South Barrington couple promotes raising service dogs

My husband and I are raising a future assistance dog for Paws With a Cause out of Wayland, Michigan.

We brought home Indy, a black Labrador retriever puppy, on July 11 at 9 weeks of age. We will have him for the next 12 to 14 months, at which time he will go back to Paws With a Cause to begin his formal assistance dog training.

Once trained, he will be placed with a permanent client as an assistance dog for hearing loss, seizure response, service dog for children with autism, or a service dog to a disabled person.

Indy is the second puppy we have raised for Paws With a Cause. We turned Storm, the first foster puppy we raised, in on July 11 and then brought home Indy that same day.

Our duties as foster puppy raisers are to teach Indy basic obedience as well as exposing him to our world. Indy goes most everywhere we go and will for the time that he is a part of our family.

Paws With a Cause has field representatives local to the Chicago area, so they have several puppy raisers, such as ourselves, throughout the Chicago area. They also place assistance dogs in the Chicago area.

As far as we know, there are 15 to 20 future assistance dogs currently being raised in the Chicago area, and they are always looking for more volunteer puppy raisers.

If you would like to find out more about Paws With a Cause, visit www.pawswithacause.org.