Splashes and sploshes and chuckles and giggles with Charlie

It's Charlie time again!

Let's see how his training's coming along...

That is a brilliant example of a 'recall'. It's how our dogs come running when their name is called. Imagine a deaf person is going for a walk in the woods, and they really need their hearing dog to come back. It just wouldn't do if the dog was more interested in sniffing around the undergrowth, or just disappeared with another new friend.

So, Charlie has been taught that, if his name is called, and he comes running, he gets a fuss and a reward. He'll always do this from now on, and his eventual deaf partner will be safe in the knowledge they will always be safe and sound, and looked after by their furry friend who will be close by at all times.

If you notice, in that video, there's a chuckle. Here's a lot of giggling.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of a giggle, now is there? Charlie loves playing with children, and even this is part of his training: learning to play nicely, especially as children can be quite loud or playful with them. Charlie is such a softie though. He's also growing up!

Charlie doesn't really need anyone to encourage him to run around however. And around. And around, and around, and around...

Hopefully that made you giggle a bit too. That's chuckles and giggles out of the way. Now it's splashes...

... and sploshes!

Charlie seems to be fascinated by water. Who are we to put him off? All our dogs have their own little quirks, and clearly Charlie loves the wibbly-wobbly, splishy-splashy wet stuff.

Do you think Charlie loves water more than children though? We're not sure.

He certainly loves Volunteer Puppy Trainer Tunja! With her daughter Tamsin, Tunja puts a huge amount of her own time into bringing up Charlie. They also took all the photos and videos you can see here in the Puppy Pen. Our volunteers are truly amazing. We simply could not function without them.

And he loves meeting sheep. Again, this is part of his training - learning to be around other animals and not bothering about them. From now on, Charlie knows sheep are just big woolly things, no problem, just be relaxed around them and he'll get a treat for being a good boy.

And finally, no Puppy Pen is complete without a hearing dog in training enjoying a well-deserved snooze!

You've done so very well Charlie, you deserve it.

Also, as his supporter, you deserve a huge 'thank you' because of your generosity. One day, Charlie will change a deaf person's life. Right now however, he's doing really well with his training and loving life with his volunteers. So, again, from all of us, thank you for sponsoring Charlie!