August 2015 - Canine Partners
Members of the Horndean & District U3A met for their regular monthly meeting on Friday 7th August at Merchistoun Hall. They were enthralled and impressed by the talk about the work of the charity Canine Partners by Malcolm Wells, ably assisted by Glenis Lawrenson with the help of two beautiful Labrador dogs Zebedee & Wilf with demonstrations.
Malcolm told us about the sterling work of the charity, which has celebrated its 25th anniversary and its 500th dog partnered to provide assistance to disabled people to enable them to achieve more independence in everyday life. They currently have 328 working partnerships across the country of which there are 28 soldiers and a further 4 are on waiting list and a further 100 waiting countrywide.
The charity needs to raise £600 to buy each puppy with careful selection of breeders and breeds - mainly preferring Labradors and retrievers because it's their nature to work and retrieve. Dogs are trained for about 18 months before being partnered and generally work for 9 to10 years when they are retired.
The training the dogs receive covers opening and closing doors, picking up items from the floor, operating road crossings, opening washing machine - putting in or taking out washing, selecting newspapers, selecting wallet and handing to cashier, walking backwards, retrieving back to hand, helping partner to get up from bed and also to assist removing gloves, socks, un-zipping jacket and pulling off, to understand not to touch and toilet when told. The list is endless and admirable.
Some of these actions are not natural to dogs, like walking backwards and retrieving back to hand, toileting when told and not to touch. When the dogs have graduated they are introduced to potential partners and it's the dog who chooses the partner!. Prior to any placement the partners are trained on a residential course at the local Midhurst centre. Many trips will be taken into town to show them how to best use the dogs - it's a difficult course but eventually they all get through. After-care visits are made following placements and retraining takes place as needed, as it is always a moving target. CP also train the volunteers how to train the puppies. Volunteers are always needed!
Malcolm told us a whole lot more about this tremendous charity, too much to add in this write up! They have an open day coming up so if you would like to know more about this, volunteering and the charity Canine Partners, their web address is caninepartners.org.uk
Diane Stoner, Speaker Co-ordinator