Your Stories

December 2008 - January 2009: "I learn to play nicely with my new friends, meet lots of lovely people, get stroked a lot and chew everything I can..."

Darcy, a little golden retriever bitch was born on 22nd October 2008. Her parents were Sammy and Tammy; there were seven pups in the litter - three girls and four boys. Darcy came to us on 10th December - a lively self-confident puppy who was already very vocal.

Darcy at seven weeks of age

From her third day we took her out to meet people - in our arms at first - so she felt secure. We walked around the village and into our local supermarket where she was greeted with lots of 'ahhs' and beaming smiles. She is a regular in our supermarket where staff and customers enjoy seeing her grow up, (as they have all our other puppies - Darcy being number six). We also took her to watch buses and traffic, to meet children etc. In her first week she visited Shire Hall where she met staff and had her first photo shoot at the press office.

At Christmas we were joined by our daughter who also brought her toy poodle and ginger cat; all went well except for one contretemps with the cat when Darcy trapped him in a corner and got a scratch for her pains. She kept trying to get the poodle to play with her but did not like it if she was chased - but loved doing the chasing! We had eight guests over the holiday, and the puppy loved all the fuss and excitement and attention.

"I go to puppy school"

January brought her first puppy class where she was joined by three other guide dog puppies of the same age. The two boys were lovely boisterous black Labradors who made Darcy a little nervous and a little yellow Labrador who was a little quieter and more to her taste - but at the end of the session Darcy was getting much more confident! 

The puppies practised sitting down and 'up-sitting' which is sitting up from the down position. All the pups did very well. Darcy has a group of four sessions, so hopefully by the end she will be totally confident with the other pups.

Darcy loves our studio microphone!

You may have heard her on the broadcast we did for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire? Being a vocal puppy she had to keep adding her own comments and struggled to get down so she could play with all the exciting things in the room. She was thoroughly spoiled by all the staff and had dozens of pictures taken of her - she loved every minute of it.

Since then she has been on a bus, into town and the Grand Arcade where she enjoyed herself immensely and was not at all bothered by the crowds.

Our biggest problem was to get Darcy used to car travel, which she hated, but fortunately was never car-sick. Instead she cried, barked and whined and was generally very upset. However, after a lot of short journeys and reassurance, she has become much more confident and has actually climbed into the car on her own - a big breakthrough.

Darcy comes with me to my art classes on a Tuesday and Wednesday, where so far she has been very good and sits under my table with a chew to keep her occupied. I did have a go at trying to draw her but she does not know the meaning of keeping still!

"I'll do anything to avoid having my jabs"

She was due to have her second injection on 15th January, but half an hour before her appointment at the vets' she swallowed a piece of cloth so the vet decided to give her an injection to make her sick, which had the desired result of returning the offending material. She slept for the next few hours and then awoke with a healthy appetite. Next day she had her proper vaccination with no ill-effects. In fact, she was so busy eating her treat she did not even notice the needle.

16th January was her second puppy class; she was more confident this time and enjoyed a game with Rosa, a yellow Labrador puppy. The pups were taught, with the aid of treats, to walk alongside their puppy walkers, and when asked, to sit correctly facing the way we were going.  They also began to learn that when people come up to speak to them when we are out, they must sit first to receive the expected fuss.

Darcy takes a well-earned rest

That afternoon Darcy came with me to receive a generous cheque for £450 for guide dogs raised by members of Bar Hill Golf Club. After that she spent the afternoon having a well-earned rest.

That same day brought another successful trip on the bus - this time to see the admin staff at St John’s College where she received her expected adoration. The staff had raised £117 for guide dogs over Christmas, and enjoyed seeing how much she had grown in such a short space of time.

Her third puppy class was also a success as Darcy is gaining in confidence and was able to enjoy a more robust game with the other puppies. She also began to learn to give back her toys on command - with the aid of treats, of course. She was a bit naughty on the recall and pretended she could not hear me call her! She eventually came charging over, but ran straight past me to play with another little friend. Third time lucky she did a lovely recall and stopped right in front of me as asked.

Keep-up-to-date with Darcy's diaries

We're going to continue following Darcy's training, bringing you regular updates on this website and in Sue Dougan's Afternoon Show on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, so remember to keep your paws on this page for the next installment.

Darcy features: Introducing our new Guide Puppy; and Darcy makes her radio debut:

Darcy gallery: When Darcy met Dougan. Some gorgeous photographs of little Darcy making her radio debut on Sue Dougan's show, taking her first training steps at Cambridge railway station, and meeting our radio reporters in the newsroom:

Darcy in training: Listen to Sue Dougan and Diana Reynolds taking Darcy to Cambridge railway station for the very first time:

And at 14 weeks of age, Darcy visits the village of Offord Darcy (after which she was named) and meets children at the local school, workers at an office, and contemplates having a shampoo and set at the village hairdressers'.