Care homes often get bad reputations as being not very nice places. We usually hear only to bad things in the news, but Charlie, the chocolate Labrador is here to change all that. Charlie is the latest resident at Enable Care in Waltham Abbey, London, with focuses on brain injury patients and has 20 residents aged between 18 and 65. The idea of getting a dog first come up when a resident who joined them became depressed after being separated from her own dog, who wasn’t allowed to visit her in the home. ‘Every connection counts, human and animal, and at this home, our residents have definitely a lot of human connection and plenty of visitors,’ explains care home manager Marie Goodwin. ‘We did loads of research into which dog to get, and asked other care homes about the dogs that come and visit them – that’s how we know that none of then live there permanently.’ However, it wasn’t an easy task to convince the management of the home. ‘I had to warn the company directors that this was going to be a huge financial responsibility,’ reveals Marie. Luckily, the positive impact Charlie has had on residents has been totally worth it. A 46-years-old resident who has been mentally down since a road traffic accident had made significant improvements since Charlie’s arrival. Another resident wasn’t keen on Charlie at first as she’d had a bad incident with a dog when she was younger, but Charlie has made her trust dog again. Charlie is currently completing his obedience training and the care home are fundraising for his next set of training. When he achieves his therapy dog license, Charlie will also visit schools and community projects in the local area. But his hart will always belong to his friens at Enable Care in Waltham Abbey.