I’m ashamed…I promised you a Guide Dog puppy blog and, over the last few months, I have manifestly failed to deliver.
In my defence, it has been a busy few months.
Yancy has been everywhere, man. Too many bus trips to mention, shows, freshers’ fairs, Dobbies collections and parties. You name the event, she’s probably been there.
And she remains unfazed by all that the world has to throw at her.
She is now 15 and a half months old…and last week we got the call which, to a certain extent, we had been dreading.
Yancy goes back to the centre at Forfar to start her formal training on October 5.
We are pleased that she now has a place there. There are so many pups around Yancy’s age that they have been going back a bit older than is normal.
That said, it has allowed her to mature that bit more and we are sure she is ready to take the next step up.
So many people have asked us: “How will you hand her back?”
I have always calmly responded that this is all part of the process and the reason we are involved is that we want our pups to go on to become Guide Dogs. That would make us so proud.
That said, secretly I always believed Yancy’s handback day would probably develop into some sort of police siege situation. “Yes,” said the superintendent. “He did hand the dog over, but only after we Tazered him.”
However, we do have some news to sweeten the pill a little.
Seven to eight-week-old lab retriever Jasmin arrives this week.
We have decided to “overlap” with the two dogs for 13 days. They say it’s good for the pup settling in…and we’re sure Yancy will love the new arrival.
What could possibly go wrong?!