The coming together of staff from Television Centre and Bush House at Broadcasting House means more guide dogs on site. Television Centre had a patch of grass near the old Blue Peter Garden, and a local park just outside the back gate. I've no idea how dogs and their owners managed at Bush House. I rather thought going for a walk was required to encourage dogs to "spend"; will it work if they are ushered into a room at the bottom of a lift shaft ?
- 1000am Monday update: Please read Damon's authoritative update below, and wave a paw to Becket, Verona, Blaze and Josh.
Wouldn't it be more appropriate on the FOURTH floor?
ReplyDeleteHi there. I'm one of the guide dog owners in New Broadcasting House, on the 4th floor where there are two of us. There are about 4 or 5 assistance dogs in NBH/BH presently.
ReplyDeleteThe Guide Dogs association didn't swoop and demand a run was put in due to diversity rules, it was we guide dog owners who pushed for it.
Assistance dog spending runs in public areas are becoming more common and necessary. Think of an assistance dog owner taking their dog to a big airport, waiting at a gate hundreds of yards from grass or outdoors. If you're airside, there's no way you can really keep going back and forth along travelators and through passport control. Airports, shopping centres, and sometimes big employers are putting in runs where necessary - yes, indoors.
It's pretty progressive of the BBC to do this and sends a good strong message out to other assistance dog owners who, working in the concrete jungle of London, might find it time consuming or physically very difficult to keep trekking to Regents Park or other nearby grassy areas.
Presently it takes me about half an hour to leave the office, take dog for a "spend" (euphemisms alert) and get back again. I have to do it two or three times a day and it eats into my working hours and is disruptive, tiring and lately FREEZZING! It's been a problem to the point where I've been thinking of giving my dog back to the guide dog organisation. And that would make my life pretty difficult because I commute from Suffolk every day ... and it'd be then rather difficult for me to take my little boy out swimming and other places at weekends.
So, now we are getting a run which is protected from bad weather in a car park area (just about indoors, I'd call it), it's not nearly so far away and doesn't necesitate crossing dangerous roads which don't have accessible pelican crossings (i.e. ones that beep or have the rotating cone underneath). Independently taking your dog out now could literally kill you ... yet a few of our number here at BH are attempting it several times a day.
Finding an outside area within BH's small amount of surrounding land wasn't possible ... and I don't think the residents of nearby Hallam Mews would've wanted me to do what I sometimes found myself doing when kno one was looking when I worked here in the late 90s.
You're up to date with the minutiae you didn't want to know, thanks to the BBC's 24-hour rolling guide dog news service. The 4 dogs i know in the building are: Becket, Verona, Blaze and Josh. Say hello to them the next time you pass by.
If they didn't pee about (!) with TVC and keep playing musical buildings, there would have been the Blue Peter garden...
ReplyDeleteFair play. I have bad eyesight already and hope never to need one of these wonderful dogs, so anything that makes things easier for their owners is fine by me. In the BBC context, much more money is peed (!) up the wall on other things, so a bit of money spent to help dogs pee is worthy.