It's been a quiet few days - very emotional but also uplifting.

Many of you will know that we lost our lead teaching dog, Skye on Saturday – sadly that big heart just gave out. It was good that we were with her, and she wasn’t in the Vets on her own, but that brings even more problems. It did mean that Barney was able to see her and say Goodbye but that hasn’t stopped him looking for her ☹ But each day has been easier for him and reading all the wonderful tributes to her – she did help a lot of dogs; has indeed helped us. Stuart is currently drawing a picture of her, and we have planted a tree in her memory which many of you may see when you visit. Please enjoy seeing it grow and if you have any special memories of her or photos, do share them – it will be a great comfort.

Although we couldn’t do the puppy class and youth club on Saturday – we were at the Vets with her, we did continue our beginners scentwork workshop on Saturday afternoon and classes on Sunday continued. We are so grateful for those of you who were able to come and join us, by helping your dogs, we were able to honour our precious Skye.

What to do next? Well, we are open to all suggestions, but it may be that we consider a puppy which may settle best with Barney, but there maybe another dog out there to help and support. So, we wait to see……………………

Classes continue this week, and we encourage you to talk to us about Skye. We find that this helps us and hopefully helps everyone. Likewise if you prefer not to, that’s fine too but just wanted to let people know how best to deal with this.

I am very happy to offer anyone who missed their class last Saturday, a chance to work with me this week on a 121 basis instead – just get in touch. You will help us keep busy until another dog comes barging into our lives and takes over – just like Skye did. In the meantime, please hug your pups a little bit more, and take lots of photos – I have well over 2000 of Skye and its helping.

Don’t be sad for her, she did a marvellous job helping other dogs and guiding the pups. She loved working and we were so lucky to have had her.

Carol and Stuart x