Congratulations to the Smith family, the September Volunteers of the Month! Thank you for helping #DogsChangeLives! Read their story below about their volunteer experience.
Guest
post by Julie Smith, puppy raiser for Susquehanna Service Dogs
Sometimes small decisions have a significant, lasting impact.
When our American Heritage Girl’s unit decided to complete the Pet Care Badge
in 2015, I had no idea how it would affect my daughter’s life and the rest of
my family, too.
As part of the Pet Care Badge, a demonstration dog came to our
troop meeting and showed us some of the ways a service dog helps people in
their daily lives. Since my daughter Hannah loves animals and loves helping
people, she immediately started asking if we could become puppy raisers. At 10
years old, we thought she was too young to take on the huge responsibility. However,
she never gave up asking and finally we relented when she was 13 years old and
was ready to take on the challenge.
In March 2019, SSD Paisley entered our lives as a bundle of joy and energy. Hannah was true to her word and managed to balance the responsibility of puppy raising and school work. We learned a lot from our training classes and were amazed at the amount of work that goes into training a service dog, but the community of volunteers and staff totally supported us along the way.
While working with SSD Paisley, Hannah discovered her passion.
She loves training dogs and loves how much people’s lives can be changed by a
service dog. She seeks out additional ways to volunteer whether it is
representing SSD at fundraising events or helping out with a Puppy Hugging
event. She helped her brother complete his Eagle Scout project by building
playground equipment for the dogs in SSD’s fields. She is even exploring the
possibility of a college degree related to companion animal science.
Like many of the volunteers, we couldn’t stop with just one. In
February 2020, SSD Zuzu came to live with us. Having two service dogs along
with our pet dog during the COVID-19 quarantine was definitely a mixed
blessing, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. For us, the hardest part is
saying goodbye. We were excited for SSD Paisley and sad for us when she left us
to begin training as an explosive detection K9. We know she will love it and
will help keep our country safe.
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