Duke visits... The Wharf Trail
- May 2024

Hi Pals,
I wanted to tell you about my first trail of the year. The Paws on the Wharf Trail at Canary Wharf in London (25th March - 17th May)
www.guidedogs.org.uk/paws-on-the-wharf/

The Trail is presented by Guide Dogs and wild in art. My hoomans have multiple connections to Guide Dogs - hoodad had many stuffed toys when he was young by someone who donated the money from the toys to Guide Dogs. Hoomom used to work at a college for people with disabilities many of those were blind. Lastly one of their friends Lubna is blind and when they got married her guide dog Gem came to the wedding.

The trail consists of 25 larger than life guide dogs, each one decorated by talented artists. The trail aims to raise awareness of the challenges of living with sight loss and to highlight the importance of accessibility and inclusion. The maps are available in different formats and some sculptures have tactile elements.

The hoomans went first to Grandpops in Kent and then the following day to drive into the big smoke London. We parked in a underground car park but the first challenge was sneaking out of the shopping arcade quickly to get outside as it was no dogs allowed in the arcade. I used some of my old greyhound speed to do this.

The trail is set up in 5 areas. The first ones we found were - Where’s Theia and Cobalt before heading over the bridge to 5 other dogs.



It turns out that these were all in area 3. After a quick check with the list and google maps it was decided to head to area 4, which was in the outside of a park but was noisy as they were jet washing the pavement.



The bottom right hand corner one Hope and Resilence had big pink lips. As I stood there a hen party went past and boy there was a lot of pink there.



The above sculptures have my favourite one - Baskerville (top right) and bottom left guide lines with the dog names in braille.
This moves us into area 1. Before heading over the quay to area 5.



The top left dog was called Hearts of gold and was sponsored by the insurance company Petplan. They were excellent when paying for Stars vet treatment. In area 5 was - Dog Stars which had star constellations with famous TV dogs.



The Rosette sculpture (top right) and Trusty (bottom left) were in the underground shopping centre which wasn't dog friendly so I had a rest in the park opposite.

My rest was disturbed when I spotted a cat being walked on a lead - in the centre of London - OMD!!

We finished the trail in area 2.



The bottom 2 photos were sadly in shopping centres again. On my travels I saw other dogs on the trails - a French bulldog, a toy poodle with mini dog stockings on, a schnauzer and a couple of labradors.

Donations from the trail help support Guide Dogs. £6 will pay for 2 weeks of food for a guide dog puppy.

£10 could pay for a working guide dog partnership for a day. £16 could buy a puppy in training jacket for a guide dog puppy.

It was certainly an experience for me walked about 3 miles surrounded by some of the tallest offices and flats in London. It was a sunny day so a nice walk.

Until next time love and licks
Duke x

www.dukesdoggieadventures.wordpress.com