Bravehound are the canine wing of Glen Art who support former servicemen and women and their families. This month we donated Wet Wall Works panels for them to get their kitchen done up. The marketing team (and Alfie, Wet Wall Works mascot) popped up to the centre in Erskine on Saturday morning to see how they were getting on and enjoy the coffee morning they were hosting.

The centre is a buzzing hub of fun and hard work and we were instantly welcomed by Fiona MacDonald who runs the project. Fiona took us into the kitchen area to show us their progress and we could already see the difference the panels were making; the kitchen is starting to look polished off and professional.

Fiona’s enthusiasm for the project is infectious as she explained the work they are doing. Bravehound adopt dogs and puppies and train them up to be companions for veterans suffering from PTSD. Having a dog in the house not only provides company and someone to talk to but because the dog needs to be walked every day it provides a purpose for some veterans who had stopped even leaving the house.

Because training a puppy can be extremely stressful volunteers take on this task and the puppies live with them until they are ready to go to veteran to live. There are also dogs who live permanently with volunteers but come to the centre to be walked by veterans who aren't able have the dog in their house. We spoke about the future of Bravehound and how they are hoping to get the dogs registered as assistance dogs so they can go everywhere with their veteran.

Next it was time to meet the dogs! The Bravehound centre have a play area for the dogs and there was tea and cake for the human visitors. Our favourite Bravehound was Max, a puppy in training! Max is a 12 week old “Sprocker”, a cross between a Cocker Spaniel and Springer Spaniel, his volunteers said he had recently attended his first puppy training class and has been doing really well. It is important the dogs all get to socialise and become used to being around lots of people and other dogs because they need to be calm companions for the PTSD sufferers.

We came away from our day at Bravehound feeling inspired, impressed and incredibly grateful that we were able to play a part in making the centre a success. We have plans to visit again when the kitchen is complete and already can’t wait to see how Max’s training is coming along!