21 May 2021

Jackanory Part 11 :- Meet Eko

Three years ago on the 16th May 2018 this wee munchkin came home with us and we called him Eko 

Photo Credit:- Auriane Whitmore 

Eko came to us with plans to train him as my assistance dog and a successor to Boris, but he started naturally alerting to his dad's sugar levels at around 5 months old and was reliably alerting by the time he was a year old

Eko's journey to becoming a fully trained medical alert dog has been a slow one and is still ongoing, although over lockdown we've had a real breakthrough with his impulse control and excitability around people

So much so that he's now happily accompanying his dad into London to his workplace once a week


We've had a few ups and downs along the road, at times I thought he'd never make it to be an assistance dog in training, he used to bounce absolutely everywhere on his hind legs because he was so keen to check everything out that peaked his interest 


Eko just took a little longer to mature than most and that's fine, you should only ever train potential assistance dogs at their own pace

Rushing them or starting them too young can cause them to burn out, in the past 6 months or so everything has started to fall into place

We'd not been idle in Eko's early years though, at 16 weeks old he accompanied Boris on one of his modeling jobs to save leaving him at home on his own all day

 Kerry the photographer asked if she could take some photos of Eko, I agreed and warned her that he was a handful as I'd not taught him any poses and he'd not long ago learnt to sit stay briefly, so everything with him training wise was still very hit and miss because of his age

Photo Credits:- Fur & Fables + Collar Club 

I needn't have worried, Kerry was experienced at working with dogs and knew exactly how to get the very best out of him, which led to some amazing photos of Eko acting totally naturally that her client was very happy with

 Since that day Eko has excelled as a dog model and we've had the pleasure of collaborating with several large brands as well as some smaller ones too

There's so much to tell and catch up with about Eko's early life story and journey, we'll be telling you all about it in the Jackanory Stories series that runs in the background of this blog

To be continued....

Dawn
xxx

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24 comments:

  1. Medical alert dogs are amazing!! Way to go Eko!

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    1. Thank you, he's doing so well now xxx

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  2. supportive service dogs are fantastic

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    1. I certainly couldn't cope without Boris, he's given me back my independence, we're hoping Eko helps my partner as much as Boris has helped me to enjoy life safely again xxx

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  3. Eko what a precious pup with such an impawtant life's work.
    Thank you for stopping by to say hi today.
    I have booked mark your blog
    Hugs Cecilia

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    1. Thank you Cecilia, I've been finding some great blogs today on the blog shops, yours included, everybody has been so welcoming since my return to blogging,I just need to get back into a routine again re posting xx

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  4. This is a fascinating story you shared! Thanks for it!

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    1. Thank you for stopping by, so pleased you enjoyed it x

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  5. Thanks for sharing such an inspiring story!!

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    1. Thank you so much for stopping by, hes doing so well now with his training xxx

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  6. Awww what a lovely story x #mysundayphoto

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  7. I enjoyed this inspiring story you shared. Love the photos.

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    1. Thank you, so glad you enjoyed it x

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  8. Beautiful photos, I love the puppy photo

    Thank you for linking up to #MySundayPhoto

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    1. Thank you, I was so happy to find that one of my favourite blog hops was still around after all the time I was away from blogging

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  9. What a gorgeous dog, stunning model and super assistance buddy #mysundayphoto

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    1. Thank you so much, he's a very special boy xxx

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  10. How lovely to read about Eko. I am always amazed by the things that dogs can do to support their humans. Such beautiful photos too.

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    1. Thank you Sarah, it's amazing what you can train a dog to do, we only use positive training methods, so if you start to train something they're not comfortable doing it soon becomes obvious and the training for that stops, I don't believe in training the boys to do something they don't think of as just a fun game xxx

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  11. I am so glad you are taking the time with him and letting him learn slowly. I think service pups are absolutely amazing. Love his baby photo.

    -Soma

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    1. Thank you Soma, you see so many dogs starting so young then burning out these days, it's really sad 😔

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  12. Beautiful photos :) He is adorable and such a clever boy.

    Thanks so much for linking up to The Wednesday Link Up. I hope you can join us again tomorrow for our next party :) #TheWednesdayLinkUp

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    1. Thank you Claire, that sounds great xxx

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Thank you for stopping by to say Hello xxx