Our monthly meeting for January introduced us to Dogs for Good. This is a charity providing trained dogs to support people with disabilities. Based in Banbury with satellite sites in Warrington and Bristol the charity established by Frances Hay in 1988 has grown to providing 40 – 50 dogs per year to both children and adults around the country with a variety of disabilities. The details, background and entertaining anecdotes were clearly described by Lydia Martin, explaining the reasoning behind breed choices, the training regimes and the variety of tasks the dogs are able to carry out, from calming an autistic child to doing the laundry.
She was joined by Sue from Thame, who has enjoyed the benefits of the support of a dog for nearly 20 years. Sue, along with her husband Byron, now has the company of Flint (although he was camera shy today), and they both rely on him (and Byron’s retired dog – Ziggy) for both physical and emotional support.
Knowing the value that dogs are able to offer comfort and friendship to so many people, something that has become very apparent when you see the number of “Covid” puppies that have appeared on the scene in the last twelve months, it is easy to understand how valuable these dogs must be.
We send huge thanks to Lydia and Sue for the entertaining and informative talk today and hope that all goes well for the charity as we (hopefully) start to move back into normal lives.
Babs Cooper