Could Yuma be Guide Dog of the Year? (From Thisisdorset)

Could Yuma be Guide Dog of the Year?

12:52pm Wednesday 13th August 2008

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A CANINE companion in a million has been singled out for giving its owner a new lease of life.

Black retriever Yuma is in the running for the national Guide Dog of the Year 2008 competition after helping Meg Harrison regain her independence.

Meg, 71, of Weymouth, received Yuma last year after her guide dog Bonnie died of cancer.

Meg's daughter Angela Hill said: "My mother was housebound and very distressed at being without a guide dog and her family worried for her immensely. Yuma has turned out to be a little trouper, affording mum her independence really quickly, and now she has her life back."

Meg, who has been blind since she was 20, has formed a strong relationship with three-year-old Yuma.

She said: "When Yuma first came in she sat there and didn't seem to trust me. I thought - is it going to work or not'? But now I think she's wonderful. She's got over her wariness."

The Guide Dog of the Year ceremony, organised by the Guidedogs charity, honours amazing guide dogs for their loyalty. Yuma was nominated for the honour by Meg's friend Paula Williams. Yuma prevented Meg from having what could have been a serious accident near her Wyke Regis home.

She blocked Meg's path to an unguarded six foot deep hole, dug for maintenance works.

Meg said: "I could have easily fallen down there, but she blocked my path across. She's very observant - another thing she does is always wait if I need to go past people in a wheelchair.

"She also picked up a clothes peg for me the other day that I dropped while hanging out the washing."

Meg will mark 50 years of using guide dogs with Yuma, her ninth companion dog.

She said: "Yuma is perfect for me. She's very loving and she gives me a cuddle by putting her paws around me. I think she deserves to win because she's a fantastic little dog."

Yuma will face two further stages of judging before Guide Dog of the Year 2008 is announced at a London Ceremony on September 8.

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