Guide dogs

mcsdan

A few weeks back we lost our labrador of nearly 13 years, Harry. He was a typical "andrex puppy/guide dog". Had him since a puppy and has grown up with the kids. I was going to do a post about it but tbh was too painful. We have another lab of 5 years so plenty of joy and life in him. All feels weird atm. BTW our current lab is called Beau. Idea of the kids to call them both Harry-Beau.

Anyway my wife and I have had many dogs over the years and we are both getting to an age where 1 dog is a lot easier so  we haven't rushed out to get another. At one point, before kids, we had 5 dogs !! If I'm honest, we can't take dogs passing on anymore.

To do something positive from this we've setup donations to the Guide Dogs for the blind.  So we are sponsoring Willow.

So reminds us of Harry as a pup.

Although, to be fair, Harry would have been a nightmare as a guide dog!! I think it would have been Harry 10 humans 1!!

Anyway, if you can spare a few quid a month do help the guide dogs out it is great.

https://www.guidedogs.org.uk/

richman6100

Already a sponsor and I agree, a great cause.

duotone

It’s a brilliant cause, such clever dogs. My Labrador is 9 years old now, she has been fantastic company for myself & my parents. Wouldn’t hesitate in getting another one when the inevitable happens.

Watched the “Pick of the litter’ series on Disney+ about guide dog training a few months ago. It was great & I learned a lot.  Some were career changed when they weren’t suitable, so were used to do different tasks/jobs.

mcsdan

Thanks, I have Disney+ so will take a look.

Does seem very quiet atm. Despite having Beau, when we had Harry too they would both be playing together so always something going on!! I feel a bit sorry for Beau but he is spending alot of time with my daughter(on furlough) atm so is being made a fuss of!

Glad to hear some others already sponsoring a guide dog. 

boogieman

A couple who are long-standing friends of ours live close to a guide dog training centre. They act as foster parents for young dogs in training: the dogs are at the centre all day on weekdays and then go to our friends in the evenings and weekends. We met a couple of them before lockdown, they’re so well trained it’s amazing. Our friends have the dogs for up to three months, it’s heartbreaking for them when the dogs get sent on to their new owner, although it’s obviously for all the best reasons. 

mcsdan

Funny enough my wife and I spoke about this the other day but felt we'd find it hard giving the dog back!

boogieman

mcsdan said:

Funny enough my wife and I spoke about this the other day but felt we'd find it hard giving the dog back!

Yeah I couldn’t do it for sure, especially when you’ve bonded with a dog for three months. We love Labs too, so that would  make it doubly hard. 

We’ve got our name down with a breeder for a black Lab puppy, she should be with us towards the end of the year. We had a Chocolate  Lab previously, he’s been gone coming up two years now. It’s taken us a long time to consider having another one. We were actually all ready to go with a Goldie pup then lockdown happened and we couldn’t go and get her. 

mcsdan

Harry was a "yellow" lab i.e. andrex puppy. Beau is a black lab. Friends have chocolate ones and I believe you can get a "red fox" colour too although not seen one in the flesh.

The breeder we got Harry from interviewed us to make sure we were suitable!! Good that she vets people before simply handing over dogs.

Harry was originally a friend for another dog Suzi we had after losing a previous one. Beau was the friend for Harry after Suzi went. We've always left it a few months in between although this is the first time we've said we'll stay with one.

Hope all goes to plan with you getting a black lab puppy end of the year. Post up some photos when you do

The red fox lab below (not mine)

nanoman

Our first sponsored guide dog didn't make the grade. They did send some nice pics of his new home though.

Some relatives of ours just took on a failed sniffer dog. First night he managed to open a cupboard and find some protein powder. Which he then got everywhere presumably thinking he'd be well rewarded for uncovering the 'stash'