So You Want to be a Volunteer Puppy Raiser?
Left to Right, Eden, Joan’s current PAWS puppy, Nyx, Eden’s PAWS puppy friend, Apple, a former puppy raised by Joan. Credit – Joan Lutovsky
by Cathy Collins
Local resident Joan Lutovsky is a puppy raiser for Paws With a Cause, a Michigan-based non-profit organization that trains and provides assistance dogs to the hearing impaired, physically disabled, persons with seizure disorders, and children with autism. Several years ago, Joan became acquainted with PAWS during her volunteer work with United Way. Consequently, she started donating to PAWS and following the organization, with a personal pledge that one day, she would volunteer as a puppy raiser. Since then, Joan has raised several PAWS puppies.
It takes approximately 2.5 years to properly train a PAWS assistance dog and requires a team of people who work with the dog at the various stages of its development.
Joan’s friend Deb with her PAWS dog, Loci. Credit – Bill Adams, Midrone Photography (use ok’d with both Deb and Bill
Their journey begins in the home of a Mama Dog Home volunteer who assists with whelping and raising the litter until the puppies are eight weeks old. At that point, the puppy is assigned to a foster puppy raiser, like Joan, and lives in the home for about one year. Joan teaches her puppy basic commands that will be used as building blocks for future training. She also begins to teach it how to behave appropriately in public spaces. After a year with the puppy raiser, the young dog enters the prison program for four months of additional training. Upon completion of prison training, the assistance dog-in-training is transferred to PAWS headquarters in Wayland, MI for testing and final training. As they move on to advanced training, they are taught individual tasks for a client’s specific needs. Not all dogs make the cut; the ones that don’t may go on to other working dog careers such as detection (drug, bomb, etc.). Those that don’t become working dogs become wonderful pets. Approximately 50 percent go on to become PAWS assistance dogs.
Joan’s puppy Eden with PAWS friend Nyx. Credit – Cathy Collins
For Joan, the most rewarding aspect of being a puppy raiser is the camaraderie among fellow puppy raisers when they surrender their pups and after, when they continue to receive updates on their pups as they advance through training. Joan reports that the highlight of her volunteer experience is when a PAWS dog that she knows is placed with their forever person.
No experience is necessary to volunteer as a puppy raiser. To learn more about Paws With a Cause go to https://www.pawswithacause.org/.
