Brilliant Bertie’s final stages of training before moving in with autistic youngster and family

Bertie the black Labrador is a trainee with the Sheffield-based Support Dogs charity, which trains and provides specialist assistance dogs to support autistic children, as well as adults with epilepsy or a physical disability, to live safer, more independent lives.

The two-year-old pooch successfully completed Support Dogs’ puppy programme and moved into full-time training in February. He has been matched with an autistic child and is currently in ‘team training’.

Team training involves the young canine heroes practising their skills while out and about with their new handlers – in this case, the client’s mum.

This is usually done in pairs, and fellow trainee support dog Newton is also in team-training with a client on Support Dogs’ autism assistance programme.

After around two weeks of team training, the wonderdog will go to live with the youngster and their family.

Bertie has been under the charge of Support Dogs trainer Emily Harrison since February.

She said: “In team training, the dogs will go out to various environments and practise everything that they would potentially do with their young client.

“The purpose is to see the dog in a variety of different environments and learn how to handle them in all types of situations.”

Emily described what made Bertie ideal for Support Dogs’ autism assistance programme, rather than its disability assistance or epilepsy seizure alert programme.

“He’s very good with children,” she said. “He’s naturally very good with things like playing with toys – his little boy loves to play ball and Bertie is really good because he throws the ball back to the child. He is generally very trainable.”

Emily said what she loves most about Bertie is “his wiggly body” and “his ‘Dobby’ ears whenever he has a cuddle”, referring to the house-elf character from the Harry Potter films.

“He’s really sweet,” she added.

Describing her fantastic job and relationship with these awesome, life-changing canines, Emily said: “It’s bittersweet, because I don’t want them to leave me, but I know they are going to do something really good.

“The families they go to – every one I’ve met, they adore their support dog, so I know they are going somewhere where they are going to be absolutely doted on.

“Walt, the first support dog I trained, went out and I spoke to his client – they said their child hasn’t had a meltdown since Walt arrived. The change in their child has been incredible and it’s really nice to hear that our dogs really do change lives.”

To find out more about the awe-inspiring work of Support Dogs, please visit www.supportdogs.org.uk or call 0114 2617800.