So How Is Volt Doing?

I thought I’d give you a little update on how our Volt is doing!
In case you didn’t see them – I blogged once a week about our raising and training him on my Furbabies blog.

Volt is the guide-dog puppy we raised from December 2011 to October 2013.
He is currently undergoing guide-dog training (AKA seeing-eye dog) at The SA Guide-dogs Association for the Blind.

Puppy Volt, the day after we brought him home from SAGA

Volt’s trainer send us an email update on his training progress once a month, and at the end of January she let us know that Volt is already in full guide-dog harness and is handling the responsibility really well. He’s also taking initiative when its necessary which means that if he thinks a situation is unsafe he will “intelligently disobey” his handler’s command to proceed.

Volt greeting visitors to the SAGA stand at WODAC last year

He still LOVES other dogs, but another trainer is taking him and two other dogs-in-training to a couple of informal township settlements on Saturday mornings where there are lots of dogs running around and he’s vastly improved on his “positive dog distraction”.

Beautiful boy… fast asleep…

Volt is well on his way to graduating as a guide-dog in about April this year and SAGA already has a partner in mind for him!
Of course, we never had any doubt about whether our super smart boy would graduate, and we are just bursting with pride at how well he’s doing!