“Excited. Relieved. That’s how I felt when I met Daisy. I was without a dog for a year and a half and I hated it, so I was happy to finally meet her – maybe even a little nervous! It was so easy to be smitten with Daisy. She’s very much all or nothing. When she’s working, she’s so focused on what she’s doing. She just wants to get from point A to point B as fast as possible – no messing around! I sometimes say she’s prone to a touch of road rage. She hates being stuck behind slower people and is always trying to find a way to get past. She’s brilliant in busy places because she’s so amazing at finding the smallest gaps to get through. Having Daisy with me makes going out less stressful. I actually enjoy walking with her, whereas when I have to use my cane, walking becomes more of a chore. We even climbed a mountain together on our last day of training – a way to test her calm and boundless energy. The Grouse Grind is a 2.9-km mountain trail with 2,830 stairs at 853m of elevation. The terrain is rough, and the word “step” is used somewhat loosely, but Daisy tackled it like a mountain goat. We had to use sighted guide for stretches of the trail as Rob, our guide dog mobility instructor, had to describe where to put my feet, but Daisy was able to work through stretches where the stairs were more like stairs. With Daisy and Rob's guiding skills, some fancy footwork on my part, shear bloody-minded stubbornness and the lure of a cold beer, we made it all the way to the top, and felt pretty proud of ourselves afterwards! I was exhausted, but I think Daisy could have done the trail at least three more times. The final test was the gondola ride to get down, but this was no problem – she just went to sleep. Climbing that mountain was one of the best things I've ever done. My last guide dog set the bar pretty high, but Daisy is so different. She rocks.”