Let's find out more about Star

Welcome to your next Star Puppy Pen Pupdate!

It's time to find out more about what makes Star 'tick'. So, first of all, here she is at just six weeks old showing us how she can handle herself (or, at least, that toy snake which is much bigger than she is), and how that little tail of hers is always up, like a car aerial!

Did you enjoy that video?

Let's have another one then! 

Star is now living with Grace, who is a Volunteer Puppy Trainer. This means that, with assistance from our staff trainers, Grace will bring up Star to be a well-behaved little girl, taking her through her training and gently introducing her to the world.

"This was Star's first meal with us," Grace explains. "She even has her own little bowl with Stars on. She is a good eater unless there is anything more interesting happening!"

Anything more interesting than food? Surely not!

Here's Star with her brothers and sisters before she went to live with Grace. They all seem to be enjoying themselves! Honestly, we don't know which one is Star. If you think you know, tell us in the comments!

Back to Grace: "She loves cardboard, especially big boxes. Her favourite game is sniffing out the treats hidden amongst the toys in the box."

Ah, a lot of our dogs like cardboard boxes, and they all like treats! They also like them in toys.

More from Grace: "We're looking after another hearing dogs in training, called Coco. Star loves being near Coco and they often share the same bed despite having their own!"

Here they are, best pals. Do you think they could be smiling...?

"What's that? Are you talking about me?"

Star has already started finding out about the world around her with Grace's guidance. She's not sure whether she prefers pebbles (there's that tail again...)

... wood (tail again)...

... carpet...

... or glorious mud! The tail is most definitely up!

"What's that? Mud, did you say?"

Yes, Star is having a lovely life with Grace. And the photo above with her on the carpet is actually the start of some important training. It's called 'impulse control', and it's how we teach our clever puppies to be patient. When they're fully qualified hearing dogs, helping deaf people, we want their focus to be on the person they're with, not other interesting things such as other people or dogs. We also don't want them jumping around or being a bit of a nuisance.

So, from a very early age, we teach them that, if they're patient, and wait until the cue, they'll get a treat and a fuss, and maybe even a tickle-tum. It works really well. They learn that they can just take life easy and good things will happen. It's a really nice, positive way for a puppy to learn, as well as a positive way for the trainers to train her!

"Eh? Treats? Did you say treats?"

Yes, we did Star. We did say treats, and we did mention mud, and we are talking about you because you're such a cute, clever little puppy! Cute and adorable...

Look at her little face! Awwwwwwww!

We'll leave you with that enduring image for now. Until next time, thank you so much for sponsoring Star!