The Beachport Lions Club were treated to a paw-fect surprise while catering their ever-popular donut van recently.

Lions Club Past District Governor David Snook OAM and Lion Pam were introduced to Nicole Cain, her husband and puppy Airlie who is in the puppy socialisation program with the Australian Lions Hearing Dogs (ALHD) program.

Airlie is a 12-week-old Labradoodle from a breeding programme that ALHD has established.

The ALHD established the breeding program because they could not find enough puppies from RSPCA or animal shelters that were suitable.

Labradoodles were found to be a suitable breed for the hearing dogs program.

After a period of being hosted by various members of the community under the socialisation program, the puppies are then brought back to the centre at Verdun in the Adelaide Hills to undergo extensive training before being allocated to a person with hearing difficulties.

Mr Snook said some of the dogs were allocated to recipients Australia wide.

“Lions clubs across Australia donate funds to the centre for the training of these dogs,” he said.

“It costs in the vicinity of $30,000 to train one dog.

“In fact, the Lions Club of Whitsunday sponsored Airlie hence her name.

“Thirty dogs are trained annually, and five dogs are being trained in a medic alert program which is amazing.”