Solihull Lodge visit to Canine Partners

The Master and several Brethren of Solihull Lodge 8088 with their ladies and friends visited the Canine Partners Charity's Information Day held on 28th September 2019 at their Midland Centre, Osgathorpe, Loughborough. This charity trains and provides Assistance Dogs to those in the community who have physical disabilities that seriously impact on their way of life and limit their independence. 

The presentations given about the Charity does and how they achieve their objectives were very interesting and thought provoking. Particularly poignant was a session given by a young lady from the West Midlands who suffers from cerebral palsy about what has meant to her to have an Assistance Dog and how her dog has transformed her life. 

The dogs that are trained for this role are generally Labrador and Golden Retrievers or Poodle crosses and the Charity have their own breeding programme.  It takes 20-24 months to train a dog from puppy to Assistance Dog and the last cost estimate was £20,000 per dog including assessment and training of the applicant for the assistance dog (called a Partnership) and aftercare - which lasts for the lifetime of the Partnership.  The charity receives no funding from the government, all their funding comes from the public.

Further information is readily available from the Charity’s Website https://caninepartners.org.uk/

All of us thoroughly enjoyed our morning at this event and we would not hesitate to commend Canine Partners as a worthy charity for the work they do.

For those Brethren who may be interested, Canine Partners are holding another Information Day at their Midlands Centre on Saturday 16th November 2019, starting at 11:00 am.

Details may be found following this link:  https://caninepartners.org.uk/event/november-2019-midlands-centre-information-session/