It takes more than $30,000 to train a guide dog, but one of the biggest threats to their effectiveness and a costly early retirement are seemingly harmless pet dogs.
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Jo Weir has had her guide dog, Wiley, for nearly two years, and ''at least a couple of times a year'' has an off-lead dog try to jump on top of Wiley while he is working.
A doggy distraction - even with a playful intent - can be dangerous to a guide dog handler, and if it happens often enough, can make a guide dog ineffective.
Ms Weir's most terrifying moment came when trying to cross a busy Civic street in 2012. ''I heard someone screaming what I thought was a dog's name and we were in the middle of the road and suddenly there was this big dog and it was … on top of Wiley,'' she said.
''Wiley couldn't guide me because the dog kept trying to jump on top of him … all I could do was listen to the beep beep on the other side of the road [for guidance]. Honestly, it was one of the most frightening experiences of my life - the adrenalin; I was close to tears.''
A survey of a quarter of the county's guide dog handlers by Guide Dogs Australia shows her situation is not unusual.
On average, three guide dogs a month were attacked by a pet dog while working over the past year, with some attacked multiple times; more than a quarter of guide dogs attacked sustained injuries, with two retired as a result of the trauma. While being distracted during a road crossing is one of the more severe cases, Ms Weir said every dog posed a potential risk to a guide dog handler.
''You often hear 'Fido, come' and then you hear 'FIDO COME' and you know there's going to be an off-lead dog, but what you can't tell is the intent of the dog, so every time you hear that you're anticipating your dog could be about to be attacked,'' she said.
''It really creates a lot of anxiety and it's also really unsafe because Wiley can't concentrate on his job when he's got a dog bouncing up and down in his face. Even if it's a little playful dog, it's still going to distract Wiley.''
For International Guide Dog Day, Ms Weir is calling for dog owners to keep their pets on a lead and away from working guide dogs.
''If I'm walking along a path and someone's got their pet dog, if they could step off the path, keep their dog away from Wiley and also say, 'I'm just off the path up here and I've got a dog' - that lets me know what's going on around me and makes me feel a lot safer,'' she said.
