Otis and the Gang

Time for more Otis!

He's coming along very nicely with his training, thanks to your support.

First, let's look at his 'stay':

This is a perfect example. Otis is focusing on the person he's with (Rachel, his Volunteer Puppy Trainer), without any fuss whatsoever. This is because he knows that, if he's patient and doesn't start pestering, he'll get a treat. It's called reward-based training and it works really well. It's the key to having well-behaved, happy dogs that can accompany their deaf partners wherever they want to go.

Talking of accompanying people wherever they want to go, here's Otis with Rachel in a supermarket.

Notice how his lead is just hanging nicely, not too tight and not too slack. We call this 'heelwork' and Otis appears to be fantastic at it. Again, he's just happy to be alongside Rachel, shuffling along the aisles, no bother at all. When he becomes a fully qualified assistance dog, he'll legally be able to visit places such as supermarkets, cafés, libraries and so on, as well as public transport. So, it's in everyone's interests that he's happy to do so. Which he is!

It's not all work, work, work though. Rachel makes sure Otis has plenty of downtime too.

Here he is with one of his best doggy pals: Rupert, a very handsome Cocker Spaniel.

Rupert is a very sociable soul: he's also friends with another sponsor puppy called Rusty, who had quite a muddy escapade with him, which you can read about elsewhere on the Puppy Pen.

No mud here though, just very happy puppy faces! And happy puppy ears too by the looks of it. They're everywhere!

Otis has plenty more friends to run around with. Rachel recently visited the Ashridge Estate, which is extremely popular among dogs and their walkers. You can see why...

Plenty of places and spaces to run-away round, that's why!

We've done some detective work and we believe you have, from left to right above, Rupert, then River (another hearing dog in training), then the black Lab is Vesper (another sponsor pup), then our Otis, then Flash, who is Vesper's half brother from another litter. Flash and Vesper met when Vesper was very little and adore each other. Yes, we know, this is nothing to do with Otis but we love telling you all about all our puppies!

Ashridge is a beautiful place, but Otis and his gang loved it because of the exciting undergrowth...

... the pathways strewn with leaves that smell interesting...

... and the muddy puddles...

... which of course attracted other 'mystery' dogs to join in! If you notice there are actually three black Labs above and below. We appear to have acquired a Lab along the way. To this day, we don't know who the other one is (but let's be honest, we're not 100% sure which is Flash or Vesper anyway).

We're sure which one's Otis though. Who could mistake those eyebrows? They're so expressive. Here's his 'inquisitive' face.

What do you think Otis is thinking above? Leave a comment below and let us know!

And thank you for sponsoring Otis!