He toyed with the idea of a bull terrier or maybe an Irish wolfhound. A whippet sounded appealing, too – a speed demon that’s content to spend most of the day snoring on the sofa. In the end, though, it had to be a sausage dog. “Small but mighty is how I’d describe them as a breed,” says Richard Biedul, a creative director and model who was also a lawyer in another life.

“My partner, Melissa, and I had been talking about potentially getting a dog at some nebulous time in the future,” Biedul says. “But when we moved into our first apartment together, it felt incredibly empty. Literally, as we had no furniture, but also metaphorically. So, within a week of moving in, we had found a breeder and before our bed and a sofa had been delivered, we had a dog.

“I remember the first few days after he arrived, we were still sleeping on the floor of the living room. The apartment was cold and in desperate need of decoration, but we had Vincent. It made those first difficult moments there so bright, light and memorable.”

Vincent, who is now 10, was later followed by Albert, who is four. “My first saved my life,” Biedul says. “He was one of the catalysts behind me getting clean and sober. Without him, I might not have ever recognised and admitted that I had a problem. Albert helped me to focus on my recovery. To approach each day with patience and mindfulness, focusing on the present. Taking each day as it comes.”

If you find yourself in east London’s Tower Hamlets on a winter’s morning, you might see Biedul flanked by his two low-slung companions, stomping (or trotting) around the cemetery park. “It’s a quiet, peaceful place, full of wildlife. It gives us time and space to just be.

“Having a dog, life changes forever, in a good way,” Biedul says. “You have to compromise on your own freedom for the greater good, which is their happiness. They are only a small part of your life, but you’re the whole of theirs. Their entire world.”

And if he had a chance to ask Vincent and Albert a question, what would it be?

“‘Am I doing it right?’ ‘It’ being pretty much anything and everything.”