Time to say "THANK YOU"

You've got to have..friends...Renton and Nugget

The one thing I hadn’t thought of when I went for my new dog was how many people would be involved in supporting me through this process. Not only the dog trainers, but those people who have worked to keep me sane!
  So..here goes...a great big Renton style Thankyou to: 

Volunteer Puppy walkers Sheila and Peter for the fantastic job they did with Renton. It’s thanks to them that I’ve got a guide dog that is so well house trained and socialised. 

Breeders: Eleanor and Angus of the brood bitch who donated the puppies to the Association. Again many thanks to them.

Niall Young worked tirelessly with Renton to train him to a fantastic standard  and for teaching him the fabulous command..."stand"  how wonderful is that command alone Niall?..German Shepherd’s require particular handling due to their sensitivity and Niall has done grand job.

Mary then took over and has been training me how to work with Renton  and has to put up with me saying at least a hundred times a day .."well my last dogs' never did that..." So a big thankyou to her for putting up with me for the last few weeks, but she hasn’t finished yet..... 

  

Allan and Gael came to visit and had to listen to me prattling on about Renton for 3 hours!  They also looked after Moss when Christine came to stay over at the weekends. Brian also came to visit and listened patiently to me moaning about rubbish and Max  another old friend turned up at the hotel and bought me beer.  

Chas arrived with his four children one Sunday afternoon. I showed the children  how to groom Renton while Chas and I  drank tea and gossiped about work. [By the end of the afternoon Renton had turned into a huge fuzzy ball of fur!)

Whilst I was focusing on this new dog and driving everyone mad, Mike and his glamorous assistant Rosie fixed the fence to stop Renton rounding up the horses in the field next door.

Lorne, Christine’s father, nagged us into taking a reality pill and get a bigger car to transport our two large dogs, sorted our underfloor insulation, fixed tiles in the kitchen and persevered with us both wittering on about big dog, little dog, big dog little dog....you know  witter! 

Mark my good friend and fellow guide dog owner has been and will be (for the for see able future) my personal councillor on the phone when particularly when Renton hit his "u bend phase"  and he reminded me on numerous occasions that it is always tough at the start. No matter how many guide dogs you are lucky to work with,  Guide dogs don't arrive in a red ribboned parcel ready to plug in and go. 

 Thank you everyone for all your support.    But I should remind you...this is not the end...it is just the beginning!!!!!