Guide Dogs - Running Free

Happy birthday Quip! Well another month has been and gone and on August 13th Quip turned six months old. I know it's not a traditional birthday like turning one or two, but Quip has come so far in such a short space of time that I couldn't resist. Doesn't he look happy? 

This time, my uncle, Richard, brought Quip to a park right near me and we spent a few hours letting him run around off the lead. 

This exercise is really good at reinforcing the training that Richard has carried out with Quip so far and gives him the chance to have a bit of fun too. It was so lovely to see Quip run as each time that we have seen him we've been inside. 

What was even more amazing was that Quip has never visited us before and the park was unfamiliar to him. This didn't put him off though and he happily ran around investigating all there was to be seen, and he still came back when he was called too. Richard made him sit quite a few times during our trips around the park and wait in a spot until he was called. 

Just after the six months old marker, Quip will go for a bronze assessment to check in on his progress with my uncle. He'll then have two more (silver and gold) while he is with Richard before he has a big assessment and then moves up to the next stage in his training. It'll be nice to see how he gets on with this Quip has been on the bus a few more times this month and also took his first trip to the beach at Clacton! He was really good during the car journey up there and as you can see below, he really enjoyed himself. 

They are both still going puppy training regularly and Quip has settled down quite a lot, although he is probably still the loudest in the class! He likes his training, which is the main thing, and Richard hopes to take him to the zoo soon so he can experience another environment that is full of people and some very unusual looking animals...

Richard is also going away for a couple of weeks in September, but Quip will stay with another volunteer puppy walker in the meantime to ensure he is still receiving the training that he needs and can still be monitored by the Guide Dog Team. I'll still catch up with them next month though, so that I can find out what both Quip and Richard got up to on their separate holidays!