Cassie has been living with her Puppy Walker, Jane, since she was born as Jane also happens to look after Cassie’s mum, Sky! We’ve been in touch with Jane to find out how everything is going.

Often when a puppy moves to a new environment, there can a few unsettled nights at first while they find their feet. However, as Cassie was already in familiar surroundings when she began the puppy walking stage of her journey, Jane hasn’t had many issues at all with Cassie sleeping soundly at night. Jane told us that when Cassie began sleeping on her own in her puppy crate, there was a little bit of whining to begin with, but she was soon snoozing happily through each night. Jane has three other dogs in total; Sky, retired guide dog mum, Echo, and pet dog Meg. All three have been a very calming influence on Cassie, which has been lovely.

One of the first things pups need to master when they begin their training, is the toilet routine. They are encouraged to respond to the ‘busy’ toileting prompt, which is taught to all guide dog pups and is designed to encourage ‘spending’ in appropriate areas. It can take a while for some pups to get the hang of this, but we are pleased to report that Cassie is making excellent progress and has only had a few accidents here and there.

Jane has begun introducing Cassie to some basic obedience commands, such as ‘sit’, ‘down’ and ‘stay’, and Cassie is picking things up really quickly, especially when there is a food treat as a reward!

An important aspect of a guide dog pup’s early training is to familiarise them with a variety of different modes of transport, so that later in life they can confidently go anywhere that their owner might need to. Cassie has started with car travel, which she appears to be fine with.

Cassie has a cheeky side when she’s not busy learning – she likes to steal shoes and take them off to her bed, as well as ‘help’ with the gardening! We think that Cassie sounds like a bright little pup who has got off to a great start. We look forward to sending you her first report card soon.