The end of year celebration for our Puppy Raisers was held at Ngaruawahia on November 17. The wonderful Corinna Cooper organised AND catered this fantastic event for more than 50 of our amazing puppy raisers.
Puppy raisers volunteer their time, love and energy to ensure our dogs have the best possible start in life. This day was for us to acknowledge their hard work and dedication and gave us a chance to say thank you.
Puppy raisers have a very tough job as they look after a cute little puppy, and in that time, it grows into a beautiful dog becoming part of their family. They train the puppy taking it to regular sessions, plus they must expose it to as many different experiences as possible so that when its training is complete it does not get surprised by new environments.
The hardest part of what they do however, is to give the dog up at the end of its training. They know that their hard work and effort will be gratefully received by the lucky person that gets partnered with their dog, but the emotional attachment that is forged can be very strong. It really does take a very special person to be able to do this vitally important role.
As part of our rebrand and due to a very generous donation, we were able to gift all of our puppy raisers new Mobility Dog t-shirts displaying our new strapline ‘Life changing loyalty’ printed across the back – as you can see from the picture below they look fantastic!
The puppy raisers also received another gift – this one was from the Puppies in Prison puppy raisers, who also wanted to be involved with the celebrations somehow. They went to a lot of effort to bake Christmas and dog shaped biscuits for everyone, which they packaged up beautifully. Even the puppies looked very pleased with their efforts!
All in all, it was a fantastic day and we are so grateful for all the wonderful support we receive from our amazing puppy raisers.