Kai explores his new home

Sponsor puppy Kai has started living with his volunteer puppy socialisers!

They're called Sharon and Peter, and they've looked after lots of our puppies before. So, Kai's definitely in very good hands. They're going to help him grow up to be a well-rounded character, living life as if it's a game - one in which, by behaving well, he gets rewarded. It's a great life for a hearing dog! Especially labradors like Kai, because they'll do anything for a treat.

First days usually start with a good old sniff around the garden, and Kai was no exception.

He was particularly interested in this garden ornament. But that's nothing compared to how cute he looked after inspecting it...

Kai soon discovered that Sharon and Peter have amassed plenty of puppy toys over the years. They know what it takes to make a happy puppy, and that's what they got this time around too! We love how his ears flop around everywhere when he jumps about excitedly. We also love that, of all the toys available to him, he chooses the plastic bottle to play with instead.

He's always been a bit of a 'mischievous monkey of a puppy', as Sharon described him. Here you can see just part of what it took to get photos of him.

Our photographer is very professional and knows his stuff - but even he has difficulty when it comes to exciteable puppies! Fortunately he's also had plenty of experience with them, and knows that the best way to survive a puppy's affections is to keep his head down...

Finally, after much coaxing and treats, we finally got him to stay still for a few seconds. Phew!

Just to prove that Kai is actually learning to be a hearing dog, here are two photos showing him finding about the world as part of his training.

First, here's Peter in a reception area, helping Kai to learn that, if he just sits patiently, nothing bad's going to happen, and in fact if he's a good boy, he'll get a treat. It's the beginning of Kai learning to be a well-behaved little puppy, able to accompany his eventual deaf partner wherever they want to go.

And here's Kai getting acquainted with traffic. Again, it's important that we're sure Kai is happy in these situations because he will need to cope with them when he grows up. As you can see, he's not at all bothered! That's probably because he knows that if he's a good little Lab, he'll get a fuss and a treat. We call this 'reward-based training' and it works really well.

Kai is full of energy – but for every up, there is a down. The main thing is, Kai looks so cute, even when he’s having some sleepy-time.

So there you have Kai. Thanks to Sharon and Peter, we're hoping to have plenty more videos and photos to show you over the coming months. And thanks to you, his sponsor, he's already discovering that life is fun, and he wants lots of it! From all of us, thank you for sponsoring Kai.