Canine Partners

The sun is shining and we are really in a hot spell – a bit too hot for our dogs to be honest, which is meaning we are all having to change our routines so that dog walks don’t happen in the middle of the day. Some of these balmy evenings are lovely, however, and are providing the perfect backdrop for our summer schedule of events.

Our latest outing was kindly hosted by the Earl and Countess of Erroll, in the gardens of their Bedfordshire home. The Earl and Countess had originally heard about our work via vice patrons Roger Jefcoate and Tita Kindersley, and Jo Hill who is matched with canine partner Unis. So it was that they kindly opened up their gardens for us to explain our work to the local community, with ‘demo dogs’ Grainger and Humphrey showcasing the skills that we teach all our four-footed friends, and Jo then explaining how much of a difference these dogs make to people’s lives. As a charity, we really are all about the people: giving people an opportunity to become more independent and more socially active, all because of the dog with whom they are matched.

From Bedfordshire, my next trip was to Scarborough to join our friends at the Foresters Friendly Society for their annual conference. These amazing people have been busy raising money for us over the last 12 months, with all sorts of fundraisers large and small, far and wide, some of which have involved high speed zip wires and skydives, and some haven’t. The end result was that I was presented with a great big cheque (literally!) for £65,000 by their ‘high chief ranger’ Glyn Carpenter, which was absolutely astounding, and will help more people to be partnered with our dogs and will also help us make progress with completing our Leicestershire facilities. Thank you Glyn and team – we really appreciate all your help!

While I was in Scarborough, the rest of the team were split between London, where we were delighted to showcase our work to the staff at ACCA with demo dogs Yarna and Toffee doing the honours on this occasion, and Sussex where we held a Partnership Ceremony. These occasions are our opportunity to bring together all those people who have been involved in creating the partnership, either by volunteering their time or supporting in some other way, and they provide some very positive feedback to show how greatly a person’s contribution has been appreciated – and what a difference it has made to the person’s life now that they are matched with such a specially trained dog.

Thanks to so many people’s help, we have already created 42 new partnerships between dogs and disabled people this year, with another six months still to go. This is thanks to a great team effort by a whole load of people all across the UK, busy training puppies and adult dogs, busy working with our partners and potential partners, providing aftercare to all 390 people who currently have a fully fledged canine partner by their side, and busy raising money to cover the costs, so that people continue to receive our services free of charge. We do not receive any government funding, which is why we are looking for more people to sponsor puppies like Sky and Summer. For more details visit: https://caninepartners.org.uk/donate/sponsor-an-amazing-puppy/

Meanwhile the show goes on! Next stop for us will be to head to East Sussex on Wednesday, for another demonstration of our work, thanks to another generous supporter who has organised this opportunity for us. I’ll tell you all about it in my next update.

Onwards & upwards for the Canine Partners family!

Andy