Rachel has been volunteering as a B&B fosterer since 2016, and has just finished fostering Johnnie, an 18-month-old Labrador x Golden Retriever. Fosterers typically tend to foster the same dog for a full 17 weeks during their advanced training, to ensure the dog has some continuity, familiarity and is settled.

One of the reasons that Rachel decided to volunteer was the loss of her wonderful black Labrador, Murphy, back in 2014. He was 16 years old and left a huge hole in their family:

“We were devastated and said we could never put ourselves through that type of loss again. However, a couple of years on we desperately missed having a dog around but still didn’t feel we were ready to commit to having another dog of our own. We have a busy work and family life, so we aren’t in a position to have our own dog. We researched Canine Partners and the amazing work they did, which led to us learning that they needed volunteers to foster their incredible dogs in training. For us this was an easy decision, we got our dog fix without the full-time commitment and at the same time we could help a charity we believed in. As they say, the rest is history!”

Rachel describes a typical day as a B&B fosterer:

“Most dogs just fit in with you as you go about your day; they follow you about to see what you are up to or just chill out on their bed. If it’s a working day for the dog, then we drop them off at the Midlands Training Centre in the morning and pick them up at the end of the day. They then come back home for playtime, dinner and to just chill out. When they’re with us it’s their time to rest and recuperate, we don’t do any training with them.”

Rachel describes her experience of being a Canine Partners volunteer:

“It is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. To watch the dog grow and develop over the 17 weeks they are with us is fantastic, and to think that you have played a part in that is very humbling. We have learnt so much from the fantastic trainers and met some wonderful people.”

Become a volunteer for Canine Partners during our 30^th anniversary year:

At the moment both of our fostering lists are closed to new enquiries, but there are lots of other ways you can volunteer for Canine Partners during our 30th year. To find out more, please visit caninepartners.org.uk/volunteering