Marnie's going from strength to strength

Marnie's going from strength to strength, growing up quickly and learning all the skills needed to become a hearing dog.

Firstly, the skills. Part of what makes our dogs so special is their patience. We call this 'impulse control', and it's important because our dogs need to realise that they don't have to hassle people for a fuss or a treat.

Below is a perfect demonstration of this from Marnie.

She doesn't wolf the treats down, or demand more. She knows that she can just wait until she's allowed to eat them, and if she does, she'll be given loads of praise. It's all a game to her, one that she loves winning! We call this reward-based training and it works really well.

It's not all work though. Marnie has plenty of time for fun and new friends! She lived for a short time with another volunteer as holiday cover for Maggie. She didn't waste any time making more friends!

They're like the three musketeers! Although you couldn't ask for three more different shapes, sizes and colours, they all got along really well. They all look fairly happy in that photo (although, once again, it's difficult actually to make out Marnie's face among all that fur!)

Holiday cover is another way our lovely volunteers help us. We have a fantastic network of volunteers and they all support each other too. From raising our puppies, to giving them Bed & Breakfast, to simply taking them for walks or offering holiday cover when another volunteer is going abroad, we really couldn't survive without them.

Back to Marnie. Here's Marnie with her brother Merlin! He's the one on the left. He's very slightly bigger than Marnie but apart from that, they're hard to tell apart.

What do they like doing together? Getting soaked in muddy pools, of course!

Marnie's volunteer dog trainer Maggie took that photo in the woods above Woburn Park. The park is a beautiful place, very popular with dog walkers, and exactly the right place for an excited Marnie to have fun and run around.

And finally - because every Puppy Pen must feature a pooped pooch or two - here's Marnie settling nicely with another puppy pal. This was taken at the golf club.

Marnie is doing exactly the right thing here - just taking it easy, not bothering anyone, and knowing that she doesn't need to hassle for treats or a fuss. All good things come to puppies who wait!

Did we say finally? Not quite! Here's a photo we found from the archives of Marnie when she was a bit younger, with her favourite toy.

We just wanted to include it because, well, it's so cute!

That's all for now. Until your next update, thank you for sponsoring Marnie!