TAILS are wagging at West Sussex charity Canine Partners, which will be honoured by a visit from Her Majesty The Queen on Thursday.

Canine Partners near Midhurst, which was founded to help transform the lives of people living with physical disabilities by partnering them with assistance dogs, is one of Haslemere Mayor Malcolm Taylor’s nominated charities.

At a fundraising event at Haslemere Museum that raised £3,500 earlier this month, guest speaker Jon Flint gave a moving account of his experience of living with disability and the huge impact his assistance dog, Jester, has had in improving his quality of life.

The Queen will unveil a plaque and meet young dogs and their volunteer ‘puppy parents,’ who take the puppies from the age of eight weeks, implementing a programme of basic training until the age of 12-14 months, when they are ready to start assistance dog training.

She will also meet some of the dogs which have just embarked on their advanced training at the centre and are learning the specific tasks their future partners might need, during the visit, on November 30.

The Queen will view a demonstration of some the vital tasks the assistance dogs carry out for disabled people across the UK, including opening and closing doors, helping to dress and undress, picking up dropped items and even loading and unloading the washing machine or taking money from a cash machine.

She will also view the accommodation used by disabled partners undertaking their on-site training course together with their assistance dog and talk to two partners currently on their course.

Canine Partners’ trustees chairman Jackie Staunton said: “It is such an honour for us to welcome the Queen to our training centre in West Sussex and we are delighted she will be unveiling a plaque for us on the day, too.

“We have just reached an outstanding landmark figure of 400 active partnerships across the UK, having created over 750 since we were founded in 1990.

“Her Majesty will unveil a plaque stating our achievements, in 2017, in reaching our 750th partnership and this will be a fantastic memory of her visit.

“Her grandson, Prince Harry, visited us in 2010.

“Our staff and volunteers are incredibly excited for Her Majesty’s visit as are our partners who, fortunately for them, are on their on-site training course at the time. We hope the Queen will enjoy meeting everyone on the day and our dogs too, including one of our super cute and fluffy 11-week-old pups.”