Kai's rehoming story

Our experienced rehoming team is passionate about finding the right forever homes for our dogs. Dogs like energetic Labrador Kai, who needed lots of physical and mental stimulation. Our team found the perfect match with Jen and Craig. Kai is now living his best life on their farm in rural Scotland and has even started training to become a search and rescue dog.

“My husband and I absolutely love Labradors as a breed. They’re so loyal and just really lovely-natured dogs,” says Jen. “As soon as we walked into the Guide Dogs centre and saw Kai, we knew we weren’t going to go home without him.”

Jen, who works as an optometrist, first thought about rehoming a dog from Guide Dogs when she was helping one of her customers with a referral for a guide dog. After her rehoming application was successful, our team called Jen to find out more about what she was hoping for from a dog.

Jen says: “I told them that we live on a farm with lots of outdoor space and we’re very active – I like to do Canicross with my lurcher, called Storm, and my husband Craig is quite involved with Mountain Rescue.”

“They said they actually already had a dog in mind for us. He was a 13-month-old yellow Labrador called Kai. And then they asked if we’d like to come and meet him. Craig was away at the time with the Mountain Rescue, so I called him straight away. We felt like it was just meant to be.”

As Jen and Craig live a couple of hours' drive from the nearest Guide Dogs centre, our Rehoming Team asked Jen to send some photographs and videos so they could make sure their home would be suitable for Kai.

Jen continues: “Two days later we were in the car. They said to bring our other dog Storm as well so we can introduce them. I was a bit worried it might not work out as Storm can be a bit of a chasey dog – but the two of them had a ball running and playing.”

Kai’s forever home

As their first meeting went so well, Jen and Craig were able to take Kai home with them that very same day. And he’s now lived with them on their farm for 18 months.

Jen adds: “Kai settled in relatively quickly, but he was a stressy kind of guy at first, he was worried about lots of things. We were told that he’d had quite a few homes as a puppy. I think because he’d had a few homes and he’d been in kennels he was feeling a bit sad and stressed, and he wasn’t sure where his family was.”

“He's quite protective of me on the farm. If someone comes to the door he can be quite loud. I think people might have struggled with that if they were living in a town. He'd been barking and lunging at the window to protect his space - maybe he was just feeling a bit vulnerable.”

“Kai is the nicest-natured dog, but he's quite full on. He’s very driven and very high energy. Because we have so much outdoor space here, he can run and play as much as he likes - he’s never enclosed. We also have a big horse arena where the two dogs love to play together. He’s a totally different dog now, he’s so relaxed.”

Search and rescue training

After a couple of months Craig, Jen’s husband, took Kai to his first Search and Rescue training session with SARDA Southern Scotland.

Jen says: “We just thought we’d take him, see what he thinks and if he gets the idea. And he just took to it, he really loved it. When he first started he was still young so it’s taken a while to get the pattern of the search into his brain. But he’s got it now.”

“Kai’s a physically fit dog, and he also needs lots of mental stimulation, he needs to be learning and focused. His training takes him all over Scotland and they’ll do about 10-to-12 practice searches of different difficulties throughout the day. He really enjoys it and it’s one of the only things that will tire him out! After a few searches, he’ll go and have a lie down in the car to digest it all and have his quiet time. He also gets lots of rewards and play with his favourite tug toy.

Jen adds: “Kai completed his ‘stock test’ assessment this month, which he passed with flying colours! The test is to check that Kai can be considered safe to be in a field with sheep. He had to go to the end of the field through the sheep without scaring them or getting distracted, and then come back again, and he did it perfectly! His next big assessment will be in September or October, and if he passes, he’ll move into the next stage of training. We’re so proud of him.”