Haskins staff raise funds for assistance dog charity

Canine Partners puppy Bloom thanks to donation from Haskins Garden Centres

Staff raised £6,564 for the charity over a two year period through fundraising initiatives at the Roundstone centre. The garden centre’s donation covers the purchase and training of puppy Bloom to become a Canine Partners assistance dog.

Bloom is a three month old Labrador, currently being trained at the Puppy Training Satellite. Over time, she will be trained to help with a range of everyday tasks, including opening doors, picking up dropped items and helping to unload a washing machine.

After an 18 month training period by one of Canine Partners’ dedicated volunteer puppy parents, Bloom will be taken to the Canine Partners Training Centre to learn her advanced tasks and will then be assessed to see if she has the skills required to become a Canine Partners assistance dog.

Haskins Garden Centre in Roundstone nominated Canine Partners as its charity of the year for both 2015 and 2016. The charity relies on public donations to assist people with physical disabilities by partnering them with assistance dogs. It costs the charity £5,000 to purchase a puppy and pay for training, equipment, toys, vet bills, insurance and transport.

Nick Joad, general manager at Haskins Garden Centre in Roundstone, said: “Everyone at Haskins enjoyed raising funds for Canine Partners as we’re all dog lovers and wanted to support the charity. We aimed to raise more than £5,000 by the end of 2016 and were so pleased to smash this target.

“We’re delighted to see Bloom is progressing on her puppy training journey and have every confidence in her that she will become an assistance dog for the charity.”

Jenny Dwyer-Ward, community fundraiser at Canine Partners, said: “We are extremely grateful for the support of Roundstone Haskins Garden Centre as this has enabled us to start another puppy on our training programme.

“We receive no government funding, so we rely on the generosity of supporters like Haskins in order to sponsor a puppy through its first year of training. Assistance dogs are needed to transform the lives of people living with physical disabilities and to change lives by boosting disabled people’s independence and confidence.”

Roundstone Haskins Garden Centre is located in Angmering. For more information visit www.haskins.co.uk.