BSS Guide Dog puppy Brian is settling in well!

We can’t believe how fast the time is going and our Guide Dog Brian is continuing to develop with the help of his Puppy Raiser, Sandra.

Brian is now 12 weeks old and is learning to explore his new home. Sandra can’t believe the progress he has made and describes him as a really confident, cheeky chappie!

Along with exploring his environment, Brian has some new company while he learns. His best friends are a five-year old ex-guide dog and Charlie the cat, who are helping to welcome him and make him feel more relaxed while he settles in.

It’s really important for Brian to feel comfortable, most puppies sleep between 18-20 hours per day, and he is now starting to adopt a good sleeping routine.

It’s common for most Guide Dog puppies to have some sleepless nights while they settle in, but this hasn’t been the case for Brian who has slept soundly almost every night he’s been with Sandra!

Another skill Brian is getting to grips with is toilet training. Most young pups will have a few accidents in the first few weeks because they’re trying to figure out where they need to go. However, Sandra has reported how well he’s picking this up and describes his progress as ‘absolutely excellent’.

The easiest way to teach Brian new training skills is by giving lots of positive praise and rewards. Sandra has been giving him treats to teach him basic commands, such as ‘sit’, ‘down’ and ‘stay’.

Brian is a really smart puppy, which is common in most Guide Dog breeds, who can easily pick up on human emotions. They’re thought to be as smart as a two-year-old.

Did you know Guide Dogs can learn over 160 words?

While Brian has been settling in with Sandra, he has begun to go on longer car journeys to introduce him to lots of new environments and mould him into a comfortable and confident puppy.

His latest trip was a caravan holiday to Devon, which he absolutely loved. He spent his time exploring new surroundings.

We are so pleased with Brian’s training progress; he’s starting to turn into a bright little puppy who’s learning lots of new skills and is settling in well.

We’ve been sponsoring Brian since May and named him in honour of Brian Gregory, (Paul’s Father-in-Law). If you want to see just how much progress Brian has made in such a short space of time, you can read one of our previous blogs.

We can’t wait to see what Brian gets up to next! Want to find out about how to support this amazing charity? Discover more information at www.guidedogs.org.uk

Remember to check back next month to see how Brian is progressing with his training, we’ll be sharing regular “pupdates” on our Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram as he grows!