On Placing a Service Dog

Can I help you?

The biggest obstacle any service dog raiser has is answering the constant question: "How do you give him up when you're done?" The answer to this varies with the raiser, but my answer had always been, "well, when you see him work with a client and see what a difference he makes in her life, and you know he is doing great things for someone, you feel great." This has been my standard reply as I raised my second dog.

My first dog (that I raised), Brennan, is now working joyfully for someone in Albany. I have heard that he has a nick name around the office he goes to daily, and that he is essentially the 'BMOC.' These kinds of placements can make all the difference for puppy raisers.

My second dog, Inde, left for Dobb's Ferry two days ago to be placed through an organization that uses at risk teens to raise dogs for war veterans. I'll most likely never see him again. I won't know who will get him, and I won't see him work with a client. I now need to construct the best narrative I can to deal with this loss for myself and for my family. When people ask me if I am going to take on another dog, I have to say no. It's not this last placement that led me to this decision. It's more about the fact that I've been raising these dogs for 5 years now, and I simply need a break.

However, to be frank, this placement is not what I had in mind when I signed up to raise Inde. I had hoped to meet the client, see him work with him or her, tell about his idiosyncracies, and explain that he loves to catch Frisbees in the back yard. That we like to call him Gary (from the song...) and some other nick names that are just too ridiculous to repeat. That he rolls on his back to tell you he likes you. That he loves to do agility courses, especially tunnels and a frames. That he will run full speed down a hallway for a set of keys and bring them back to you, wagging his tail, ready to do it again...

I will never get this chance to say these things, and while Inde will most likely lead a fine life and be a terrific help to a very deserving person, I'll never see it with my own eyes.

This is what you need to know when you become a puppy raiser. It can be like it was with Brennan, or it can be like it was with Inde. You don't raise the dog for yourself; you raise him to help someone, and you have to accept that when you start. If you can't accept that, don't get involved.

I have this nagging desire to write some corny phrase about... if you see Inde... tell him... I knew it would sound maudlin. It's time to construct that positive narrative....