Picture of Harry

Hi. My name is Harry, I'm a Guide Dog Puppy in Training and this is my Blog.

Atherton Appeal

Harry supported Guide Dogs' appeal to equip the brand new training school for the North of England at Atherton. He was keen to help as he was to be one of the first puppies to train at the new school.

Harry was at the launch of the appeal on 7th October 2008 where he got to meet the Press. One of the newspaper articles can be seen here.

August 17, 2009

Another update on Harry

A week or so ago we had a telephone call from Harry’s trainer to update us on his progress.

His training appears to be going really well, and we discussed couple of points in detail, one of which related to his motivation. The other related to Harry’s “spending” (or toilet habits).  It seems that, although he was given the opportunity to “spend” before going out, he always managed to find a little something extra to deposit while out on a training walk.

This is not the best of habits to have, a working Guide Dog should always be “clean” on a walk and this really needed to be sorted out.

On Friday we were delighted to receive a written update on his progress, which included the following:-

“Harry continues to progress with his training tasks. His motivation and willingness to take responsibility of the guiding role has improved. He enjoys regular routes with an incentive at the end, this has also helped increase his confidence and initiative levels throughout his training.

I have established his spending routine and he has been consistently clean on his walks for a while now.

You will be pleased to know Harry will be progressing onto advanced training.

Harry has been a pleasure to train, he has been a credit to you. I’m sure he is going to make someone a great guide and companion.”

Harry’s “matching form” has been completed.  This is where all the attributes of the dog are listed and details circulated to all the District Teams around the country who have  blind or visually impaired people waiting for the “right” dog.  Once he has been selected by a District Team he will move to that area and undertake his Advanced Training.

Matching the correct dog with the correct owner takes skill and experience. The owner’s length of stride, height and lifestyle all contribute to the type of guide dog they will be matched with.  Harry will be the right dog for someone, but we just don’t know who that will be, or where they live.

Now we just have to wait  to find out which part of the country Harry will be going to, to do his Advanced Training and spend his working life.


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