It’s puppy love for My Canine Companion
THERE’S puppy love all around as a new litter of puppies which all begin with the letter ‘S’ are the newest addition to My Canine Companion (Autism Service Dogs).
To begin with, there’s Skye, Sally, Sofia, Stacey, Susie, Snoopy Stitch, Samson and then Stan and Stephen. My Canine Companion, a charity which provides service dogs to children and young adults with autism created a storm of pure puppy love in Cork this week as they took to the streets.
They were seen in the puppy buggy around Blackpool Shopping Centre, and the city centre as well as Mahon Point and even on the train. They even mixed with the tourists getting off the cruiser line in Cobh.
The innovative charity have developed a new puppy programme where the puppies are socialised early and placed with the children they will work with and their families at just 12 weeks old.
The parents of the children will then work hand in hand with MCC trainers over an 18 month programme ending with the dog qualifying as a service dog to work with their child.
This approach has proved significantly more successful than the traditional means of training service dogs. These dogs provide safety independence and companionship to the children they are matched with and open up a whole new world for the whole family allowing them to get out and about and go places that were impossible before.
This programme was developed by Cliona O’Rourke, a Cork woman who was the first person in Europe to train an assistance dog specifically for a child with autism back in 2005.
For more on the charity go to their Facebook page ‘My Canine Companion’ or website mycaninecompanion.ie.