Following the death of our beloved Labrador we spotted the Veterans With Dogs (VWD) website and contacted them as we wanted to “give something back”. After a home check we were accepted as puppy socialisers. Three months later an eight weeks old Golden Retriever called Sunny (short for Sunshine!) turned up and stayed with us until she was fourteen months old. Like any puppy she was hard work to begin with, but it was great to see her develop a calm confidence through being taken on buses, the train, in the car, into supermarkets and lots of other places, as well as being fully socialised on and off lead with numerous dogs and people during her daily walks. We took her to puppy training classes and were able to seek advice and help from VWD as necessary. We particularly liked the VWD reward based training methods, the objective being for Sunny to choose to do the right things and not be forced to. For example, we obtained permission from a local pub restaurant to take her indoors there while we had lunch to celebrate her birthday. After Sunny’s visit they put up a sign saying that guide and assistance dogs were welcome, which gives an idea of how well behaved she had become. We miss her a lot, but it’s good to know that she will be helping a Veteran in the years to come.

I found out about Veterans With Dogs via a relative of a friend, and when I was informed about the Puppy Socialiser programme I was instantly interested. Straight away I liked the concept of puppy socialising, and once I had spoken to their head trainer, Kirsten Dillon, I was really keen. She immediately advised me that we were great candidates to support the charity. I am a busy mum of two, we have a well behaved older dog and two cats. I was really excited to help and of course my children were over the moon about the thought of having a puppy in the house again. We had so much support from the Charity itself. Any queries or problems I had I knew I could speak to Kirsten about. I had help with holiday cover etc. and of course any related costs involved were covered. We simply had to welcome a pup into our home and care for it. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with our “foster” puppy Domino. She settled into our family life really well and I was truly sorry to see her go and the end of the process. However, the reward of knowing that we were helping someone truly in need was my main focus. If this is something you feel you would be interested in, I would wholeheartedly encourage you to speak to the Veterans With Dogs team.