Simba the guide dog’s pawsome journey from cub to king!
Here at Lyons, we have always been committed to helping the community in any way we can. Fundraising for Guide Dogs UK has always been our prerogative. For nearly half a decade our staff, owners, and customers have generously contributed across events, fun days, and campaigns.
Back in 2019, as you may or may not remember, we were thrilled to have reached our target of over £10,000 to donate to and support Guide Dogs UK – a charity for the blind and partially sighted. The money raised sponsors Simba, the puppy’s, quest to become a guide dog!
And you’ll be delighted to hear, little Simba is doing wonderfully! Since our last pupdate from Puppy Raiser, Karin, Simba has improved further in his training and learnt lots of new things!
Simba now wears the Guide Dogs puppy jacket while out on training walks. This jacket is useful for showing people that the puppy wearing it is in training and shouldn’t be distracted. It also helps pups get used to the feeling of something on their back in preparation for wearing a harness in the later stages of training.
Recently, Simba has been honing a new skill – his recall, on the free runs he’s been able to enjoy since receiving the last of his vaccinations. Karin said that Simba’s recall is a bit of a work in progress currently – it was excellent, but teenage hormones have kicked in now and he needs an extra special treat to encourage him to return! Karin will continue to work on this with Simba.
At this point in training the pups will try their paws at visiting busy town centres and exploring the big wide world around them, as well as practising walking up and down flights of stairs and going in and out of different style lifts. This is great exposure for the pups as it gets them used to different environments and experiences.
Weekly training routines also start to include travelling on different modes of transport. They usually start with car and bus journeys and then move on to travelling by train. All pups are encouraged to jump on with confidence and curl up under their handler’s feet, which Simba has perfected on the recent bus and train journeys he’s been on since restrictions started to ease.
Karin told us she thinks Simba is ‘awesome’; he’s always so happy and even settled brilliantly when staying away from home on a recent holiday to Northumberland. We think that Simba sounds like an absolute delight; a spirited pup who’s doing well with all his training, and clearly thriving in his loving home. We’re looking forward to Simba’s next pupdate!
We have faith that Simba and Puppy Trainer, Karin, will be singing Hakuna Matata (it means no worries for the rest of your days), in no time at all as Simba strides towards being a confident and qualified guide dog!
