Is this the BEST job in the world? Meet the 'dog matchmaker' who matches guide dog puppies with visually impaired owners

If you've ever wondered what the world's best job really is, this unique role could be a very strong contender.

Ellie Brown, 30, is a 'dog matchmaker' or, as she is officially known, a Guide Dog Mobility Specialist.

Like a cross between a finishing school and a doggy dating service, it's Ellie's job to put the final polish on the guide dogs' training and pair them with their new owners.

Ellie spends up to five months training her pooches, getting to know their specific needs and figuring out which human will be able to bring the best out of them.

But this isn't just a matter of finding a dog and an owner who will get along, since making the right pairing can have a huge impact on both their lives.

Guide Dog Mobility Specialists (GDMSs) like Ellie need to think about everything from the traffic near the owner's home to whether there could be squirrels in a nearby park.

Ellie told the Daily Mail: 'You put a lot into the match and making sure that the dog is being matched to the right person. The dog will have a profile. The human has a profile. We've just got to find the ones that match.'

The Daily Mail's Wiliam Hunter was invited down to Guide Dogs' London training centre to spend the afternoon with Ellie and see what it takes to make it as a doggy matchmaker. 

For a potential guide dog, the path towards finding their owner begins at just eight weeks old.

At this age, the dogs will be sent to 'puppy raisers' who look after them throughout their training,

Preparation begins in earnest, however, at 13 months when puppies are brought into one of Guide Dogs' training centres across the UK.

This is when the dogs will meet their GDSM for the first time and start the five–month process of getting them ready to go out in the world and lead their visually impaired owners.

The GDSM is then responsible for teaching the dog all the tricks they'll need once they find their owner.

Perhaps surprisingly, Ellie says that she didn't actually have much experience working with dogs before taking on this challenging role.

'I actually used to work in TV, then in lockdown I realised I wasn't loving it as much as I thought I would, so I just applied for this role,' Ellie reflected.

'I was sort of thinking I wasn't going to get it because I wasn't a dog trainer, but they weren't looking for someone who has loads of dog training history because guide dogs are trained in such a specific way, and that can be trained to the person.'

Ellie is currently working with three dogs – Pippie, Bella, and Inez – who are about halfway through their training.

In the training room, Ellie shows how she – with the aid of a fistful of kibble – teaches her students their guide dog fundamentals.

This includes obvious essentials, such as standing still while their harness is fitted, as well as more specific tricks specifically tailored to each dog's needs.

Pippie, for example, was recently startled by a passing motorbike, and now practices pressing a button that plays loud traffic sounds to help settle her nerves.

Every dog also learns an adorable habit of resting their head on any folded towel, so they can be groomed by their visually impaired owners.

The real challenge, however, happens out on the streets near the office where the dogs practice stopping at curbs, weaving through parked rental bikes, and not stopping to sniff other dogs.

Some dogs might need special training, such as practising getting on and off the tube or riding on escalators.

Not every dog will make it all the way through their training, and about one in three won't have the temperament or skill required to graduate as a guide dog.

Dogs that don't make the cut either become household pets or 'buddy dogs', which are essentially very well–trained pets for visually impaired children.

Ellie says: 'As a trainer, we always want to give it a go and just work on certain behaviours that might be difficult for them. They might be really distracted by squirrels or dogs. They might be a bit body sensitive and have difficulty wearing the harness.

'This one I was a bit worried about at the start,' she says of the yellow Labrador Bella, who was happily sleeping on the floor. 

'We call her a potato, because she was quite slow. But she's really come into her own recently.'

Out on the streets later, Bella proudly showed off her skills as she nimbly avoided a gaggle of suitcase-toting French school children and their extremely flustered teacher. 

However, for a GDMS, training the guide dog is only half the challenge.

Towards the end of their training, Ellie also has to go through the challenging task of matching their guide dogs with the right kind of owner.

That doesn't mean finding owners and dogs with compatible personalities, but rather finding the guide dog that is best for a visually impaired person's life.

'It's really cliche, but every dog is different. I've been doing this job for over five years, but every dog that I work with has a different personality,' she said. 

'There are loads of things we have to consider with a match, sort of the lifestyle, what sort of routes that client does.

'Some dogs are amazing at doing the same route every day and like routine, but some dogs like variety.

'For Bella, I've taken her on the Northern Line and she's fallen asleep. But that's all good because she'll hopefully be matched with someone who rides the Tube a lot.'

Sometimes, the factors that Ellie needs to consider can be even more complicated.

For example, one of her potential matches lived on a narrow boat, so they needed a dog that could handle constant changes and a busy canal–side path.

Another was a primary school teacher, so their dog needed to be comfortable sitting in a hectic classroom full of children for most of the day.

Ellie says she won't start thinking about matches for Pippie, Bella, and Inez for a few more months.

But once she has a good picture of what the dog is like, she'll start to form a picture of the kind of owner they would be best suited for.

After Ellie and the other GDMS have agreed on a potential match, the dog and their possible owner are introduced, and they embark on the challenging process of learning how to handle a guide dog.

She says: 'A huge part of my job is working with people who've got a vision impairment and teaching them how to work their dog.

'I'd say that probably is the more challenging side, but it's the most rewarding side.'

Some of the new guide dog owners have never even owned a dog before, let alone been led by a guide dog.

So it is Ellie's job to teach them everything they need to know about caring for their guide dog, following it through the streets, and teaching it to walk new routes.

During this period of 'class', the GDSM essentially becomes part of the potential owners' lives.

The GDSM even needs to help with little details, such as teaching the dog how to find the service desk in their owner's local supermarket.

They will walk with them to their office, sit with them as they work to ensure the dog is settling well, and then walk them back home at the end of the day.

This is a particularly critical moment for the new guide dog owners because the transition doesn't always go smoothly, and pairings don't always work out.

Sometimes the dog turns out to be unsuited to a particular part of the owner's life, or the owner may simply realise they don't have the capacity to look after a dog.

Ellie says: 'You do put a lot of pressure on yourself to make it go well, but it is also about understanding that it might not always go well, and that's also okay.

'I will never forget my first pairing. I had a lovely dog called Jerry, and I trained her with a lady who had total sight loss and had never had a dog before.

'Normally, that would take about five weeks. I think I was on class with her for about 20. But they are out there now, so it was all worth it.'

However, when the pairing is right, and the dog and owner find that connection right away, Ellie says you can often tell as early as the very first walk.

'What I really like about my job is when I start to see that the dog is now looking to their new owner and there the bond is forming,' she says.

'I think you just know if it's going to be right.'