Crescent The Guide Dog Puppy Visits Crescent School For The Very First Time
On Wednesday 4 July pupils at the Crescent School welcomed an exciting four-legged visitor to their assembly. Accompanied by her puppy walker, 17-weeks old Guide Dog puppy, Crescent, named after the school, was beautifully behaved.
Earlier in the year the school had presented the Guide Dogs for the Blind with a cheque for £1,685 after running a number of different fund raising events. Their donation allowed the children to sponsor a puppy and to choose its name.
Crescent (or Cressie for short) was born shortly afterwards and has now begun her puppy training. Her puppy walker, Becky Macintosh, brought Crescent into school earlier than is normal to make sure all of the children involved in the fundraising had a chance to see her before the end of term.
Crescent and Becky were accompanied by Guide Dog representative Heather Gelder and her new trainee guide dog Zeke. Heather explained to the children the sorts of training that Crescent will undergo whilst she is with her puppy walker, starting with basic training such as learning to walk on a lead and eventually activities and experiences such as getting used to travelling on a bus or train. After 14 months Crescent’s progress will be assessed and if she is suitable she will move on to formal Guide Dog training.
All of the children really enjoyed meeting Crescent and Zeke who both behaved very well in assembly even when the children were singing.
The school's Parents Association, Friends of Crescent, who organised all of the fundraising activities were also present and Zara Corbin, Chair of the FoC, thanked the children for all their fundraising efforts.
There was just time for a few quick photos before it was back to class for the children and Crescent could tick off another successful new experience on her way to becoming a fully trained guide dog.