Taz - our precious gift from the Guide Dogs

If you follow this blog you will know Missy has been waiting, not so patiently for her Pets as Therapy dog from the Guide Dogs for over a year.

We were thrilled to get the call to say they think they have found a dog that may suit Missy and us. Taz (short from Topaz) arrived nearly two weeks ago and we all love her to bits. She settled in really well and it's quite a change for us to have a dog in the house. Missy and H-Ho just can't get enough of her.  You wouldn't know that Missy had a real fear of dogs as a younger girl, as now she just loves to lay over Taz, cuddle her tightly so she can't get away, hold her lead, sit on the floor with her, pat her, knock off food by accident from her table to the floor, knowing Taz will do the rounds of the floor. Missy loves to have Taz come in the morning and raise her paws on the side of her bed. You can see in the photo that we quickly taught Taz to step up onto Missy's footplate, so she can get more cuddles while she is in her chair. Tonight Missy drove into the lounge room, swung her legs off the footplate, pointed down to the footplate and Taz just took the cue, walked over and jumped up for pats.
Taz is quick learner and the kids love teaching her new tricks, the first week, we got her shaking hands and this week she has learnt to go and get her lead and bring it to us.
Taz is 15 mths old and comes to us from the Guide Dogs, she was raised by a devoted puppy raising family in Sydney for which we are very grateful, she has wonderful eating manners, has all the basic obedience training, has vast travel/adventures experience and is wonderfully toilet trained. Taz came with a letter and many photos from her puppy raising family showing her growing up.

We feel very lucky to be given Taz and we really appreciate the time and love puppy raisers give to their young dogs and the wonderful work Guide Dogs do for the vision impaired and many others with disabilities, all done without any government support/funding.