Laura Sullivan - Leinster Puppy Supervisor

Hi I’m Laura and I’m the puppy supervisor in the Lenister area with my canine companion.

I first got involved with the charity when in November 2013 my daughter Ava received Harper a golden retriever service puppy in training. I completed the puppy program and in December 2014 Harper qualified as an Autism service dog. Shortly after that I started to meet up with other parents starting out with their pups and I’d meet them for a walk with their pup and go for a coffee and have a chat and help them in any way I could .

In June 2017 I was offered the position of the Lenister puppy supervisor which I gratefully accepted.

My role is to help and support the families on the puppy program and to get the pups ready for their formal training at 18 months old.

This involves meeting up a monthly puppy classes where we work on obedience and get the pups out to as many different environments as possible. This is from parks, shopping centres, public transport, coffee shops cinemas etc.

This is such a rewarding job watching the pups progress from a 10 week old puppy to a well socialised confident dog ready to start it’s training. But it’s also lovely to see the confidence of the handler / parent grow month on month as they see the work they are putting in pay off.