Member of the Month – Archive

My name is Adam Etherington, and I was originally a member of Canine Concern back in about the year 2000 when I had the most fantastic collie, Sally.

I was a police officer for 23 years. I left in 2019 and was at a loss of which direction I needed to take. I decided I would love to volunteer locally for Canine Concern and Chase passed his assessment with flying colours.

I grew up in a house of dogs from day one. Chihuahuas, a Great Dane, Setters, German Shepherds, a Sheltie, and a variety of other breeds.

We are a sister and brother team based in Coventry and have been involved with therapy dogs for over 8 years, initially with Lulu the greyhound, and then Milo the shihtzu and now with new greyhound, Peggy.

I have always loved all animals, but dogs are my particular favourite. When I was a small child, we had a Norwegian Elkhound followed by a Finnish Spitz.

I was bought up with dogs, mostly rescue, and found it a horrible shock when I moved out into rented accommodation where we were not allowed pets. In 2003 I remember having one of my last nursing placements in a local prison where I spent the day with the dog section.

I’ve always loved dogs – I grew up with a fabulous Labrador who would sit on the front drive in our Somerset village all day, except if you drove into the drive – where he would get up and come for a ride into the garage.

Never having had a dog in our lives we suddenly became dog owners after a daughter got one, but then decided it was a mistake, and short of putting the dog into rescue, we rescued him instead.

For us, the journey into the therapy dog world just seemed to happen. We did not plan to get a therapy dog. After three years of our youngest son asking for a dog, we decided the time was right to research breeds.

I have been deputy head teacher at a primary school for about 8 years. We have always been an animal friendly school and already had chickens and I had always wanted a dog, as I grew up with dogs.