PENSACOLA, Fla. — It’s National Service Dog Month. WEAR News salutes the Angels who patiently and masterfully take the puppies through the first leg of their rigorous training.
These service dogs commit their lives to giving others a chance to live their best lives possible.
Brittney Clark got involved with Canine Companions, who provides service dogs to those with disabilities, when her sisterTéa decided she needed a new friend and some independence.
“Téa was placed with her first service dog, Babette,” says Clark. “And when they were going across that stage, I looked at my mom and I said, ‘I’m gonna raise, I’m gonna, you know, give back and do something for somebody else, because Babette was such a gift for us.'”
Clark is now more than a few puppies in to giving back that gift that Babette gave to her sister and to her family.
“I think we’ve like done everything at this point,” says Clark. “So we’ve got a facility dog, we’ve got two service dogs. We’ve had six puppies. We’ve had a coc, which is a change of career. Milly decided it was not for her. She was the fifth puppy we raised, which she just got to be a therapy dog.”
Clark has not only been a puppy raiser, she’s a canine companion mom. She is a mental health counselor and her partner, Rudy, is a facility dog. He’s a source of comfort for her clients and her co-workers as well. Double duty requires a lot. Puppies alone are a full-time job.
“You’re with the dog pretty much 24/7,” says Clark. “So, every, every day when you’re out and about, and you’re, you’re going places with the dog that are age-appropriate. You know, it’s a training opportunity. Because when people like Téa get these dogs, we don’t want them to be limited. We want them to go and do and experience all the things. And so we have to provide a dog that’s ready to do those things.
WEAR’s guest meteorologist Kathryn Daniel is a three-time puppy raiser to Chappie, Watson and Bubba.
“We have a chapter,” Daniel says. “We do events together. We do fundraising, outreach events. It’s like a little family. It really is.”
“When you are a puppy raiser, you are responsible for all the expenses of the puppy — the food, the vet bills, their supplies,” she says. “But that’s how we give free puppies to our folks.”
In a case of divine intervention and God winks, Clark’s fourth puppy named Argos, was graduating from companion college and being assigned to his person just as Téa was in the queue for a new match. Babette was slowing down and entering retirement. The family went to the graduation, as they typically would, to say goodbye to Argos. Only, this was not goodbye.
“It was the first time in the organization’s history that a family member had actually raised a puppy that went to a family member,” says Clark. “So, it was pretty super special when Téa went down to get her dog. We never thought Argos was gonna come back to us, like never in a million years.”
Puppy raisers live for these perfect matches. Knowing that the sleepless night, the countless hours of repeat commands, the added expenses, and the “not-one-in-a-million chance,” where you do have to let them go; it’s giving someone a better quality of life.
“All the tears that you cry because you miss them, it doesn’t compare to the tears of joy when they do walk across that stage and complete the mission,” Clark says.
Thanks to Argos, Téa got to go to high school independently and go across the stage at graduation with her friend at her side.
“I like to say dogs open doors and hearts and they build bridges,” Daniel says. “And in that moment, Argos and Téa connected 8,000 people in the Civic Center. Everyone was just thrilled and excited. And it was, it was magical.”
“If Argos never does another thing, we like to say, him walking across the stage and getting the diploma, he earned his retirement,” says Clark. “That’s, that’s what he needed to do.”
They say, inside every service dog beats the heart of a puppy raiser. No doubt, beating just for moments like this.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
