Feather continues to love life

It's Feather time again!

First up, this is what Feather looks like when we have a light scattering of snow. She becomes something of a two-tone Feather! She even seems to get that 'feathery' marking back on her nose, like when she was a puppy.

And after the snow (and let's face it, the mud), here's the result.

She's still a Feather of two halves. Her face doesn't look entirely sure about the shower, but her tail definitely gives the game away. Whether it's fun, fresh snow, or a nice warm shower, Feather's always a happy puppy.

We also have some more training to show you. Here she is showing how well she can sit.

The hand gesture you can see is her cue to sit - and then wait for a treat and a fuss! Which would most certainly have followed such a brilliant sit.

We believe in what we call 'reward-based training'. It's the best way to train a dog: to give plenty of treats and fusses, rubs and tickle-tums, every time a dog makes the 'right' decision. The 'wrong' decision is just ignored. So, our dogs learn that, if they do 'that thing' whenever they hear 'that sound' or see 'that gesture', they'll get a reward. Eventually it becomes second nature to them, and hey presto, a new cue is learned. We do this right the way through their training, from their very first clever cues, through to their eventual nose nudges that alert deaf people to sounds.

Did we mention that Feather gets plenty of fussing...?

That was one of the granddaughters of Sylvia, who is the volunteer looking after Feather and training her, with a friend. They look like they're quite enjoying it, but Feather looks like she's really, really, really enjoying it!

Feather is quite a collector of toys, but she has one special toy, a sort of orange 'thing', which she carries around everywhere with her - even on a ploughed field.

And if she looked like she was really, really, really enjoying her tickle-tums earlier, she looks like she's really, really, really, really, really enjoying rolling around in the grass!

So what do you think - is Feather having a nice life? We do! She loves the snow, she likes showers, she enjoys tickle-tums, she adores the grass. She even enjoys training because she gets treats. She's having a brilliant life with Sylvia, and she's doing ever so well because she's a happy little dog.

She's also doing well because of your support. We're proud of her, and we hope you are too. As always, thank you for sponsoring Feather!