Following on from last week’s entry about the Mobility Dog Trust’s golf tournament fundraiser, I was stoked to come across an article which features a friend of mine, Amy Hogan, who has just received her own mobility dog, Bonnie.

“It’s the indefinable stuff that’s most important,” she says. “I can be completely alone or I can be in a crowd and it doesn’t matter. It gives me the confidence to do things without worrying, because I know I’ve got Bonnie.”

Bonnie, a labradoodle, is set to graduate as the fourth mobility dog in New Zealand on January 19 at the Apollo Health and Wellness Centre. To get to this point she has had to learn about 90 commands in six months of intense training on the Mobility Assistance Dogs Trust programme. She has been taught to pay over the counter, pull open doors, flick on light switches, fetch the TV remote or even help pull the zipper on a jumper.

Taking care of Bonnie when she needs it will also be a refreshing change, she says. “Being disabled means people are always looking after you. It’s such a buzz to have something there that’s looking to you.”

Check out the full story here.