Volunteer Service Dog Puppy Raiser

Looking for a volunteer opportunity that's rewarding, fun, and where you'll truly make a difference?

Looking for a volunteer opportunity that will engage you, and you'll learn a lot while volunteering?

Looking to meet new, nice people and get out of the house more?

If you live in Putnam, Westchester, or Dutchess County, Western Connecticut from Brookfield to Ridgefield/Redding or the Stamford area, or UPPER NYC (Manhattan), we want you!!!

Our trainers will guide you on your journey to transform a pup into a highly trained service dog. Our volunteer puppy raisers do the beginning work. The pup returns to our Training Center the last part of their training to learn service dog commands, and have it's obedience, house manners, and socialization honed by our trainers.

The pup will live in your home. You'll love, care for it, teach it basic obedience and house manners, and gently socialize it to new situations. All under the careful supervision and guidance from our trainers.

You'll live with a GREAT PUP and make a significant contribution to helping someone less fortunate. Raising a service dog pup is quite different than raising a pet dog. You'll learn so much, and feel such pride as your pup progresses because of your efforts.

Our service dogs are free to their recipients - people with physical disabilities other than blindness. We train carefully selected mixed breed pups we adopt from rescue groups. Our dogs are very people oriented and trainable.

If you love dogs, and have no more than 1 dog at home who is friendly to other dogs, we want you!

If you work from home, or can bring the pup to work, or have a partner to stay with the pup when you're working, we want you! Our pups can't be left alone more than 3 hours at the most to learn to bond very closely with people. A service dog's strong, loving bond to their recipient motivates them to assist that person.

Choose whether you want to raise one of our pups for 6, 12, or 18 months. We cover all the major costs of the pup - vet care, food, crate(s), leash(s), harness(es), dog bed (when they're ready for it)and some toys. You provide bowls, measuring cup, some toys, and transportation costs to socialize the pup, take it to the vet as needed, attend classes(when held) and events (1 or 2/year).

Here's our application, with more information:

https://www.putnamservicedogs.org/volunteer-to-be-a-puppy-raiser/

There are links to related blog articles also on this page.

Questions? Please call us at 917-449-5359 or email us at info@putnamservicedogs.org.

Watch our video to learn more: Georgia in the elevator