| Let me introduce myself I am Casper a 2 (nearly 3) year old male English Springer spaniel.
I had been given to the Blue cross charity in September 2008 because my family could not cope with my lively behaviour.
Nov 2008
A lady called Claire came and saw me in kennels, she played with me with a tennis ball, she seemed quite happy when she left and after this everything changed.
Dec 2008
I was collected from kennels and taken to my new foster home. Here I met my foster mum and dad Maria and Alan and all their animals. I have 4 dog friends Phoenix and Maggie who are spaniels like me and Anika (she’s the boss) and Queenie, who are black crossbreds. Life has been fun with my new friends as we have fields to run and play in, but I have had to learn what I can chase, my mates and what I can’t, white woolly things called sheep are on that list.
My foster mum started taking me to obedience training, where I have learnt to walk on a lead at heel, I never saw point of walking to heel, but mum doesn’t nag if I stay by her heel.
Jan 2009
Christmas came and went and mum took me to Cancer Dogs training centre, here I met Claire again and also some new people, they were from the BBC. The BBC wanted to interview me with my rags to riches story. They filmed me walking on a lead and then sniffing flower pots for a bit of tennis ball, my favourite.
A few days later I met another TV crew this time from ITV, more fun with flower pots and tennis balls.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jvBvEVDLDzM
Since all this has happened I have settled into my proper training to detect cancer.
Snow fell and the ground turned white, its great to run and play in with my mates, but training paused as nobody could get in.
Feb 2009
Everything is back to normal, training has resumed again and I am getting the hang of touching the carousel arms with my nose.
March 2009
Now that I have learnt to touch the carousel arms with my nose, I am learning to move round the carousel and sniff the hole in each plate to locate a scent.
May 2009
Sorry that I have not been able to update my diary, but I have been very busy learning to search the carousel for the correct scent. It took me a while to learn to sit next to the sample when I found it. I have also taken an exam with my foster mum, the Kennel Club Good Citizen Bronze award. I am pleased to say that I passed and everyone was very happy.
July 2009
Thinks have been going well at work and home life is great when the sun is out. I thought I would post some pictures of what I get up to at home. As you can see its a lot of play and no work tee hee. Something strange did happen recently, mum can home with 2 very small dogs, she called them puppies. (You can see them on the sponsor a dog page), I was a bit scaried of them as them kept grabing my tail and pulling, thankfully they have now moved on to their new foster homes, life can get back to normal.
December 2009
Since I last posted a few things have happened, I have done some filming for BBC Childrens television, a programme called Animals at work. It should be shown in the late spring/early summer 2010. Since the first 2 puppies came to stay we have had others to stay, the latest one being 8 week old Apollo a black Labrador (hypo alert dog in training), he was a quiet puppy who wanted to sleep, especially on my friend Tia the Border Collies tail, she didn’t seem to mind. We also have 2 more visiters staying, 2 rams have appeared in the field, they have big curly horns and butt the fence if you get to close, I have taken to staying well away from them.
Happy Christmas to all who read my diary.
April 2010
It’s been a while since my last post as I’ve been a bit busy.
Just recently we’ve been joined by Cedar, she is a very clever Mum who is looking after her seven babies, they are all black and Mum is a brown curly coated retriever (at least I think that’s what everyone keeps calling her).
There was a lot of excitement this morning as one of the white fluffy things (sheep I think) has also had babies, two of them. They all seem to be doing well but I’m staying well away just in case…
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