March 9th 2017
'Dogs for Good'
Lisa Townsend and Lydia Martin are coming along to explain some of the work undertaken by the charity. Impacting on lives, helping people to cope with illness, they will explain the different roles of Assistance Dogs, Community Dogs and the difference they can make.
Our Speaker turned out to be Ann Morris who brought along her puppy, Hope, to meet us. Ann is a Puppy Socialiser and she has had Hope in her care for about 14 months. They try to do most things together to allow Hope to get used to being in different situations. Hope is a black labrador/retriever cross and was the most laid back, well behaved puppy we had ever met.
Ann delivered her talk with the help of short films, unfortunately without sound as our equipment let her down. She knew the films very well so was able to talk us through what the people were saying about the impact that the dogs had on their lives. She told us about the variety of partnerships between dogs and people and how they have helped them to lead a much better life.
The training of a dog takes about 16 months with a socialiser, 6 months at a centre and then they are matched with a person where training, support and monitoring continues until the dog retires. They are then offered to that person as a pet alongside another working dog, to a family member or sometimes back to the original socialiser. The dog will cost around £20k from birth to retirement.