Volunteer ‘Puppy Raisers’ Work to Tackle a Service Dog Shortage

In the year since Pat and Jane Hipsley brought home Pogo, they’ve spent hours teaching the Labrador puppy how to walk by their side and ignore cooing strangers; how to roll, retrieve her leash and ride an escalator. They’ve learned that Pogo is not a fan of tight spaces, and that her favorite snack is a carrot. Every night, Pogo has fallen asleep at the foot of their bed. Each morning, she has greeted them with a wagging tail.

And in a few weeks, as with 17 other puppies that came before her, the Hipsleys will say a tearful goodbye to Pogo, maybe forever.

In the world of service dogs, the Hipsleys are known as “puppy raisers,” volunteers who house, socialize and transport puppies to and from weekly classes from their first weeks until they’re ready for formal training, at around 18 to 24 months. The work is done to benefit a stranger, someone who will rely on the dog to treat a disability or live more independently.

While service dogs were once mainly used as a navigational tool for the blind, the animals have proven to be an effective therapeutic tool for conditions as varied as autism, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder. Today, people count on dogs to alert them to dangerous changes in their blood sugar, to disrupt panic attacks and to detect the smell of allergens.

But as demand for the dogs increases, the organizations that provide them are facing a shortage of volunteers to raise them as puppies. It’s a challenging, time-consuming gig that typically pays nothing and requires forging an intimate bond with a dog only to give it away.

This “critical” volunteer shortage is leading to yearslong wait times for service dogs, according to Assistance Dogs International, the accrediting body for nonprofit service dog providers.

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