This Morning's Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary have introduced another new member to the show's family, after Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard were announced as new presenters last week.
During Friday's show, the couple introduced a new four-legged member to the team while cooing over their cute new pup.
Dermot told viewers: “Time to introduce you to a cute new member of our This Morning family…” while Alison added: “It's an adorable eight week old puppy and here he comes!”
As the adorable pooch joined the duo on the sofa, Dermot explained: “This is a very important dog – he's an autism service dog.”
The puppy, named Buddy, is a yellow Labrador who is trained to help both adults and children with autism.
Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary introduced another new member of the This Morning family on Friday, after introducing Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard as new hosts last week
Eight-week-old yellow Labrador Buddy joined the duo on the show as the presenters announced he was to be trained to be an autism service dog
Jan Kiley, COO of the charity Dogs for Autism, gave further details: “He was eight weeks old yesterday and today is his first official day as a service dog trainee.” He is a yellow Labrador. We train them for children and adults with autism.
“Training is all about manners and teaching them what is acceptable and what is not, but also about giving them a lot of interaction with lots of different people and going to different places, but you have to be very careful with them not to overwhelm too much.”
“Then in the future, about 12 to 18 months, during training he will learn to do things specifically for autistic people.”
Viewers then had the opportunity to name the dog while sending their suggestions to producers during the show.
Towards the end of the show, Alison announced: “Thank you to everyone who got in touch. We had so many suggestions, thank you very much.”
“But we can now reveal that our new puppy's official name is…Buddy!” “So many of you suggested Buddy and that's what we're going to call him.”
This Morning will track Buddy's progress throughout his training and present the pup with some treats and a new collar before he begins.
Dermot hugged the dog and later said: “It's good to have you here, mate, and the family you're going to will be very, very lucky.”
In the meantime, Dr. Scott, This Morning's acting vet, said two of his children have autism and having a dog in the house really helps them at home.
Explaining further details, Jan Kiley, COO of the charity Dogs for Autism, said: “Training is all about manners and teaching them what is acceptable and what is not, but also about giving them a lot of interaction with lots of different people allow and go to different places, but we are very careful not to push it too far.
Viewers then had the opportunity to name the dog by sending their suggestions to producers throughout the show, with Buddy emerging as the most popular name
The duo then took their newly named puppy to Ant and Dec, who were rehearsing for brand new series Saturday Night Takeaway in the neighboring studio
He said: “I have two children who suffer from autism, Jackson who is nine years old and he had a speech disorder which means he didn't speak for the first four years of his life.”
“He has a bit of emotional difficulty at school and with our dog Ludo we have really seen an improvement in his ability to relax – having this big dog to hug makes a huge difference for him.”
“Our youngest, Riley, is non-verbal, she can speak snippets of words, but not too much, and again, the company of dogs makes a big difference, plus this is the first anniversary of my personal diagnosis.”
Dr. Scott added: “I saw things in them that I could identify with and one thing that is consistent for me in the company of animals.”
“I knew they were there to help me and support me, and even at the age of seven I knew I wanted to give something back to them.”
“But I didn’t know why… and now I’m looking for a charity.” [like this] “It supports autism. It’s so important to give children the opportunity to develop this relationship with animals because it makes a huge difference in their lives.”
The duo then took their newly named puppy to Ant and Dec, who were rehearsing for brand new series Saturday Night Takeaway in the neighboring studio.
Ant wanted to be the first to pet him and exclaimed, “He's beautiful!”
This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1 and ITVX