Yoshi is no reject

Jacqui Bainbridge and her husband foster Customs dogs, but Yoshi is one of the ones that didn’t make it.

Ms Bainbridge said, as a foster carer, she takes the dogs from when they are 8 weeks to about 12-15 months old, while they are being trained.

“You socialise them, get them used to different environments and different people, and walking on different surfaces and things like that,” she said.

But Ms Bainbridge and her husband will keep Yoshi, a beautiful black Labrador, permanently as she is one of the dogs in Customs training that didn’t quite make it.

“She couldn’t really form a relationship with a lot of the handlers so she came back to us,” Ms Bainbridge said. “She’s a bit too close to us.”

But this turned out to be a blessing for Ms Bainbridge and her husband.

“My husband has epilepsy and she can tell when he’s going to have a seizure,” she said. “She somehow senses it.”

“We are kind of pleased that she stays with us now because it’s good for him,” Ms Bainbridge said.

Ms Bainbridge lives in Footscray with her husband, but works at Melbourne Water in Docklands.

She said Melbourne Water has a “Bring your dog to work” program, so Yoshi came in to help employee wellbeing.

She said people took turns to bring in their dogs, and there was usually a dog in the office once a week or so.

Ms Bainbridge said this was about the third time she had brought Yoshi in and she usually walks her along Harbour Esplanade at lunchtime.

“She’s pretty placid, loves a good game of tug of war, loves meeting new people and just chilling out,” she said.