Canine Catch-Up

We have had a busy few weeks with our dogs. Last week we were invited to Skye's graduation. Skye was our foster assistance dog from Autism Assistance Dogs Ireland who left us to go into specialist training at the beginning of March See here :). She has now completed her training and graduated as a working assistance dog. We were invited to go along one evening last week and meet the family she has been matched with. Skye has matured into an amazing dog and the children were delighted to see her again and were presented with this photo as a keepsake.

Although the guys still miss Skye they can at least now understand a little what it means to a family with an autistic child to be given an assistance dog who will hopefully change their lives for the better and they can feel proud that they have been part of the journey.

We then had to also say goodbye to Bramble, two trauma's in the space of a week! She is the foster puppy we have had since just before Skye left and as she has now completed 6 months with us will move on to another foster family before also entering advanced training. She is a genuinely lovely dog who will also make a wonderful forever friend for an autistic child one day.
In May we then brought home Wilson, a then 10 week old Cavalier puppy who is ours to keep! We decided that Holly would love a playmate more her size and that Beth would benefit from having a dog which she was responsible for.

He is a lovely little dog and settled in right away. As you can see he and Holly also get on very well.

Our final and probably biggest bit of doggie news is that Amber is expecting puppies. Last Autumn we had her hips and elbows x-rayed and scored as hip dysplasia is a big issue for Bernese Mountain Dogs. Happily she had excellent scores ( elbows 0/0, hips 2/2 for those in the know!) and with a  family history of good health and sound temperament, her breeding restriction was lifted from her kennel club registration. Amber is an amazing dog and we would love for her to have a companion who doesn't leave to move on to training and so began the hunt for a sire. Through the Bernese Club we heard of a lovely male, aptly called Mr Darcy, and had her mated just over 7 weeks ago now. So in 10 days, or there abouts, Amber will become a Mammy. The children are wildly excited at the prospect whilst Anna, Justin and I are madly reading breeding books to gen ourselves up on whelping and puppy care. Amber meanwhile is finding this current heatwave a bit hard to take. In the picture below Anna is shaving Ambers tummy, which will be required anyway and also cools her down as she lies on the cool concrete or tiles. We are also busy building a whelping box and I will put up some photo's soon!