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Freya’s now moved onto Early Training!

Hello, I’m Sophie, Freya’s trainer. I’m excited to say that Freya has moved to Maidstone and I’ll be teaching her more of the skills she’ll need in order to become a guide dog.

Freya has settled into her new environment well. She’s staying with a boarder who drops her off to me in the mornings, ready for her day of training. Her boarder is very fond of her and said she was happy and relaxed from the moment she arrived. She’s a very adaptable dog and takes to new people and places quickly, which is a great skill for a guide dog.

First things first

To begin our training, I first worked on developing a bond with Freya. It’s important to have a good bond when training a guide dog as it lets them put their trust and confidence in you and they are then more likely to pay attention! Freya is such an affectionate dog, so it didn’t take long.

Finding objects

I’ve been using clicker training with Freya to help her learn and she’s responding to this really well. She’s currently learning to find objects such as doors and chairs. When I say ‘find a chair’, Freya will take me to an empty chair on a bus or in a shop, and this will allow her future owner to get around freely and independently in busy environments. She’s showing initiative in her ‘left’ and ‘right’ commands too. When she looks in the right direction I give her lots of praise, so she builds a sense of direction.

Fun to work with

Freya is great fun to work with and definitely has a cheeky side to her personality. She can be a bit reluctant to sit at curbs, so I’m working on this with her using lots of treats! But, she’s very intelligent and generally has an easy-going, laid back personality, so it can be funny to watch her be a bit stubborn sometimes!

She’s taken well to her harness too and showed no body sensitivity. Some guide dogs are a bit wary of wearing the harness at first, so we have to work at building up their confidence. It’s great that Freya’s taken it all in her stride. The first time she wore it, she strutted around as if to show it off!

I’ve got high hopes for Freya. I can’t wait to tell you more in her next Pupdate in October.

Click on the link for a video of Freya

http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/microsites/sponsor-a-puppy/our-puppies/puppy-freya?utm_source=ePupdatesE_Jun2017_Generic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ePupdatesE_Jun2017&Ref=email&dm_i=LDK,4WWVW,NE4O02,IMTQ8,1#.WTbIi02Krrc