The life-changing impact of guide dogs in sport

'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.

'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."