Heather and I enjoy an animal sculpture trail, so when we heard there was one coming to Canary Wharf, especially one on such a cute theme as guide dogs, we couldn’t resist. We finally got round to visiting it a couple of weeks ago.

Canary Wharf always runs the risk of being a little bit soulless at the weekend without the hoards of office workers but the sun seemed to have brought the crowds out and there was a busy buzz around the place. Quite a few of them seemed to be there to have a look round the same thing we were there for, Paws On The Wharf—a series of decorated guide dog statues.

Arriving by DLR we started with a wander through the sun drenched park above the tube station—strange to do so in the daylight as we normally end up there for Winter Lights. It was there we found our first dog, a dog of dogs called Ben. Another spotty dog quickly followed before a dive into the vast underground network of shops below. There were a couple more dogs, and a little machine dispensing short stories. Back up stairs and it was more dog collecting, with the particularly memorable and tactile black and white swirls of Guide Lines.

That finished the little group around the tube, so it was off towards what in my head is still the Crossrail station (AKA Elisabeth Line). There were more colourful sculptures around the bridge and water outside, and then the lovely playful Jurassic Bark (or Dino Dog as Heather dubbed it), all knobbly and making you want to touch. Down the stairs, in the bowels of the building, another dog highlighted those celebrities with vision issues.

Outside in the sun again we just had to go and find the giant floating rubber duck we could see in the distance. That turned out to belong to Fairgame. We didn’t play any of their games but we did stop for a drink by the water (and duck), watching the strange antics of those with hot tub or barbecue boats slowly going up and down beside us. Carrying on and crossing that water to just outside the Museum of London Docklands there awaited a whole row of dogs. Best of those was probably the time travelling Bark To The Future, a homage to the film

Collecting the five we wandered away back over the water, passing two more (including the rather fun Baskerville. Those three meant we’d almost finished, and we actually considered catching a boat to Greenwich, but realised we’d left the last two all the way the other end of the docks. Finding them we became half convinced they were located to force people to areas they wouldn’t normally have went, but we were determined to complete the trail, A Tangle With Colour giving us the final tick.

We did then catch a DLR to Greenwich, and a rest outside the Gypsy Moth before going home.

Lots and lots of photos.