The Puppy Pathway to service dog success
Milestone 3: Kindergarten
In this ongoing series, we’re exploring each milestone along the Puppy Pathway, a journey of growth, learning, and rewards for puppies in FSD’s assistance dog training program. This month, we’ll look at Milestone 3: Kindergarten (8 to 16 weeks old).
When FSD puppies are 8-weeks-old, they’re ready to have a vigorous socialization protocol added to their daily routine. Some pups—dubbed “Tiny Tots”—go to the homes of experienced FSD volunteer puppy raisers who enjoy the extra challenge (and added cuteness!) of raising a pup starting at 8-weeks-old. These pups are socialized through exposure to a real home and its inhabitants for the first time, and eventually, they start exploring new places, people, and things outside the home.
Most of our 8-week-old puppies then enter a Prison Trained K-9 Companion Program with one of our correctional facility partners, in which highly trained inmate handlers work under the direction of FSD training staff to help train and raise our puppies for this critical eight-week period. In these programs, puppies learn basic obedience, such as the “sit” and “down” cues, as well as loose-leash walking. Inmate handlers also expose the puppies to new people and environments within the facility. These pups stay at prison and live with their handler full-time until they are about 16 weeks old, at which time they return to FSD and are placed in the home of a volunteer puppy raiser for approximately 10-14 months.
We are always in need of volunteer puppy raisers, especially for our 8-week-old Tiny Tots! To learn more about raising an FSD puppy, click here.
Contact Erin Conley at [email protected] for all media inquiries.