We're delighted to say that Poppy has made it to training school!
The way to Poppy’s heart is through lots of tummy scratches and a good game of tug of war! When she’s out in the paddocks she will run around trying to get the other dogs to play with her as she loves nothing more than playing. Her favourite puppy pal is another trainee guide dog, a German shepherd cross retriever called Nugget.
Poppy is everything that you want in a trainee guide dog. She is willing, enthusiastic, and enjoys learning new tasks. Her puppy walkers, Mary and Keith, did an amazing job at building her confidence and ensuring she mastered her basic obedience skills.
Poppy took to the training harness quickly and is a natural at guiding. When she isn’t wearing her harness she is a cheeky puppy, but the moment it goes on she becomes very sensible and focused. I’ve begun working Poppy on our obstacle course, made up of every day challenges she may come up against whilst guiding, such as traffic cones and road signs. We use this course to teach our dogs to navigate around obstacles and learn to give their handler space to get around them too.
Poppy has also been trained to recognise changes in ground height. They use specially built platforms to introduce trainee guide dogs to this skill, asking them to stop on the platform to get a reward.
They are then asked them to perform the same action in a real-life situation, such as when they approach kerbs or stairs, so that they can signal them to their handler. Poppy is brilliant at this and we're very proud of her progress.
Poppy is such a friendly girl and can lose focus if another dog approaches her whilst she is guiding. It’s vital she can remain focused, despite any distractions that may come her way, and so time will be spent developing this over the coming weeks.
Soon Poppy will be experiencing a blindfold walk, which will be a true test of her skills. Her handler will give off subtle body language that gives her an indication of what to do next. However, if the handler is blindfolded, she will need to make decisions unaided.
Look out for your next Pupdate about Poppy in October!
