Dogs With Wings Assistance Dog Society (2010-2012)

Together with my family we were “puppy raisers” for Dogs With Wings Assistance Dog Society between July 2010 and May 2012.

The role of the Puppy Raiser is to socialize the puppy to as many different environments and situations as possible: offices, restaurants, malls, elevators, public transportation. The ultimate goal is to help the puppy develop sufficient social skills and behaviours to enable it to be accepted in all environments. The Director of Training oversees this program, the training classes and assesses the progress of the puppy (DWW Website).

So far we have trained two puppies, Jazz (the black Lab ) and Romeo (a half golden retriever, half golden Lab). Jazz has since gone on to become a breeder for Dogs With Wings and Romeo was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, so he was taken from the training program and adopted out to a family.  The wonderful news for Romeo is that he is effectively becoming a companion dog to a Dogs With Wings graduate who works with his new family’s grand-daughter who has autism.