LESMURDIE resident Colleen Ashby says retiring a seeing eye dog after years of partnership is a process filled with grief, guilt and major lifestyle adjustments.

Mrs Ashby spoke at a Vision Australia workshop on July 19, which brought together handlers from across the country to share their experiences of moving from an ageing dog to a new one.

Mrs Ashby’s first dog, Xian worked alongside her for seven years before retiring at the age of 10.

During that time the pair would walk daily to Lesmurdie Senior High School, where Mrs Ashby said she worked as a special needs education assistant.

“I used to walk to work from where I am,” she said.

“Eventually, as they get older, their work becomes not quite up to scratch – they get tired and their focus gets worse.”

She said the retirement process took two years, which she needed to prepare emotionally.

“Even when I first spoke about it with the trainer here, I was in tears,” she said.

“I couldn’t talk to friends about it for six months without crying about the guilt, wondering how the dog would cope with being left behind when a new dog came in.”

Her second dog, Inca, was matched with her in Melbourne, but she said the transition was not easy.

“I thought Xian would get on really well with her but there was a lot of jealousy,” she said.

“Xian was territorial and didn’t want Inca in the house (and) it took nearly three months for her to accept Inca and not dominate her.”

Mrs Ashby said Xian’s slowing pace meant she had to adjust her own lifestyle.

“I used to walk every morning to the local park in Walliston and back, about half an hour, but I had to stop because she needed frequent toilet breaks and had slowed right down,” she said.

“At major shopping centres she became disoriented, and I had to guide her, which isn’t how it should be.”

Mrs Ashby said the workshop helped handlers understand the grieving process.

“You’re not alone in feeling guilt,” she said.

“Everybody thinks their dog’s unique and that they’re going to be the only ones in that situation but in fact everybody’s in that situation and that it just takes time to be able to go through the whole process and you have to allow yourself that.

“If you are having to retire a dog, that is a grieving process that you have to go through, and time actually does heal all and eventually they will adjust.

“Some people will ask, ‘How do you know when to retire your dog?’

“The key is if you have to start adjusting your lifestyle because of the dog and you no longer go to places or do the things you used to do before then that’s the time that you really do need to retire your dog.

“So, you shouldn’t have to adjust your lifestyle to suit the dog, the dog is there to do a job to support you in your lifestyle.”