Our puppies begin their journey in a couple of ways. Litters born through our breeding program are whelped in a volunteer’s home. When they reach five weeks of age, mom and puppies travel to one of our two whelping prisons. The prisons complete the second half of the whelping and weaning process. When the puppies reach ten weeks of age, they come to our facility and are picked up by volunteers who will be their Puppy Raiser or Great Start Home. Dogs that are donated by a breeder or rescued from a local animal shelter begin their journey with Can Do Canines in a volunteer home. Staff members make sure they have the right temperament for assistance dog work. They then move on to a volunteer puppy raiser or one of our seven prison programs.
Puppy Raisers are the heart and soul of Can Do Canines. Puppy Raisers transform our mission from words on paper to a priceless reality for people with disabilities.
Puppy Raisers take in a puppy for up to 24 months. They teach the puppy good house manners, basic obedience, and early assistance dog skills while exposing the puppy to as many social situations as possible. Puppy Raisers attend a minimum of one training meeting each month and provide a home, food, basic veterinary care and lots of love!
In our prison puppy program (and no, we don’t send only the “naughty puppies” here) our puppies receive around-the-clock attention and training from carefully-selected inmates. The pups also get “prison breaks” or furloughs. Prisons are a contained, artificial environment, so we want to ensure our dogs are also comfortable and able to perform their important skills in different kinds of settings. Foster Volunteers take the pups home for a weekend or longer and expose them to all the places they’ll need to eventually work in, such as restaurants, stores, and movie theaters.
When the puppies finally reach about 18 months of age, they make their return trek back to Can Do Canines facility for final training. They are assessed by our trainers to find out what they’re best at (e.g., smelling low blood sugar, alerting to sounds) and then those skills are further refined. When the dog is deemed ready, he or she is partnered with a client, and the two begin to train together to ensure they are a good match. Once they have completed training, you can join us at Can Do Canines and celebrate along with the new team at our Graduation Ceremony!
Throughout the training process, if the dog does not seem like he or she would be a good fit for the program the dog is “career-changed.” Our dogs never fail! They just move on to other areas of expertise, such as cuddling as a pet or as a therapy dog. A career-change may happen for a variety of reasons, such as health and temperament.
To learn more about adopting a dog who has been career changed click here.
