Jazz Turner shares her journey back to sailing with the help of Phoebe

Hi, I’m Jazz and I primarily sail the RS Venture Connect, but will sail pretty much anything I can.

I have a condition that means I faint and have seizures. Because of this I haven’t been able to sail solo for the past two year in case something happens while out on the water.

Four years ago, I rescued a one year old golden retriever from a puppy farm. At the time I was looking to train an assistance dog to help with my conditions. The dog I rescued was everything I was not meant to have, supposedly aggressive and untrainable.

However, when I went to meet the dog, the first thing she did was rest her head on my lap. I remember my friend turning to me and saying, “we’re coming home with a dog, aren’t we?” despite being told exactly not to do that. The dog I rescued was Phoebe and she has been my fully qualified assistance dog for the past two years.

Phoebe’s primary role is as my medical alert dog. She uses scent to detect when I’m going to faint or have a seizure. She has three levels of alert, all with a specific meaning.

1. Check in alert – Rests her head on my lap
2. 10min warning alert – Jumps up on my lap
3. Emergency alert – Barks and stares at me while standing

She also acts as my medical response dog. So, if I faint or have a seizure, she lies on top of me to help regulate my body temperature and blood pressure. If I fall on the floor during a seizure, she will put herself between my head and any obstacle I might hit my head on. If I remain unconscious for too long or stop breathing, she will bark to get attention.

She also is a mobility assistance dog. She is able to open and close doors, help with the washing, fetch items, guide me to specific places – and her favourite task, taking off and stealing my socks, even though that’s not really a task she is meant to do.

Phoebe is a pretty awesome dog in many ways. But she does what a lot of other assistance dogs do. The special part about Phoebe has been the journey we have been on as a partnership.

Phoebe is an owner-trained assistance dog which means that I have trained her independently and then she has been assessed to become fully qualified. That has been a journey in itself. If you had met the dog I rescued, you wouldn’t recognise her now. There were times along our journey together were I wanted to give up on her as she is incredibly stubborn, independent and sassy.

But we didn’t give up on each other and it’s those same characteristics that make her the amazing assistance dog she is today.

I think I’m as much her rescue human as she is my rescue dog.

During our training, my condition progressed. I was no longer able to sail in a single hander at my usual location due to the risk of becoming unconscious. For this reason, I ended up changing classes and sailing the RS Venture Connect. Over time, Phoebe’s alerts became more and more accurate. So the idea formed, could I sail with Phoebe in the boat to alert me, meaning I could get to somewhere safe to lose consciousness and then come round. The answer was yes.

Initially we started in the Hansa just doing free sailing. But it worked well enough that we started doing club racing. She has now joined me in sailing anything from a Hansa to a Sunfast 3600.

She has given me back the ability to sail and, more importantly, race independently. This year will be our first year competing in the Hansa 303 together on the TT circuit as well as at the nationals – fingers crossed I will maybe get to share a podium with Phoebe.

Phoebe is not only my assistance dog. She also works as a therapy dog and brings joy to so many people. She works in hospitals, specifically ICU, universities, care homes and with children and adults with learning disabilities. Phoebe has an amazing ability to know exactly what they need. Whether that’s repeatedly chucking her ball and being a hyperactive puppy or lying dead still and just resting her head on them to bring then comfort.

Because of the dog Phoebe is, we were nominated and made it to the final of The Kennel Club Crufts Hero Dog Award. We were finalists in the Support Dog category for her work as both my assistance dog and a therapy dog. We got to go to Crufts and be on TV where the winner was announced. Although we didn’t win, it was an amazing experience and we were up against four other amazing dogs.

More importantly, Crufts gave me a huge platform to shout about how amazing and inclusive sailing is. I hope I helped show that your disability doesn’t have to stop you and that anything is possible if you work hard enough.

I also hopefully showed that although there are often many barriers we all face. There is always a work around, you might just have to think outside of the box (or boat).