The Reason Why - By Shaun Anderson

Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) is a non-profit organization that provides service dogs free of charge to people with disabilities other than blindness. These dogs are all professionally trained by experienced and talented trainers at CCI facilities for about six months, but their training begins much earlier than that. Volunteers can apply to raise the puppies that CCI breeds. These people are called Volunteer Puppy Raisers. This is what Becca and I do for CCI. Cheri is our puppy in training and we are raising and training her for CCI. Puppy Raisers receive the puppies when they are eight weeks old and are responsible to train them in basic obedience, house manners, socialization and a few advanced commands. The Puppy Raisers keep the puppies for about 15-18 months, then they are returned to CCI to go through Professional Training. People often ask us how we are able to give the puppy up after a year and a half and say they could never do that. They would become too attached. I thought that this would be the case too, but then Becca and I got to go to the graduation of one of her previous dogs, Zeeland. Zeeland was being placed with a little boy in Southern California with autism. We were able to go to California and meet the family that was receiving Zeeland. It was an amazing experience. It was evident that the family needed Zeeland much more than we did. We were able to see some of the things that Zeeland did to help the little boy, and it was incredible to hear the difference he was already making with the little boy. This made me realize that being a Puppy Raiser is not about getting a dog for a year and a half and being able to take it everywhere with you, but it’s about helping someone else. It’s about giving up your time, money, and efforts to do something that will be of far greater benefit to someone other than yourself. This doesn’t make it any easier to turn in the dogs. It’s a really difficult experience, but once you know the reason behind giving up the dog, it makes it all worth it.