About Helper Hounds: The Dogs
Breed: Redbone CoonhoundsThe dogs we use are purebred Redbone Coonhounds, from coonhunting and showing pedigrees. They are all UKC and/or AKC registered and may have relevant titles to either their breed's purpose or to prove their temperaments as service dogs.
The dogs utilized may not always be owned by the program, because housing too many dogs permanently would make the running of the program more expensive, but will be listed in the pedigrees of all puppies placed.
Every dog produced will be as close to the breed standard as possible while still producing puppies that are excellent service dog prospects. Not all puppies will be good prospects for service work, but those who aren't will still be great for sports, hunting, show, or companion homes. They will make excellent additions to your life.
Puppies: Selecting the Best ProspectsThis program involves breeding the dogs using parents with excellent temperaments and health, raising them with a mixture of Puppy Culture and a few special mix-ins, and then when they're old enough, taking them out as often as possible utilizing a stroller for early exposure and socialization in the environments they will later be expected to work in, without risking disease from being on the ground in public.
Temperament testing will show which puppies are the best prospects, and those special puppies will be the ones that are kept and continued to be well-socialized, taught basic manners, simple tasks, and be fully crate trained, then fully vaccinated and matched with their recipient.
Training will be continued via video calls once they go home, or in person until they are fully trained. This will create healthy, happy, and well-adjusted dogs that will love every moment with their handler and be able to handle just about anything the recipient needs the dog to handle.
Pairing: Recipients and PupsProspects will be sent home with their recipients based off of what will work best for the recipient. Anywhere between 18 weeks and 18 months could be when puppies go home with their recipient, and in the time they are with me they will be trained tasks and obedience skills as well as taken out to train in real-world environments to get them the experience they need once they go home.
It is ideal that the dog go home with their recipient as soon as they are ready, because bonding to a dog that is older might be a struggle for some, where some people prefer dogs be older so they don't have to handle puppy or teenager antics.
Bond is especially important for recipients with PTSD or other psychiatric and mental disabilities, because if they can't bond with their dog, they're less likely to trust the dog, which will break the dog's training and the recipient's ability to use them as would benefit the recipient.
Applications: What Happens with the Rest?Puppies that aren't the best prospects, which will probably be the majority since I am after very specific temperaments, will be sold to show, sport, hunting, or companion homes based off of applications.
Prospects may also occasionally fail out of training, and will need to be re-homed or re-trained and re-matched. Those who will need a new home will be adopted out via application as well. They will be carefully placed under contract with a guarantee that I will take them back and find them a new home myself if something happens.
Puppies who are bought from this list that are put into training as a service dog will not have any guarantees and could fail training, because their temperament isn't right for what has to be asked from them.
|