Canine Partners

This year marks a milestone in the history of Canine Partners, with our Scottish team celebrating 10 years of partnering these amazing dogs with disabled people in Scotland.

I clearly remember visiting Vivien in her home in Dumfries ten years ago, preparing the way for her allocated canine partner to arrive. Vivien was a keen orienteering competitor, which she undertook in a very fancy souped-up outdoor go-anywhere wheelchair. More like a quad bike, really. For this reason, she required an equally fancy souped-up go-anywhere assistance dog, which meant that labradoodle Cosmo fitted the bill perfectly. Her match with Cosmo also benefitted from the fact that Vivien was allergic to many types of dog hair, with the marked exception of the rough hair of the miniature schnauzers that she had previously owned. Cosmo’s hair was perfect for her, and the fact that he looked like some sort of giant schnauzer cross, was just the icing on the cake.

Sadly Vivien’s partnership with Cosmo was all too short, as Vivien passed away tragically early in life, due to complications associated with her disability. This was terribly sad for the Canine Partners family in Scotland but made us all the more determined that other people in Scotland should follow in Vivien’s footsteps in being matched with our dogs.

In 2017 there are now 30 people living life in Scotland with a specially trained canine partner by their side and several more people in the process of being partnered. To celebrate this milestone, the whole Canine Partners Scottish team assembled at Falkirk Football stadium last weekend under the watchful eye of the famous Kelpies. Nearly 150 of us were in the audience to hear Liz Ormerod, co-founder of Canine Partners and a Scot herself, describe how the charity started. Volunteer Danny Gallagher then spoke on behalf of all our various volunteers in Scotland – Danny has volunteered in many different ways over the years, as a puppy parent, dog-fosterer, volunteer speaker and as the handler of demonstration dog Heston, whose fame reaches far and wide across Scotland.

Sally Hyder then spoke on behalf of all our partnerships in Scotland, with cp Cleo by her side. Sally has played an active role in the development of Canine Partners, initially matched with canine partner Harmony for many years until her passing, and having written bestselling book “Finding Harmony”. More recently matched with Cleo as her ‘successor dog’, Sally was at pains to stress that she was speaking on behalf of all 30 of our partnerships in Scotland. We shared many memories of events that have taken place over the years, not least Sally’s conquering of Ben Nevis in a wheelchair, with Harmony by her side, and the Canine Partners team’s role in helping carry the baton for both the 2012 Olympics (Sally) and the 2014 Commonwealth Games (Zoe, Gill, Lorraine and Graeme). We reminisced about Her Majesty The Queen’s visit to Holyrood where she met Zoe & cp Remus, and many more events besides, such as the annual Bluebell Walk organised by the West Scotland group, the ferret racing event organised by the Scottish fundraising committee, and the various events that have been run by the Weir family for the benefit of Canine Partners and other good causes in Scotland too.

Finally our trustees closed the formal proceedings, with Jackie Staunton speaking in her role as Chair of the charity and Claire Graham speaking not only as a trustee but also as a partnership with one of our dogs – big labradoodle Frankie lay patiently by Claire’s side as she spoke about her journey with Canine Partners in general and Canine Partners in Scotland in particular. Claire attended the very first awareness-raising events for the charity in Scotland and was a prime force in helping the charity to make progress north of the border. The biggest coincidence of all is that Claire grew up on the outskirts of Glasgow, and was matched with Frankie who was also born in the same district. What are the chances of that?!

Special mention of Dale Gormley, our Scotland Community Manager, who organised the whole celebration event for us – we ate, drank and were merry and vowed to return in ten years time to celebrate the next chapter in the story of Canine Partners in Scotland.

A big thank you to everyone who has played their part in helping us make such great progress in Scotland over the last ten years. If you would like to be part of our future plans, by all means contact Dale at daleg@caninepartners.org.uk and we will see how we can involve you in this big family of ours.

Onwards and upwards for Canine Partners in Scotland!

Andy