Romeo loves Bed and Breakfast

In his last update, we told you that Romeo had left his socialiser and moved to Yorkshire. He's now living with volunteers Dianne and Lee in Selby. They look after him during weeknights and over the weekends, and drop him off at our training centre at weekdays. We call this 'Bed and Breakfast'.

Dianne and Lee love having him in their home in Selby. "Romeo is our first dog as volunteers for hearing dogs and he settled in brilliantly", Dianne says. "We walk him daily at the local sculpture park in Selby but then for our second walk of the day we try alternative places such as Skipwith Common, Brayton Barff and Barlby ponds. We took him up to Brockadale Nature Reserve on Easter Sunday which was fab - he met lots of other dogs and enjoyed playing with them all." These are all beautiful parts of the country as anyone who lives around there or has visited will know. Lucky Romeo!

Romeo gets on particularly well with their daughter Madeline, as you can see below. "Romeo is very friendly. He can be a little shy at first but soon comes round and he's made friends with all our family and friends. He loves it when Madeline's friends come round to play as they all make a fuss of him and he thinks they are great because they all play games with him and cuddle him lots."

Madeline is also helping train Romeo. Here you can see a beautifully executed 'sit', in which Romeo ignores his ball because he knows he will get praise for sitting. 

In your last printed update we showed you the 'soundwork' he was doing - learning which sounds are important, and how to tell people about them. Here's another photo of him giving the nose nudge that he uses to alert people.

And below, you see him resplendent in his 'I'm learing to be a hearing dog' burgundy coat!

Dianne can already see changes in his character now he's training. "He's getting much more confident with people when out and about and will happily accept their attention and petting", she says. "He is fantastic with other dogs from small Pugs up to giant Irish Wolf Hounds. He is friendly and confident and is always happy to play with them. He is an absolute joy to be with. The best phrase to sum him up is "Beautiful inside and out".

What a lovely description of our energetic, playful Romeo. He's having such a great time with Dianne, Lee and Madeline. As his sponsor, you made this possible. So until the next Puppy Pen update... thank you!