It is 6.30am on a frosty Monday in November and Verlin the black Labrador is pottering around the bedroom of Fiona Airey’s cosy barn conversion near Ashford, Kent, helping her to get dressed. ‘Socks, Verlin,’ she says. ‘Now that,’ she points to a T-shirt, and he passes them to her, then lets Fiona lean on him as she hauls herself to her feet.

He has been on the go since 6am when, after a cuddle with Fiona, he helped her make a cup of coffee (picking up a tea towel when she dropped it) and dug out her winter boots from the stair cupboard.

Later, while Fiona, who works as a primary school teacher, explains long division to her year six class, Verlin will lie in the corner under a fluffy red blanket – barely glancing at the 30 children, nor they at him – but emerging now and then to open the storeroom door for her (there is a tennis ball attached to the handle so he can tug it with his teeth). He also tidies away marker pens and pencils when she drops them, nimble and unobtrusive as a Wimbledon ballboy.