Puppy Raisers

Our Puppy Raisers play an incredibly important role in our program dog’s lives! Puppies go through a critical socialization window between 3-16 weeks. While part of this we are relying on the breeder for, the rest is very critical on our end!
During this window our puppy raisers get the puppies around as many new things in their environment as possible and make them a positive experience. This can look like a lot of things from just walking around a pet friendly store so the puppy can see lots of different people and dogs, smell new things, hear new things, etc, to a short training session in a new environment! We want our puppies exposed to new textures, sights, smells, sounds, etc. This helps our puppies have a better outcome as a service dog as it takes a lot more to surprise them.

These puppies stay in our Puppy Raiser’s homes until they are 6 months old, during that time our puppy raisers come to weekly classes or lessons (which our Hybrid and therapy dog clients are welcome to join if they have a puppy under 6 months). During these lessons we go over how to teach puppy specific behaviors such as potty training, kennel training, etc, but also start teaching our puppies that training is the cool, fun game and their handler is the coolest thing in their environment! As the puppies get older we start introducing some fun tricks that will become the foundation of many tasks that their potential handler may need in the future, but also is a great way of keeping training fun! The last thing we want is to ask too much of our puppies before they’re old enough, this can cause them to burn out or not enjoy training which causes them to be an unreliable service dog. At this age we are playing with babies and teaching them their ABC’s and 123’s, they’re not even old enough to begin spelling or doing math yet!

Once the puppy is 6 months old they return to our trainers for their full training and begin searching for their potential handler! This is when the intense training begins! They start focusing more on Obedience, training for public access, and learning the tasks their handler will need to aid them with their disability.

We are always in need of puppy raisers as they are one of the most important parts of our team! If you are interested in becoming a puppy raiser, apply now