Photo: © Courtesy of The Guide Dog Foundation
Puppy raisers provide everyday experiences that prepare exceptional dogs to become life-saving partners.
For many across America, independence often means moving confidently through crowded sidewalks, transit hubs, office buildings, and unfamiliar neighborhoods. For a person who is blind or has low vision, or for a veteran, active-duty service member, or first responder living with a physical or emotional disability such as PTSD, that independence may begin with a highly trained guide or service dog.
But long before an assistance dog is ready to transform someone’s life, a volunteer must first help the puppy understand the world.
The Guide Dog Foundation and America’s VetDogs, sister national nonprofit organizations with more than 80 years of impact, are seeking volunteer puppy raisers to provide that essential beginning. The organizations’ guide and service dogs become trusted partners and symbols of freedom for the people they serve. All services are provided free of charge to recipients.
Preparing Puppies for Their Future Roles
Future assistance dogs cannot be raised in kennels. They need thoughtful socialization and regular exposure to the environments they may one day navigate with their handlers. Puppy raisers introduce young dogs to everyday experiences, from active city streets and public places to quiet parks, rural farmland, and time at home. They teach basic obedience commands such as “sit,” “stay,” and “come,” reinforce good house manners, and help each puppy learn to remain calm, confident, and focused around new people, sounds, and distractions.
No previous dog-training experience is required. Volunteers receive guidance as they lay the foundation for the puppy’s later work with certified Guide Dog Mobility Instructors and Service Dog Instructors. Depending on where they live, volunteers may participate through full-time, weekend, or part-time puppy-raising opportunities across the United States.
From Everyday Routines to Lifelong Partnership
The commitment is meaningful because the result is tangible. After approximately 14 to 16 months with their volunteer raisers, the dogs return to America’s VetDogs and Guide Dog Foundation national training center in New York. There, expert program staff guide them through three to four months of formal training, using positive training methods to build and strengthen the skills they will need.
When the dogs are between 18 months and two years old, they meet their new partners for two weeks of team training held on the organization’s Long Island campus. Puppy raisers are invited to Celebration Saturday, a special graduation ceremony that is also streamed live on Facebook. It is the moment when months of ordinary routines—morning walks, patient repetition, new experiences, and quiet encouragement—reveal their extraordinary purpose.
Saying goodbye to a puppy is emotional. Yet puppy raisers are not simply giving up a dog. They are giving another person greater independence, confidence, joy, and hope. And for many individuals served by America’s VetDogs and the Guide Dog Foundation, their new custom-trained, internationally accredited guide or service dog gives them purpose, saves their life, and gives them the opportunity to Live Without Boundaries. The impact of volunteer puppy raisers goes well beyond the handler to their family members, friends, colleagues, and communities nationwide.
For busy professionals, families, retirees, students, and others looking for a hands-on way to make a lasting difference, puppy raising offers a rare opportunity: to help shape a life-changing partnership from its very first steps.
Accredited by Assistance Dogs International and the International Guide Dog Federation, both organizations earn the top ratings from the leading charitable watchdog organizations, including Candid, Charity Navigator, and the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance.
To learn more about becoming a volunteer puppy raiser or donating, visit VetDogs.org/GH or GuideDog.org/GH.
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For more than 75 years, the Guide Dog Foundation has trained and placed guide dogs and service dogs to provide increased independence and enhanced mobility to individuals who are blind, have low vision, or other disabilities.