Programs That Adopt Puppies for Training

Guide Dogs

• Seeing Eye, Inc. is a program that trains dogs to become guides for the blind, allowing individuals who are severely or completely sight-impaired to walk in public places independently and with confidence. This program works closely with the 4-H club. If you choose to foster a puppy, you are required to at attend their meetings. The puppy will be with you from the age of seven weeks until it is a year old. Most often the puppy is a Golden Retriever, a Labrador Retriever or a German Sheppard. Your job is to socialize the puppy and familiarize it with its environment. Veterinary costs are paid by Seeing Eye, Inc. The organization also helps you with the cost of the puppy's food. At the end of the year you must return the puppy to Seeing Eye, inc. so its specialized training to become a guide dog can begin. This training can take a year to complete. While it is likely to prove challenging to return your puppy to the organization, perhaps knowing you have made a difference in another person's life will foster a sense of great accomplishment and lessen your sense of loss.

Puppies Behind Bars

• Puppies Behind Bars is a one-of-a-kind program that raises puppies of many different breeds, or mixed breeds, to become service dogs to soldiers. Puppies are given to inmates in several New York State prisons when they're seven weeks old. The puppies are with the inmates during the day and sleep in their cells at night. The inmates are responsible for raising the puppies and providing training that will help adult dogs aid wounded soldiers. The puppies might become guides for blind soldiers or provide comfort to ex-military men or women suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). The puppies provide a valuable service when they are placed in their permanent homes. The puppies also provide a valuable service while living with the inmates, allowing many inmates to express unconditional love and, for some, to receive it for the first time in their lives. It aids in giving some of the participating inmates a better sense of self-worth and purpose. The program strives to provide the inmates with some sense of emotional freedom, while providing the soldiers with the freedom they receive having a puppy that has been trained to help them regain their independence.

Paws With a Cause

• Paws With a Cause trains and places dogs to provide services that enable physically challenged people to live more independently. The puppies are bred by volunteers who place them with another volunteer when they're seven weeks old. The second volunteer raises them and teaches them social skills. At the age of one year, specialized training begins. The now-grown dogs learn to aid their permanent owner with dressing and undressing, opening refrigerators, opening other doors, flipping light switches and other tasks necessary for independent living. The breeds this organization most often uses are Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers and Papillons.

Transportation Security Administration

• The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) program was developed in 2001 after the Australian Customs Service National Breeding and Development Centre (NBDC) had successfully bred dogs to detect explosives. The dogs are bred and raised by the TSA to detect bombs in airports and government facilities. Half the dogs bred for this purpose successfully complete the program and enter into service. The other half are placed in adopted homes. There is no cost to adopt one of these puppies, most of which are Labrador Retrievers.