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As a KSDS volunteer puppy raiser, I have opened my home and heart to a total (to date) of four puppies raising them as future guide-, service-, or social dogs. I raised the first two in the mid-90s, and they have since retired (#1 Fisher born in Jan 1993 was a social dog; #2, Jitter born in April 1995 was a guide).
This afternoon I'm going up to Washington, KS to attend #3 Pop's graduation as a guide dog tomorrow morning.
current pup Arthur will be going up there with me, and my two keeper dogs will stay at my parents' home over night. At 18 months, Arthur is getting close to the Bittersweet Letter's arrival--the one that states that my job in training him is done, and it's time to let him move on to the next phase of his life. I have every confidence that Arthur will follow in Fisher's, Jitter's, and Pop's pawprints and go on to help someone with a disability live a full and independent life. Based on his personality, I'm predicting he will be a service dog for a child. Attending graduations is one of the best ways we as puppy raisers can prepare ourselves for the letter we both dread and anticipate from the day we get the pups at 8 weeks of age.
KSDS, Inc is a non-profit organization that provides the assistance dogs to their partners at no charge. Each dog costs approximately $10-15 thousand to train, and they are funded solely by private and corporate donations. Go to http://www.ksds.org for more information....
http://pups4ksds.org/ is the puppy raiser site and contains up-to-date listings of all the litters KSDS has produced and the Themes for naming each litter.
This afternoon I'm going up to Washington, KS to attend #3 Pop's graduation as a guide dog tomorrow morning.
current pup Arthur will be going up there with me, and my two keeper dogs will stay at my parents' home over night. At 18 months, Arthur is getting close to the Bittersweet Letter's arrival--the one that states that my job in training him is done, and it's time to let him move on to the next phase of his life. I have every confidence that Arthur will follow in Fisher's, Jitter's, and Pop's pawprints and go on to help someone with a disability live a full and independent life. Based on his personality, I'm predicting he will be a service dog for a child. Attending graduations is one of the best ways we as puppy raisers can prepare ourselves for the letter we both dread and anticipate from the day we get the pups at 8 weeks of age.
KSDS, Inc is a non-profit organization that provides the assistance dogs to their partners at no charge. Each dog costs approximately $10-15 thousand to train, and they are funded solely by private and corporate donations. Go to http://www.ksds.org for more information....
http://pups4ksds.org/ is the puppy raiser site and contains up-to-date listings of all the litters KSDS has produced and the Themes for naming each litter.
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