Meet Otto's new family

Otto is now living with his volunteer puppy socialiser family!

He's really landed on his puppy feet, because he's living with David and Jilly, two of our most experienced socialisers.They have been volunteering for us for over 15 years. They're so experienced that they're actually volunteer dog trainers. This means they look after and train our puppies from home, right the way through their training, from eight weeks of age and then through to being matched with a deaf person. 

Otto will be the fifteenth dog that they have partially or fully trained to soundwork. In all, they have socialised and trained over forty ‘long term’ pups, with Otto being number 42! 

So, let's meet the family...

Below is Jilly, giving Otto a bit of a cuddle. She's the one who came up with the line 'brightest, softest, squidgiest puppy' to describe him, which was too good not to use. "Otto is a very calm, kind puppy and loves to be cuddled", Jilly tells us. We can tell!

This is David, looking on proudly at his 'puppy family'. "Otto loves people, children and other dogs", David says. In that case, he's going to have a fantastic time - just look at the other dogs he'll be around! David laughs: "He also loves watching television, particularly programmes with animals."

You're probably wondering by now who all the other dogs are? Over to Jilly: "The grey lurcher is our pet dog, Billy. He is nearly eleven years old and has seen many Hearing Dog pups come and go. The large black labrador is Nelson, a dog I helped train and who is probably already out helping a deaf person by now.The black Lab puppy is Neal, who is David’s trainee, and is just slightly older than Otto by a couple of weeks."

Here they are again - from left to right, Nelson, Billy, Otto and Neal

David explains: "As you can imagine, ours is a busy household at the moment. We usually ‘overlap’ the pups and have had this situation many times before with four dogs on the go at once. It is amazing how quickly the little ones learn from the big guys."

Below is a meet-up at our centre, with a member of staff. Otto has that curious look about him again, with a slight head tilt. It's so cute!

Finally, here's Otto enjoying puppy-cuddles...

... and very finally, who can resist photos of sleepy-time? We're sure you'll agree Otto looks extremely safe, secure and comfortable!

That's all from Otto for now. If you liked this pupdate, why not leave a comment below?

In the meantime, from David, Jilly, Billy, Hunter and Neal, thank you for sponsoring Otto!