Hunter, Hedley, Crumble and Cooper

Let's kick off this Pupdate with an absolutely wonderful photo Hunter's volunteer puppy socialiser Clare has shared with us.

From left to right you have Hedley, Hunter and Cooper. Hedley is Hunter's brother! He's also another hearing dog in training. You met Cooper in a previous update, when he was a tiny little puppy, immediately befriended by Hunter. Well, he's grown up! They all have! And they're really looking magnificent, don't you think? What a handsome threesome.

Here they are again, although this time it's Hunter, Cooper and then Hedley. They just look so content in each other's company, and are happy to pose for the camera.

Now you've met brother Hedley, here's mum, Crumble!

Believe it or not, she's the one on the left below.

Yes, Hunter is a big boy! He's a very strong, robust Labrador, but ever so gentle with it. He gets this temperament from his mum. We only use the very best dogs from our training programme to be Hearing Dogs mums. We've even had some sponsor pups who have become mums, and their puppies have then also become part of the sponsor programme - truly, the next generation of sponsor pups. The breeding scheme is a fantastic way in which our exceptional dogs help not just one deaf person, but many.

Here's Hunter having some fun in the big, wet, splishy-sploshy stuff: 

We think the other dog is Hedley, but honestly, we don't know which is which! It's hard to get black dogs to appear with much detail when it's against a bright background. Let's just content ourselves with knowing that one of them is Hunter, and he's really enjoying himself (like he always does because Clare is such a great volunteer puppy socialiser).

And finally, a shot of Hunter on his own but looking magnificent.

That photo really shows off how beautiful the local countryside is around our training centre in Buckinghamshire. All our dogs love going on walks in the rolling Chiltern Hills. It all goes towards making them happy, healthy, well-balanced dogs, while their training takes them ever closer to helping deaf people leave loneliness behind.

That's all for now. From all of us, thank you for sponsoring Hunter!