Former Warwickshire teacher credits volunteering with Guide Dogs with saving her mental health
By James Smith
28th Nov 2023 | Local Features
Becoming a Guide Dogs volunteer has been a real win-win experience for Harriet Pearce.
Not only has it been an enormous help to the charity, it has also had a hugely beneficial effect on her mental health.
Harriet was at a very low ebb in 2017. Three years into a PhD and Masters course in chemistry at the University of Warwick, she found herself overwhelmed by stress, which left her "very poorly, very down and very anxious".
She had to quit university after two years on her course.
"I had to just pull the plug and say, 'I can't do this'," she said. "I needed to do some self-care and get back on my feet – it had got to the point where I couldn't even leave the house."
Living in Warwickshire – home to the Guide Dogs National Centre in Bishop's Tachbrook and the Midlands Regional Centre in Leamington Spa – she had often seen volunteers fund-raising and talking to the public about their work and the trainers out and about with the dogs, and had always been intrigued.
Harriet started thinking about volunteering and then met a local volunteer in a supermarket who convinced her to put herself forward.
She said: "I met Penny Hefferan, a Guide Dog owner who also works for Guide Dogs, with her dog, Questa, in Morrisons and she said 'apply – just do it. We need you'. So I went home and thought 'right. Guide Dogs are here, I love what they do, I'm going to volunteer."
In July 2019 she took delivery of her first foster puppy – eight-month-old yellow Labrador/Golden Retriever cross Belle, which she had for two weeks, followed in October by Broady, a 10-month-old black German Shepherd, then Laine, a four-month-old black Labrador/Golden Retriever cross.
The following month, Holden, a seven-week-old yellow Labrador/Golden Retriever cross, arrived – her first puppy she had to raise.
"He was a loving, fun, but difficult dog," said Harriet.
"I had him for about a year – including all through lockdown. During lockdown, there was a period of time where he refused to walk on the lead, when walking the dog was all that we could do.
"As a puppy raiser you've got to expose the dog in a positive way to anything and everything that a future Guide Dog owner might come into contact with.
"So, when Holden was very young I carried him in my arms to the corner shop, we listened to traffic, I took him to the train station, onto the platform, into all the supermarkets, to the doctors – everything.
"But everything you do is positive – the dog has to want to do it. You reward the good and ignore the bad. You never tell them off or anything like that because that will not teach them what they need.
"Holden left us in October 2020, not long after his first birthday and it turned out that his behaviour had become perfect, so he went on to the next stage of training in which they go to the training school every day. I was sad that Holden wasn't coming back but I also wanted him to succeed – and that was the best situation for him to succeed in."
Holden qualified as a Guide Dog in November 2021, with owner Karl, who lives in East Anglia.
Karl describes Holden as 'the emperor of my independence'.
Sometimes potential Guide Dogs don't make it through training.
This scenario was exacerbated by the effects of lockdown, because social restrictions meant dogs were not able to experience the full range of interactions necessary to take them to the next stage. One such was Jester, a young white Labrador/Retriever cross which Harriet took on in April 2021.
She explained: "He was in early training at the Midlands Regional Centre in Leamington. The dog goes from the puppy raiser to the training school at about 14 months, dependent on the progress of the dog. Our job was to take him to school at about nine o'clock in the morning and pick him up after school at 4.30pm.
"They're quite tired when they come back because they've had a busy day, so they just have their dinner and a little play and then it's bedtime. And then at weekends they're just a dog and you get to go out and have adventures.
"But Jester was quite an anxious dog. He didn't like getting in the car and he didn't like traffic.
"He was brought up during lockdown and as Guide Dogs found with a lot of dogs over that time - he just didn't get the experiences he needed. Lockdown was a huge spanner in the works for Guide Dogs."
Jester was withdrawn but he was subsequently adopted and he's "very happy", according to Harriet. Following the difficulties of the pandemic, Guide Dogs is always on the look out for more volunteers to help raise more life-changing dogs into service animals.
Harriet also became a fundraiser in 2021 and started fostering again last year. She has had a variety of dogs since, and was due to pick up her latest foster dog, a 18-month-old German Shepherd/Golden Retriever cross called Asti, this October.
"I have had two 'full-time' early training foster dogs. Harry, a black Labrador and Hugo, a German Shepherd/Golden Retriever cross, both now qualified with their Guide Dog owners.
"The pride that I have is immense," says Harriet.
Hugo was one of Guide Dogs' record-breaking litter of 16 in 2022 - the largest litter the sight loss charity has had in its 60-year breeding history.
Harriet is also a puppy socialiser. Which involves going to the charity's National Centre and playing with six to seven-week-old puppies before they go off to their puppy raisers.
Asked if her ongoing experience has helped with her anxiety and her mental health in general, her answer is a resounding 'yes, definitely' on both counts.
"You get a really good bond with the dog," she said.
"They're in your home and you learn so much about them and what it really helped me with was a having a routine – getting up in the morning and having to take the dog to school and getting to see other volunteers and staff. It's about being part of a community and that's very helpful."
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