The Puppy Pathway to service dog success
Milestone 4: Puppy raising program
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 4: Puppy raising program (8 weeks to 14-months-old).
To help us achieve our goal of graduating more successful service dogs for the many clients on our waiting list, FSD launched a community-based puppy raising club in 2019. This program has helped foster puppies’ development, environment, training, and socialization from a very young age. Since the implementation of this program, we have significantly increased the success rate of assistance dogs graduating from our training program and grown our community of supporters.
Our volunteer puppy raisers help guide, socialize, and continue the basic training of our young service dog hopefuls to set them up for successful careers as life-changing assistance dogs. Our puppy raisers begin in our program with varying levels of experience, but with 1:1 support from FSD staff and other volunteers, they feel confident to help our puppies blossom in their care.
While most of our puppy raisers are in the Denver metro area, we also offer satellite puppy raising clubs throughout Colorado and in several other states.
What does a volunteer puppy raiser do?
- Host a puppy in their home independently or with another co-raiser starting at either 8 or 16 weeks old until the pup is about 14 months old. The commitment can be as short as 2 months or as long as 14 months depending on your needs.
- Follow the curriculum provided by FSD to train the puppy in basic obedience and house manners.
- Find socialization opportunities to expose the puppy to different people, animals, environments, and experiences.
- Bring the puppy to FSD or an established satellite location once a month for additional training, evaluation, and feedback.
- Participate in monthly socialization outings with other puppy raisers.
- Bring the puppy to FSD at the age of 12 months for health and behavioral evaluations.
- Return the puppy to FSD at the age of 14 months for advanced training and the potential for placement with one of our clients.
What kind of support do puppy raisers receive?
Volunteer puppy raisers must complete FSD’s volunteer orientation, followed by specialized training in raising puppies. FSD has created a comprehensive puppy raising curriculum, including training requirements and milestones for volunteers to meet along the way. Volunteers receive continuous guidance and ongoing support from FSD staff and experienced puppy raisers. Additionally, volunteers receive dog food, veterinary care, and supplies for their FSD puppies free of charge. We also offer puppy sitting services so raisers can go out of town or take a break guilt and worry-free!
We urgently need volunteer puppy raisers throughout Colorado! If you’re out-of-state, we would love to discuss options for collaborating with you. To learn more about raising an FSD puppy, click here.
Up next: Learn how our pups return to FSD for matching with one of our clients and custom training.
Contact Erin Conley at [email protected] for all media inquiries.