Haley Craig and Ozzy on the way to the supermarket.
Haley Craig and Ozzy on the way to the supermarket.
A vision-impaired Levin woman wants people to stop distracting her dog.
It’s not that Haley Craig minds people patting Ozzy, her 2-year-old labrador. Ozzy absolutely loves it, too. It’s just that it’s really important that Ozzy stays focused when they are on the move.
Craig, 27, wants to create awider awareness around what is appropriate engagement with people who rely on seeing eye dogs for their sight and safety.
It might be okay to engage when they are seated or stationary, but not while they are crossing the road, or on the move.
“It’s just a safety thing. It’s really not safe for us. It takes her focus away and she gets distracted, like when I am trying to cross the road,” she said.
“Touching her is like touching me. She is an extension of me and I am reliant on her. I can’t have her distracted. She’s my safety net.”
“I get it, everyone likes to pat a dog ... but it’s just about helping create that awareness.”
Once they are seated, like in a café for example, the harness comes off, which is a cue for Ozzy to relax - then it’s okay to say hello or grab a quick pat.
“There’s a time and place. She’s a working dog and you can’t just pat her when you want to,” she said.
Haley Craig and Ozzy.
Craig has been legally blind since birth. She can make out shapes and colours through the corner of one eye from a short distance, and can read print from that same eye corner with “my nose pressed against the computer screen”.
Ozzy, who was trained in Auckland, is her very first companion dog. They teamed up in April, and having her around led to an increase in Craig’s self-confidence and wellbeing.
“The difference has been huge, and she is a much better companion than a cane,” she said.
“She lives with me. We’re still getting to know each other.”
Ozzy pushes or pulls her if they are headed off course, and they have to stay intuitive to each other’s movements - like when Ozzy heads towards the grass occasionally for a pee.
Craig moved to Levin from Papamoa in July and lives near town. She took time to navigate a safe route to town with a walking stick before introducing the same path to Ozzy, to avoid confusion.
The pair had held talks with different community groups in town, like Girl Guides and Brownies, to educate people about sight impairment and the role of an eye dog.
Craig said she would be willing to talk to any school groups that might be interested, too, if it meant creating more awareness around the challenges of being sight-impaired.
