Fun with my boarders

Woof from me, guide dog Fletcher! I know it’s been a while. I’m still trying to sort out this niggle in my back. Thankfully it’s just a niggle and I’m getting a helping hand from an osteopath. My guiding is getting better, though I’m still stopping unexpectedly. Less so than before and I like this positive reinforcement technique that my human is now using too. All good stuff. Talking of good stuff…

I had fun with my boarders. No, not the wall kind of boarder which some in the USA are on about. By the way, that one is barking. No, I’m talking about two very impawtant people, Cressi and Andrew.

They boardered me when I was undergoing my early and advanced training to be a guide dog. Basically the time period after I was with my puppy walker, Di. And before I went to live with my human, Fiona, and qualified as a guide dog (I’ll give you a timeline and who’s who in my next blog post).

Cressi and Andrew took me into their home and made sure I got plenty of TLC in the evenings after training all day. Plus they made sure I had fun at weekends like going to the seaside.

I last saw them in July 2015. Here’s a photo of Cressi, Andrew and me from back then and when the sun was shining.

And I got to see them again in 2017.

And we all went to the park. My first time running in a park since my back operation.

And Cressi and Andrew brought along life changer-to-be, Isaac; he’s now left them to live with his new owner-to-be and paws crossed he will qualify as a guide dog.

I had a mega pawtastic time!

In the park, I got treats from my human.

Lots of fusses from Cressi. From Andrew too. Here I am receiving fuss from Cressi alongside Isaac; he has black fur and mine is golden.

Of course, life changer-to-be Isaac and I couldn’t resist running around and rolling on top of each other.

Oh, and there was the obligatory sit down photo call. Here I am showing Isaac how it is done.

Then I got to show my boarders my awesome guide dog skills when we all went to the pub after the park (I am a professional after all). Lying down is key guide dog skill. As is staring up at humans with big brown eyes…

Volunteer guide dog boarders are pawsome (here’s the link to Guide Dogs’ website if you want to know how to become a boarder). A big thank you to everyone who boarders a guide dog-in-training / guide dog. I got two of the best boarders (not that I’m biased!). Plus I got to see them again when I was a fully-trained all qualified guide dog. That’s a big thing for me.

For, my human didn’t get details of my boarders. She had to track them down on something called Facebook (I’m not on Facebook. I’m still getting my paws around Twitter and blogging here). Took my human and Cressi over a year to connect. They got there in the end. Now we have said thank you to another two members of my guide dog family. How lucky am I?

Woof and paw, Guide dog Fletcher.

P.S. Happy Mother’s Day to my woofderful mum, Jazz, who’s now retired. Her humans are Ginny and Andy. And to all guide dog brood bitches (that’s what they call our mums. Not very polite is it?!) and their humans.

P.P.S. My humans took me to the park briefly today (I’m not allowed too long in the park whilst my back still niggles). I rolled on my back (which made my humans happy). And also rolled in some very nice smelling poo (which made my humans less happy).

(c) pawsatthekerb™, March 2017.