More Harvey friends

It's Harvey time again!

Harvey is now living with a new volunteer called Angela, to help him progress through his journey. She tells us: "We have been taking lots of dog walks in the local area, lots of woods and hill areas, so Harvey has met lots of new friends."

So, let's meet some of his new friends shall we?

Harvey has become best pals with Angela's own pet dog Florence, who is eight years old. 

They like staring out of the window together for ages! 

Best friends, just happy in each other's company.

This is Bella, a friend's pet. Harvey looks like he's laughing in this photo! Perhaps Bella just told him a doggy joke?

There's also hearing dog in training Alpha, who Harvey loves going for refreshing walks with in the woods.

And here's Harvey's dad, called Harley! They've met before, which we showed you in a lovely photo in a previous update. Harvey's colouring is much more like Harley now.

Here's an assortment of friends, human and animal!

Honestly, we don't know who's who in this one! It's fair to say Harvey's the one at the front. So many friends, so little time...

Harvey doesn't restrict himself to making friends with dogs. Here he is with Angela, saying hello to a horse.

This is actually a great experience for him. We want all our puppies to gain as much experience as possible, in as many different scenarios, so that they learn new people and places - and dogs, and horses - are interesting, not scary. So, now Harvey's met a horse, in a nice, relaxed, gentle way, he'll have no problem with horses in future. Clever Harvey!

Now's a good time to show you more of Harvey's training. With lockdowns and social distancing hopefully behind us, Harvey's been able to get out and about a bit more. He recently took a train journey. He was so patient waiting for the train (more so than us humans!)

Notice how handsome he looks in his burgundy 'I'm learning to be a hearing dog' coat!

And when the train did eventually arrive, he was perfectly behaved.

Look at how his attention is on Angela, while he just sits nicely. This is what we call 'settling'. It means that his eventual deaf partner will be able to travel confidently on public transport, knowing that Harvey will be no bother to anyone. In fact, he seems to enjoy it, which is great.

More training: impulse control! This is how our dogs learn not to get too excited when there are interesting things going on around them, such as huge piles of food.

Supermarkets and garden centres can be fascinating places for dogs, with all their sights, sounds and smells. So, Angela has been taking him to visit them, so that he learns that the 'right' thing to do is just to ignore them. His reward is a fuss and a cuddle, and a treat if he's a good boy. So, Harvey is learning that there's no point getting excited about food, because it'll come his way anyway. It's what we call 'reward-based training' and it works really well, as you can see.

Although sometimes, Harvey is justified in looking longingly at the food, especially when it's actually his own food!

Harvey is such a good boy, learning so much and growing into a handsome Cockapoo. We're very proud of him, and you should be too, because your support has helped him come so far. We hope you enjoyed this latest insight into his life. As always, until next time, thank you for sponsoring Harvey!