and receiving an invite to trial for the Great Britain squad. The 50-year-old was subsequently forced to withdraw due to cancer in his right wrist, but has since returned to health to become national B1 tennis champion in singles and mixed doubles, and the first player to be selected for his discipline at the World Games earlier this year.
Accompanying Griffiths - who has Retinoblastoma - within his expansive sporting life is guide dog Utah, the Labrador Retriever who has so-very-conveniently mastered a blind eye for tennis balls.
"It's not so much that he's changed my life," he tells Sky Sports. "I was a totally blind person and I mean totally blind, I've got one false eye and then nothing, a better word for which would be a socket, and when my ears, which were my main asset, started to fail me he came along and filled the gap.
"He allowed me to carry on and do all the things I did before in a happy and independent way. It brought me back to almost 100 per cent of doing what I did every day. He stopped what was going to be a downfall in my abilities to do stuff. He stopped that and he reversed it back, and that's the best thing, he is a fantastic working companion. He's a lovely working pet as well, he's adorable.
"He became the booster back to where I came from, and allowed me to carry on doing my self-employed work or the sports and going out in public.
"It's been a really fantastic partnership and he has pulled me back to where I came from and allowed me to do everything I want to do."
Griffiths was one of 13 Brits to compete at the IBSA World Games back in August as he finished seventh in the men's singles draw, while picking up bronze in the mixed doubles alongside playing partner Yvette Priestley.
Visually impaired tennis consists of four categories in B1, B2, B3 and B4, with B1 for the greatest degree of sight loss in which three bounces of the ball are allowed and players compete in eye masks. Thin lines are taped to the ground to give players orientation around a smaller court, the net is lowered down to 83cm and an audible ball is used to assist with location.
"I was hoping to be a bit higher than that in the singles, but the competition was really tough and really, really fantastic to play," he says. "Not knowing people on the plane was very different, absolutely fantastic.
"I was massively chuffed to come back with a bronze, would have loved one of the other medals but tennis is tough and it hinges on a point sometimes. At 50, I'm not saying I won't do it again but I probably won't do the international stuff again because it's very mentally tough, you are out there on your own and mistakes happen."
Griffiths does not shy away from admitting he is a bad loser. To him 'taking part' equates to wanting to win. When he doesn't, he jokes he needs a moment or two to swear or kick his bag in frustration. Even now, he attacks sport full throttle.
Having previously been a cane user, Griffiths always knew the time might come to introduce a guide dog to his life. His independence took a hit in 2015/16 when a serious flu inflicted long-lasting damage to the hearing in his left ear, limiting the impact of the echolocation with which he had navigated life by way of tongue clicks.
"I found that once I'd lost the higher pitches, once I'd lost above 12,000 hertz on the left hand side, the echoes that were coming back were basically wonky," he explains. "So to have to accommodate that it meant me slowing down when I was walking and stuff.
"I noticed I would miss things on the left hand side, and I still do at times even though my right ear is now compensating for that. So in 2017 I just said to my wife while out walking that I wanted to look into getting a guide dog and it took her by surprise.
"It was the right choice, I didn't like going slower!"
After a short wait Griffiths was assigned a guide dog, before entering the training that he would later look back on as "the hardest thing I've ever done emotionally".
"You are going from a completely independent person who's waving the cane around and happy to do so, to having to go and decide that 50 per cent of the walking and decisions are going to be given over to this animal.
"I'd seen loads of friends do it, I've seen teachers in my boarding schools, and seen the fantastic work they can do. But it's not the same as when you have to give up what you've had and go, 'Can I do that with a dog?'
"I nearly stopped and gave up about two thirds of the way through, but didn't, persevered and got through."
Utah turned eight on August 24 having spent over six years beside Griffiths, who laughs that his beer has developed a habit for tipping over not-so-mysteriously whenever his tail-chasing companion is in the vicinity. The ultimate pro, is Utah, but so too the fun-loving friend in out-of-office hours.
He will join Griffiths on bus and tram journeys to tennis sessions on Fridays and Sundays, the latter of which sees him assist him on a walk across a market square between the two bus journeys before crossing a park to reach the courts. Utah has been to London, Loughborough, Newport, Glasgow, Wrexham, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Durham, serving as the lead man to the Griffiths entourage as he competes around the country.
"He's become my cane I suppose, but quite a clever cane in that he guides me around obstacles I don't know are there or that I don't pick up in time. He stops me from getting into danger, allows me to continue with the independent life I had before and keep the same kind of pace.
"Before I started playing tennis I had played cricket for over 30 years. When he came into my cricket world as an add-on it was life changing. He has allowed me to carry on playing cricket, and then onto tennis while also working all over the country as a self-employed person and going on walks freely and independently. He's been my first dog and I couldn't have wanted better."
There may be no two sports more tempting for a dog to dash in pursuit of a stray ball than cricket or tennis. Not Utah. He, as Griffiths says, "couldn't care less about tennis balls."
"They're taught to ignore and dismiss distraction, so toys, balls and stuff like that, especially while they're working," he explains. "If a ball is on the ground they're taught to ignore that because they're in their harness and working.
"When the harness is off, the lead comes off and his home collar goes on he is free to be a dog. He's obviously highly-trained, but he's never really been interested in tennis balls!"
For Griffiths, the company of Utah has preserved the independence that he had been so eager to keep.
Guide Dogs UK operate with a personalised matching process in order to ensure people of vision impairment are paired with the perfect dog for their situation.
The process considers a person's daily routine, their activity level, their career, their use of public transport and whether they have children, all of which contributes to a decision on whether a dog is suited to the lifestyle and needs in question.
Waiting times for guide dogs have been impacted significantly by the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdowns it enforced at the time. Guide Dogs UK have been forced to pause their breeding programme for five months, reducing the number of puppies available to train, while Covid restrictions previously hindered the opportunities for socialising among dogs.
The current average waiting time is 15 months, although 40 per cent of those matches in the last 12 months have been waiting for less than a year. Their Guide Dogs Academy meanwhile continues to provide training and development opportunities for those interested in becoming trainers.
Amid the wait for some to train with their guide dog, there are also services on offer to help support independence such as long cane training, help learning new routes, life skills for the home and advice on relevant technologies.
“I’m actually at a point in my life where there's nothing that can stop me to be honest, a lot of that is down to Buster.”
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'Having a guide dog gave me Paralympic dream'
"I now have a level of independence that I could never describe that anybody else could give to me. Not having to rely on anybody and having this little mini magic pocket in him, you just can't describe it to be honest, it's just something that doesn't come from anything else that you get."
Lois Turner was born with five different eye conditions in nystagmus, glaucoma, cataracts, aniridia and photophobia, but with the assistance of her guide dog Buster has hurdled obstacles to both serve as England VI Ladies' cricket captain as well as igniting her own Paralympic aspirations in Goalball.
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The 23-year-old represented Great Britain in the 2023 IBSA European Championships in December, just falling shy of qualification for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games as her side were beaten 1-0 by Greece in the bronze medal match.
Despite the setback, attention now turns to the qualification process for Los Angeles 2028, which will entail opportunities at the World and European Championships.
Should Turner's Paralympic dream come true down the line, she insists it will be a shared honour.
"When I graduated everybody was saying Buster should have a graduation himself, and so if I become a Paralympian and have that label I want that to be put at the end of his name every single time as well because I 100 per cent would not be able to do it without him," she explains.
"I would never have the opportunity to be a Paralympian without him."
Turner jokes that while Buster's impeccable training enables him to observe Goalball games without temptation to join in, he isn't afraid to voice his concern at the sight of her stretched out on the floor in brief fear that his owner might be hurt.
"He likes to verbalise himself, but he knows his boundaries!" she explains.
For Turner, as appears to be a common theme among guide dog-owning athletes, the defining impact has been the ease of access granted to her through Buster. And while taxi refusals have continued to occur on occasion, the presence of a guide dog has given her the confidence to participate in sport with freedom.
"I can't believe how much of a difference he has made to me," she continues. "I didn't realise how much of a slow walker I was before! He allows me to get about my everyday life, I feel like so much more of a normal person.
"The accidents rarely ever happen now thanks to him because he does remove the low obstacles away from me. I'm not having to worry about him because I know that he'll just go around them or around people, so having him I've been able to attend university, I've been able to get jobs and now I'm currently doing my Masters as well with work placement.
"I'm actually at a point in my life where there's nothing that can stop me to be honest, a lot of that is down to Buster."
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Turner's multiple conditions mean she is affected in different ways by different lightings, ranging from being sensitive to bright light in the sun to struggling in the dark. She likens her vision to when binoculars have been set wrong to create a blurry picture of minimal detail.
The presence of Buster, however, has reassured her over her safety as her sight deteriorates over time.
Having previously represented England ladies at the crease, Turner would later shift her attention to Goalball. At which time she welcomed Buster to her life after two years on the waiting list.
"It was quite a nervous time," she said. "It went from where I was training and playing for a little bit of fun to having to challenge myself, which meant stuff like going to the gym every single day and being able to travel far and wide across the country for competitions.
"Buster has allowed me to do that because of that independence he gives me, he has genuinely made me a lot better in myself. He's helped me become healthier and happier.
"One of the challenges before getting Buster was I couldn't see enough in the dark or in bright light to be able to do things on my own, so I would have so many barriers in place in regards to getting to places.
"I could never get to the gym and so wouldn't get the training I needed. I would get nervous if a route changed or there was an issue on the train and I had to go a different way because of engineering work, any kind of new scenario caused anxiety, even things like crowds.
"I don't feel like crowds are even there anymore, because we just fly in and out of them so quickly - Buster is like a natural Londoner who goes through everyone!"
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The role of Buster in aiding Turner's sporting journey was amplified in August when she competed at the IBSA World Games.
"It was an amazing, amazing experience," she said. "The fact that it was a home games where I could represent Great Britain but also bring along Buster and have that massive part of my life there that drives my independence.
"With international competitions, it can be quite difficult because I can't take him with me but to have him with me took a lot of stress off me as an athlete and made me so much more relaxed than I would normally be."
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What is Goalball?
Goalball was invented in 1946 as a sport to support the rehabilitation of visually-impaired World War Two veterans, and later made its Paralympics debut in Toronto in 1976. The game consists of two teams made up of three players on each side, with the aim being to bowl the ball across the floor into the opposition goal.
"I had been excluded from sport most of my life up to that point."
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Credit: Goalball UK
Credit: Goalball UK
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Credit: Goalball UK
Credit: Goalball UK
'Having a guide dog has been life-changing'
Josh Murphy holds Paralympic ambitions of his own having, like Turner, carved himself a blossoming future in Goalball with the support of his guide dog Horatio, an impeccably-trained three-quarters Golden Retriever who is all-business on gameday but with a history for covert ball-stealing missions on park walks.
"One time I did have somebody come up to me and say 'your dog has left his ball', which is when I realised he had stolen it from another dog along the way," says Murphy in an interview with Sky Sports.
"As far as guide dogs are concerned he's not meant to have balls because it sort of triggers them chasing things which isn't really good for them in terms of their work. He's actually terrified of a goalball, I don't know what happened! Somebody looked after him once and next time he was terrified of the ball, I'm guessing one came out of bounds towards him."
Once Murphy is on court, Horatio's job is done. At which point he can afford himself a sleep in the changing room.
The 24-year-old from St John's, Worcester was born with the hereditary condition Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), passed down from his mother to both Murphy and his brothers despite a "roll of the dice, 50-50" chance. RP is an incurable group of rare diseases which gradually breaks down cells in the retina over time, with Murphy's case linked to a problem in the RPGR gene located on the X-chromosome.
"From about the age of 16 I knew I was going to apply for a guide dog because the difference that I could see in other visually impaired people around me was quite significant, and I liked the idea of having a companion, not just a stick, to help me," he says.
"I've always been visually impaired but I've got worse and worse so he has been very helpful when going outside, just the amount of obstacles that are on cars and with lamp posts, all that stuff. It's a lot different to using a cane."
Murphy has now been with Horatio for just over five years, the overriding impact being sustenance to competition that RP might have once threatened to hinder.
"He has helped me play sport a lot," he continues. "It's being able to go to and from the gym when I need to get access to facilities, it's being able to walk and be confident. It's also confidence on public transport and knowing who is going to be around you. It's even when he is not in use as a guide, but just as a companion and support."
Earlier this year Murphy competed at the IBSA World Games in Birmingham where more than 1000 competitors from more than 70 nations took part. He recently represented Great Britain men again at the IBSA European A Division Championships in Montenegro, finishing seventh in the final standings to help the team preserve their A Division status.
"The World Games were very surreal being at home, it was very surreal to get on a train and you are there rather than flying in somewhere and having a few days before. Some of the teams we were going against were some of the top top teams in the world, many of them Paralympic medallists.
"To even be competing against them and not be getting completely destroyed was a real boost. My highlight personally was we played South Korea in our last group game and by this point we knew we couldn't make it out of the group so the result didn't matter, and in the first half we held them out and it was neck and neck, South Korea came second place and we only lost by three goals. It showed us we can compete with the top teams in the world."
Murphy previously attended the Royal National College for the Blind having also studied at a blind school in Worcester, from where his interest in Goalball stems.
"I had been excluded from sport most of my life up to that point, and that's where I sort of fell in love with the sport and realised I wanted to play for GB one day," he explains. "At the time I wasn't very good, but I knew it was something I wanted to do.
"I grinded hard and stayed focused on that one goal really, for the next seven years it was about getting on the GB squad. We knew being host nations we were going into the World Games so it was just a case of preparing as best as we could to play some of the best in the world. It's been a long journey back to when I was in school to be in a GB squad and compete on that level."
Before life with Horatio, Murphy found himself walking into obstacles while travelling between his halls and lecture room during his time at the Royal National College for the Blind, particularly struggling on the dark mornings or evenings when his sight would worsen.
He laughs that one of the most notable differences Horatio has made is easing the headaches he would have to deal with after bumping into lamp posts.
With the physical challenges has also come an unwelcome lack of understanding.
"Sometimes when I'm outside I almost felt like I have to pretend to be more blind than I am," says Murphy.
"Because otherwise people are going to judge me if I walk out of the way of something that I've seen, even if it's in the last second.
"I almost feel like people are judging me for that. In school I remember two kids in particular who used to say that I was faking being blind because they could tell I could see a little bit.
"They would try and get me to chase them and then weave in and out of obstacles to see if I would run into them, you still get some people who don't fully comprehend that it's a spectrum and that it's not you can see or you can't."
As Murphy continues his pursuit of the Paralympic stage, he does so feeling at ease thanks to the presence of Horatio.
"A lot of it is just a psychological boost of confidence and I do feel more confident going out.
"Me actually being able to participate in the sport itself is more broader changes to the system of how education works and so on. But in terms of actually accessing those facilities when it is possible, it's completely different.
"Being able to go outside and somebody's like 'there's this event here at this time', between having the power of my phone with maps and having the guide dog I can pretty much be able to get get to somewhere, which has just opened so many more doors, not just in terms of sport. So yeah, having a guide dog has been life changing really."
One more person loses their sight every six minutes in the UK, and 250 more people every day. Guide Dog is a charity that is almost entirely dependent on donations. To contribute, click here.