Week 36 - A trip to Atherton Fun Day

Guide Dogs training centre at Atherton, near Manchester UK, where my puppies go to do their specialised training when they leave me, had a 'Fun Day' last Sunday, which was open to the general public as well as Guide Dog staff and volunteers, also Guide Dog owners. Fortunately it was a beautiful sunny day, which was really nice for the people who had taken so much time and effort to make the day possible.
The kennel staff put the dogs out in their outside runs for short periods, so that the public could view the beautiful trainee Guide Dogs.
During the day there were several dog demonstrations going on, one was from Andy from Guide Dogs with his wonderful dog Delphi, who did his marvellous display around the obstacles, and then Andy offered members of the public to agree to be blindfolded, and let Delphi guide them around the course, to enlighten people just how daunting it is to be visually impaired, and also how advantageous it is to have a wonderful Guide Dog to become their 'eyes'.
There were also agility demonstrations from non Guide Dog stock, plus a clever dog called Haemish, who was trained to detect firearms. Firearms were planted on volunteers and Haemish had to find the person that was armed, and when he did, he sat at the feet of that person, and would not move. He then got his reward which was a ball to play with. There was a similar display from dogs from customs where substances were planted on volunteers, the dogs then very quickly singled out the 'culprit' and he too got a ball as his reward.
There were many dogs at this event, guide dog puppies, guide dog owners with their dogs, plus a lot of pet dogs. Literally everywhere I turned there were dogs. Quella coped very well with the dog presence, as there were far too many there for her to focus too much on any one particular dog. Quella remained calm throughout the day.
Quella also became a star for the day. As I was passing a marquee, a member of Guide Dog staff asked if they could use my puppy for a photograph, as Sainsbury’s supermarket had donated a cake stall for the event, and wanted to take a photograph with a guide dog puppy. Sainsbury’s have chosen Guide Dogs as their charity for this year. I am guessing that maybe the photo will be used in their magazine, it’s a case of 'watch this space'