Caesar was born in Buckinghamshire on 25 June 1999. His sire was Guidewell Beau, known as Brett (a Guide Dog stud dog) and his dam was Meme Mystic Melody (aka Rosie), who also has Guidewell blood in her pedigree. There were 7 puppies in the litter, 6 dogs and 1 bitch (Millie). Millie lives with Rosie at Mr & Mrs Chubbs' house (the breeders), and all 6 boys went off to be working dogs. Caesar and Cosby went to Dogs for the Disabled and Windsor, Winston, William & Wilkie went off to work with Guide Dogs for the Blind, Windsor & Wilkie as Stud Dogs, Winston & William as Guide Dogs. So they are a truly hard working family.

All the puppies stayed with Mr & Mrs Chubb for 7 weeks then they went off to the Guide Dog Centre. From there Caesar & Cosby went to DFD. By the age of 8 1/2 weeks Caesar was with his puppy walker for DFD, Mrs Conrad who lives in Hampshire. While there apart from the usual puppy training Caesar started to learn some of the tasks that would stand him in good stead for his life as a working dog with DFD. For example, he learned how to pull open doors with a rope, how to bark on command and how to fetch his toys from the washing machine. He learned how to live as part of the family with other dogs and he stayed with Mrs Conrad until a week before his first birthday. During which time he went for a kennel break with DFD in Banbury, Oxfordshire (to have "the" operation that little boys dogs have)!

Caesar was placed at Dogs for the Disabled Training Centre in Exeter, Devon for his intensive training, which was predominantly undertaken by Jo...thanks Jo! While at Exeter he learned how to polish his skills and learned some new tasks. During his time there the trainers were assessing his characteristics in order to partner him with the "right" disabled person. By November 2000 I had recieved a 'phone call telling me that they thought they had a suitable dog, and shortly afterwards Caesar & Jo came for a visit to see if Caesar and I were compatable. That was the day I fell in love with him! He was all set to move in shortly afterwards but his arrival was delayed by a bout of kennel cough, and the wait seemed like an eternity for me. However on 7th December Caesar moved in, aged 17 1/2 months. We spent a quiet weekend at home getting to know eachother, and Jo visited us every weekday for the next two weeks to see how we were getting along, and teaching me how to manage Caesar. I had to quickly learn how and when to groom and feed him, what the rules were for walking and free running, and to learn all the commands Caesar knows for him to undertake tasks. We ran through all the tasks until we had them off to a tee.

After a fortnight, Jo left bigger gaps between her visits and then in February Helen came down from DFD head office in Banbury for Caesars' qualification test. Until that time he had to wear a blue training jacket when he was out working. Caesar seemed to rise to the occasion that day, and performed all his tasks perfectly for Helen to see, and qualified at just over 20 months! He now wears his smart new yellow jacket when he is out working with me, and I signed a contract of conditions with DFD, paid the princely sum of £1 for him and became his forever Mum.

I am tremendously grateful to everyone who has had a part in Caesar becoming the wonderful young chap he is, already after a few short months I feel as if we have been together forever and cannot imagine life without him now. He is such an excellent help to me both physically and emotionally and I feel we have become great friends, we do everything together, he is such an enthusiastic bundle of fun, whether that is when he is performing his working duties or we are just having fun chilling together. He seems very intuitive and sometimes I just have to use his name with a particular tone and he willingly performs the task I need.