Charity of the Year
Did you know all our pubs are dog friendly?
Did you know all our pubs are dog friendly?
We believe pubs are at the heart of every community and we aim to build and nurture these relationships through everything we do. As the Island’s largest private sector employer, we understand the importance of giving back to our local community and place our charity activities as a top priority.
We are delighted that our nominated charity is Guide Dogs For the Blind UK.
We want to support a charity with a positive, life-changing impact and the guide dog service does just that, transforming the lives of more than 10,000 blind and partially sighted people every year.
As such, we wanted to raise £30,000 to name and sponsor the training of 3 guide dog puppies, we are so happy to have now raised £41,636 in total! We have exceeded this target, and with your support, have now raised enough to name and sponsor a total of 4 puppies!
The money raised will give us the privilege of naming four guide dog puppies. We will also receive individual updates on their progress through training as well as photographs from birth to qualification as a guide dog. It takes around 20 months to transform a tiny puppy into a confident guide dog, and we, and our customers, can proudly follow them every step of the way.
A huge thank you to all of our customers who have contributed to our fundraising efforts so far. We’re happy to announce that our total to date is a whopping £41,636, after raising an additional £241.00 at The Cat’s Family Fun Day, which means we were able to sponsor a fourth guide dog, named Archie to join our other guide dogs; Cooper, Brearley and Amber on their journeys!
The adorable Archie was born on the 8th July 2021 and has been placed with his puppy walker who has started to teach him all the skills that he will need as a future guide dog!
Archie has begun his exciting journey towards becoming a fully qualified assistant for someone living with sight loss. He is starting to make good progress from being an uncoordinated bundle of fluff into a smart, responsible guide dog. We’ve received our first pupdate regarding Archie’s development and we’re excited to announce that he’s doing really well in his training!
Archie is still quite young but is proving to be very obedient and is listening to different commands very well. He is settled into his routine and his behaviour when meeting people is good. We are very proud of Archie and will make sure to keep you up to date when we receive his next pupdate.
Our two previous guide dogs sponsored called Brearley have been carefully rehomed and are doing amazingly with their new families. We now have a third Brearley to begin his guide dog journey. He was born on the 2 March 2021, and has now been with his puppy raiser, Mark for a little while now. Brearley is working hard and having a great time learning new skills, he is particularly good at his recall, and is such a good boy when he hears the whistle or his name he runs straight back. He is also walking nicely on the lead and he proudly wears his Guide Dog puppy jacket on training walks, we hear he looks very handsome in it!
Brearley has now been introduced to all variety of situations to prepare him for the big wide world. He is very familiar with busy towns and is a pro at using all types of stairs and using lifts whenever needed. On buses and trains he settles down well and stays calm, well at least until a member of the public decides to make a big fuss of him.
Clever Brearley knows the instruction ‘fetch your toy’ and knows this means fun play time with Mark. Brearley still has his moments of cheekiness and enjoys stealing all types of shoes, Mark has said he’s had to move the shoe rack out of his reach now! Our pup is making fantastic progress with his training and we can’t wait to see his next report card.
Cooper started his official training on Monday 19th April and after months of great progress learning and improving, he has recently been training with his new owner and the two have recently qualified together! It is wonderful to see how he has developed and transformed into a fully-fledged guide dog, ready to transform the life of his new owner, offering independence and mobility. It’s safe to say we are very proud of Cooper and have loved sponsoring him through his journey.
Cooper and his owner qualified together on the 19th November 2021. During the ‘class’ period, Cooper really came into his own and has grown in confidence while working with his new owner. His owner is an empathetic handler and together they make a lovely team. It’s been lovely to see the big difference that Cooper is making to his new owner’s life – he is now able to take his children to school and pick them up every day. Cooper’s trainers are continuing to support the new partnership and will be going back soon to train them both on a couple of new routes.
Cooper catches everyone’s eye and is always being described as handsome, here’s our favourite picture of Cooper and also a very professional one where he’s fully qualified and sitting proudly in his white harness:
Our guide dog Amber, has taken a slightly different journey in the Guide Dogs family and become a very special Buddy Dog!
Buddy dogs are chosen due to their kind and loving nature and are dogs that the charity feel would really change the life of a child living with sight loss. Buddy dogs are used to help the children gain confidence and encourage their development. Here’s our latest picture of the gorgeous Amber.
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