Canine Partners

The Midlands Summer Show! What an event that was! Our very first Summer Show in our new premises gave our whole Midlands family a chance to get together and celebrate how far we’ve come in such a short time. A great opportunity for everyone to see the site and meet one another. And we were even entertained by assorted singers and bands. Not only that, but we also raised over £3,000 to help us train some more dogs. The sun shone. The only downside was the wind, which meant if you took your eye off something for a moment, it was 100 yards away, downwind, when you next looked round. We had some fun and games with the tombola tickets, I can tell you.

We then congregated at our Southern Centre for one of our regular Partnership Ceremonies. There was not a dry eye in the house as the assembled guests heard how all these amazing people had forged forward in their lives, with their amazing dogs by their sides. Our dogs make such a profound difference to people’s lives, and this is our opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed to the training of the dog, the support of the partners, or the sponsorship of the whole thing.

Next stop was back to the Midlands, where we ran a Partnership Ceremony for all our recently graduated partnerships in the Midlands and the North. We place dogs with people all over the UK so people travel from far and wide to join us at these events.

And to reinforce our UK-wide efforts, our next stop was up in Scotland, in Perthshire, where we held a reunion day for our whole Scottish Canine Partners family, kindly hosted by staunch supporter Suzetta Rankin, with a great big marquee in her garden. It wasn’t encouraging that the locals kept a wary eye on dark clouds in the surrounding hills, but we needn’t have worried, as the sun came out, which made a welcome change for our Scottish family, with the awful summer they have been experiencing. This was an inspiring, happy day, and we feel very proud of our brilliant family in Scotland.

Then straight back down to another Partnership Ceremony at our Southern Centre, during the following few days, where again we heard stories that tear at the heart strings, and show just how deep is the connection between dog and human partner. This is why we undertake our work! This is why we feel inspired to train more dogs and transform more people’s lives! During these past weeks I have spoken to over 50 of our recently qualified partnerships, at one end of the country or another, and meanwhile we have already partnered another 52 people with our dogs this year alone, who will graduate in a few months’ time. All of us who work here feel extremely humbled and privileged to carry out this work, and feel utterly inspired to do more, with every day that goes by.

As a footnote, I would add that we feel equally humbled and privileged to work with amazing donors, who support our work with donations large and small. Everybody’s contribution is equally appreciated, particularly when we know how many calls there are on your precious hard-earned cash. We hate the thought that the public might gain a negative view of charities in this current climate, due to the actions of some of the larger charities with their large marketing budgets, and feel duty bound to clarify that we don’t, and never have, sold or passed on any people’s details to third parties, and nor do we use any so-called ‘charity chuggers’ signing people up on the street or cold calling on their doorstep (or phoning them up). It’s just not the way we do things.

We have brilliant supporters, who support with donations as well as volunteering with us, and we love working with you. We are a team and between us we are transforming many people’s lives.
Onwards and upwards for the Canine Partners family across the UK.