Genesis Assistance Dogs, Inc. is looking for families to raise our puppies and service dogs in Florida. We recognize that the thought of giving up “your puppy” after two years can be a bit terrifying, so we do things differently.
Young pups are placed with their Pre-School Puppy Raisers from acquisition to approximately four to six months of age. These Puppy Raisers have agreed to tackle the tasks of housebreaking, basic commands, socialization, generalization and handling to give pups a great foundation for the rest of their lives.
Puppies are placed with their Elementary Puppy Raiser family between four and six months of age and remain there until they are approximately one year old. This family will be responsible for maintaining all commands the pup has already learned as well as teaching new ones, socialization, handling, and generalization to public life and achieving the AKC Canine Good Citizen title with their pup.
Then the pup will move to his or her Junior Puppy Raiser family. This family shares all the responsibilities of the prior Puppy Raiser family and has a different set of tasks and goals to teach the pup. They will have the pup for approximately six months and the accomplishment of successfully completing the Public Access test to demonstrate the dog behaves appropriately in public spaces.
At 18 months, the dog will move to his or her Advanced Puppy Raiser family for approximately six months. This family will be responsible for reinforcing everything the dog has learned with prior families as well as teaching and maintaining new skills geared to assisting their future partners.
Regardless of which age range you have, all Puppy Raisers have training class attendance responsibilities which vary by the pup’s needs, group outing requirements and event attendance.
If you are interested in becoming a puppy raiser, please complete the Puppy Raiser Application.
