Training a future canine partner

One of the Christmas cards offered for sale to help Canine Partners raise funds for training their service dogs.

TRAINING techniques based on behaviour, play, praise and reward, develop eight-week-old puppies into highly skilled and talented Canine Partners.

We created the Puppy Education system so that our dogs can work with a variety of disabilities. This enables them to rapidly adapt to changes in a Partner's condition and gives them the ability to readily work with someone else if necessary. On completion of their training, canine partners can respond to approximately 100 commands, including:

The wellbeing of our dogs
Our dogs receive a huge amount of praise, love and affection throughout the training programme, and a partner takes up this responsibility once they graduate with the dog. Canine Partners ensures each dog achieves its full potential to lead a full and rewarding life by providing the best possible care and overseeing their partner's well-being at every stage of the partnership and retirement.

Puppy Education
Puppies are carefully selected using specially developed aptitude tests, which help to identify potential assistance dogs. Essential qualities include a gentle, co-operative nature, curiosity, a strong desire to be with people and a steady temperament.

The puppies are cared for by volunteer "Puppy Parents" from the age of eight weeks to about 14 months. By attending weekly training classes, Puppy Parents learn how to socialise puppies to every environment an assistance dog might work in, such as busy streets, shops, hospitals, supermarkets and bus stations. Puppies are also taught how to problem solve, a quality crucial to successfully working as an assistance dog at an exceptionally high level.

For example, one dog observed his Partner having difficulty with reaching for his card at the cash point. The dog, without command, reached up and took the money and card from the dispenser for his Partner.

Apart from all the hard work, the dogs enjoy extensive exercise and play. This helps to prepare them for the rigours of working as an assistance dog. If you are interested in supporting Canine Partners, you can do so through fundraising, volunteering, our Adopt a Puppy Scheme, purchasing our Christmas cards and more. Please visit www.caninepartners.co.uk for further information.

Have a Canine Partners Christmas
Canine Partners (Registered Charity No. 803680), a charity specialising in providing highly trained assistance dogs to people with disabilities, is pleased to introduce it’s range of festive Christmas cards. What’s more, if you are stuck for that special Christmas present why not Adopt a Puppy for the one you love?

This year, Canine Partners has eight Christmas card designs ranging from festive puppy to traditional robin in the snow. Each pack, containing 10 cards, is priced at £2.99 plus 50p postage and packaging. “Christmas cards are a very personal thing and we hope we have catered for all needs with our designs this year,” comments Isabel Campbell Director of Fundraising and Marketing. “Charity Christmas cards are a great way of keeping in touch with friends, family and colleagues at the same time as making a contribution to a worthwhile cause.”

Canine Partners also has the solution for those difficult-to-buy presents. Why not Adopt a Puppy for just £1 a week so your loved ones can follow the progress of wannabe Canine Partners as they train to become assistance dogs and transform the lives of people with disabilities? Recipients will receive a Puppy Pack containing a puppy photo, signed certificate and a cuddly toy dog, as well as getting regular updates of puppy adventures plus photos.