Life with Billy, Neal, Merlin, Jilly and David

In your last update we showed you the family that has welcomed Otto into their home. Well, we're pleased to tell you that he's growing up to be a fine young puppy, having a great time with his pals Neal, Billy and Merlin (oh, and his human friends Jilly and her husband David too!)

Our dogs love being out and about, so rainy days are just for loafing indoors, really. Here's Otto and Billy having a good old loaf together on a slightly soggy day. Billy is Jilly and David's own dog, a grey lurcher. They look good together, loafing, don't you think?

There are so many fantastic places for Otto to visit with Jilly, and so many friends to visit them with! Jilly explains: "This is Otto, Neal and Merlin showing a great 'settle' at Hughenden Manor, which is a very popular local spot for dog walkers."

Neal is being trained by David, Jilly's husband, and is only a couple of weeks older than Otto. Merlin is another puppy being trained by another volunteer puppy socialiser. If you look closely, you can also see Billy peering from the back! The close-knit community of volunteers is what makes Hearing Dogs 'tick' - without them, we just couldn't bring our puppies up to be such great dogs, nor could we help nearly as many deaf people.

Back to Jilly: "He has also been mixing with a celebrity. Last week, he met Rachel Riley and was one of the pups in a demonstration puppy class so Rachel could see how we train the pups." Rachel Riley is a big fan of Hearing Dogs, visiting us and going on our Great British Dog Walks.

This was the result - sleepy time with Neal afterwards because he was a pooped pooch! It's tiring mixing with the stars...

Below, something a bit out of the ordinary: Otto watching, fascinated, as a spinning top goes round and round and round and round and round and round and round...

And finally: "This is Otto 'helping' David set the fire."

That's a rather strange idea of helping! It's just as well we're not supposed to be training our dogs to do this sort of thing otherwise Otto would need a lot of practise!

As it happens, he's doing really well with his training, so no practise needed. This is thanks to you for sponsoring him, so from all of us, thank you for sponsoring Otto!