General Chat

Haven't been on for a while, but Windsor is coming up to 17 months old and we give him up on 6th January.
He has turned out to be a smashing dog, handsome, affectionate, obedient (mostly) and full of life.
He has been chosen, with eight others, to go to Belgium to bolster their Guide Dog programme.
We already have the next one, Lemar, who arrived last Thursday and who is a male, yellow, another Goldilab cross and was 10 weeks old on Sunday.
Someone we met in the churchyard on Sunday commented that he looks like the Durex (sic) puppy in the TV adverts.

Great news remember as they leave you the care & love you have given Bianca means she had the best possible start .good luck in the future Brian

Great to read an update.

What a wonderful help, friend and companion Bianca will be in her new home.

Your early patience and good training set her on the right path.

Bianca was partnered with a gentleman from the Midlands, spent 17 weeks in Advanced Training being taught all the tasks he needed her to do for him, finished her two week residential On Site Training course with him last Friday and is now at home with him as a fully Canine Partners qualified assistance dog.

We are so proud of her and she will be in our thoughts forever.

Awww great news...loving the name :-D <3

The new puppy is a black ten week old Labrador/Golden Retriever cross named Windsor.

Wishing you all the best , enjoy your puppy training <3

Well, Bianca went off to "Big School" on Monday.
She proved to be a very lively and intelligent girl but with a couple of naughty traits that they will have to try to eliminate, like being over-friendly when meeting people and stealing and chewing things.

Sadly, Canine Partners could not get enough volunteer "Puppy Parents" in Essex so have had to phase out our Branch. Bianca was the last to go.
It's now a waiting game to see if she settles in at advanced training, gets through her assessment and qualifies to go into full training.

We are switching over to Guide Dogs and should get our first puppy from them in about three hours.
It will mean learning a whole new load of commands and ways of doing things.

She's now 19 weeks old, down to three meals a day and weighs 13 kilos.Her repertoire of commands is coming along well, sit, down, wait, stand, roll over, shake hands, and a couple more, not always perfect but not bad for her age.

Have been out twice this week to give talks to social groups to raise awareness of Canine Partners and try to get some donations since demand on the charity for trained dogs far outstrips what they can supply with existing income and income from legacies has been poor recently (probably due to the mild winter last year Lol).

Bianca was too young to demonstrate but settled in her crate looking cute and got some cuddles at the end.

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-S

Now 12 weeks old.
Yesterday I spent almost an hour at the car dealers getting the wiring under the passenger seat repaired where she had chewed it and getting the warning light on the dashboard reprogrammed to cancel it.

Glad to say she is well on the road to recovery. 9 weeks old yesterday.
She's back to being her cheeky, bouncy self but tires easily and sleeps more, has got slightly bigger but only put a little weight on.
Still mainly on a bland diet of chicken or fish with rice but slowly reducing that and reintroducing her kibble.
Starting to teach her some basic commands as well.

Well, she had her first injection on Tuesday then wormer powder Thurs-Friday.

Yesterday and today she's been a poorly little thing with and upset tummy and being sick, hopefully it's just a reaction to the wormer powder so she was starved until lunchtime today and now seems a bit livelier.

Feel so sorry for her when you can't ask her what's wrong.

I remember a TV programme some time back where a blind Muslim boy was offered a Guide Dog. After a lot of discussion it was allowed, and the boy was thrilled and took to having a dog with no problem. His mother was very wary to start with, but came round in the end.

The best bit was the elders at the local Mosque, where a special bed was organised for the dog, just outside the main entrance, so that the boy could attend prayers like everyone else. Those who objected were firmly told by the Imam that this was a special case. :-) :-)

Brian, that's interesting, your not being able to take Bianca in a taxi, due to cultural/religious grounds.
A few years ago, my daughter, who (as an aside) has an Arabic name, her dog and I were in town.
We missed the bus, and I decided to take a taxi home.
Daughter said she would walk the dog home, as the taxi driver was Arabic.
Taxi driver said daughter and dog could get into the taxi!!
Daughter insisted she would walk - I had a VERY unhappy taxi driver!!

I'm aware that many Arabs/Moslems regard dogs (apart from Saluki's) as 'dirty', but then, women in 'boob tubes', blokes who've drunk too much, aren't considered particularly 'wholesome', and I know which I would prefer in my taxi!!!

I thought you (edit!) would have ID and a sign!!

There has been the same problem with some ethnic taxi drivers over here .......... one even refused to take a blind person with a white cane in addition to the service dog wearing harness.

Like you, this is forbidden ............ the drivers can lose their jobs unless they realise that the culture is different.

Yes, we have a flash on her lead, she'll get a jacket when she's bigger.
Canine Partners come under the Assistance Dogs Act so we can take her practically anywhere so long as she has either a flash or Jacket. We have ID as well.

The only refusal we had was by a taxi driver which was on cultural/religious grounds, a lot of taxi drivers are ethnic minority, but that was invalid as the only reason a taxi can refuse is if the driver has a medical condition and has a badge in the cab window. This one didn't. We complained to the licensing authority who ducked out of a prosecution because our puppy was in training. We checked and confirmed that trainees and qualified should be treated equally. Next time we'll hold our ground and call the police if necessary.

do you have a "puppy in training" jacket or sign for her at this stage???

I only ask because all dogs except service dogs and dogs in training are forbidden in most stores over here, and in all eating places.

She sounds like she's settled in well!! :-D :-D

Sounds like she is going to be one intelligent dog :-D