News

Our speaker tonight was Jim Cook from Canine Partners, who gave his wonderful talk and an insight into what is achieved by the people who train these fantastic dogs.

Recently, through excellent publicity by the media, their reputation is growing and so it should. We say pictures of the dogs with their happy partners and it really made us think how lucky we are. It was very emotional. We learned of some of the things the dogs are trained to do, from emptying and filling the washing machine, picking up mobile phones, adjusting armrests and foot places on wheelchairs, helping to take off gloves, the list is endless. The dogs are taught to think for themselves and have been known to get help from other family members and neighbors in an emergency.

There are 1.2 million wheelchair users in the UK and Canine Partners just cannot fulfill the demand. Jim told us about their sponsors and the work they do with Help the Heroes.

Jim’s talk was brilliant and we all said we would like to attend one of their information sessions and see the puppies and dogs being trained first hand, so watch out Midhurst, the WI ladies will be visiting very soon!

Sue Falvey