Welcome SSD GDQ Eva from Australia!

Give a warm welcome to Eva! Eva just arrived from Guide Dogs Queensland in Australia, and she’s going to be making her home with Susquehanna Service Dogs. She flew across an ocean and a continent to get here, accompanied by GDQ’s CEO, Chris Laine.

Eva is a sweet 14-month-old black lab, who has been fully trained as a guide dog. Because of her particular traits and genetics, she was chosen to become a breeding dog. Eva will be having several litters of puppies who will become service dogs.

Will you support Eva and her future puppies? From now until January 6, 2014, we’re holding an online fundraiser, and our goal is to raise $3,300 in support of Eva. Your donation will make it possible for Eva and her puppies to change people’s lives.

We’re very excited to have Eva! She’s a special dog, and not only because she had to travel so far to get here. Eva is part of the Assistance Dogs International North America Breeding Cooperative (ABC), which we are a part of. ABC is a group of service dog organizations throughout North America who are dedicated to developing high quality service dogs. Each of us assign our best broods (females) and studs (males) to the co-op. When we whelp a litter, half of the puppies stay with us and the other half will be distributed among the other members.

What does ABC mean for SSD?  It means that we will always have a supply of puppies, which in turn means that we will have dogs to train as service dogs who will ultimately change people’s lives. Even more importantly, the quality of these dogs will be higher because ABC helps strengthen genetic lines and create dogs who are best suited to service dog work.

That’s where Eva comes in. Guide Dogs Queensland has spent many years developing their genetic lines. Now that Eva has joined SSD, she will help us produce dogs who are even better service dogs.

Please support SSD and Eva by donating online. Your donation will help change lives.

Thank you for your support!

SSD Welcomes SSD ABC Lexington from the North American Breeding Cooperative

Meet SSD Lexington! Lexi is from KSDS, Inc. Assistance Dogs in Kansas. Our wonderful volunteer Robin drove down to Kansas to pick her up. Thank you, Robin!

Lexi is a black female Labrador Retriever, and her story is a little bit different than the other puppies we’ve received from other service dog organizations. Her story is different because she’s part of the new Assistance Dogs International North America Breeding Cooperative (ABC).

We’re very excited to be part of ABC. It’s a dream come true! ABC will allow us and the other member organizations to improve the quality of our service dogs, strengthen and diversify the genetic lines, and create a reliable supply of puppies that are suitable for assistance dog work.

ABC is a vision of Bob and Marina Phillips, and the Assistance Dogs International North America Region Board recently approved it. (You may remember that back in February, we invited breeding consultant Marina Hall Phillips to evaluate our program so we can make improvements.) Smaller ADI members are going to really benefit from this co-op arrangement. It means that we’ll always have puppies. This is important because despite the many litters we’ve had recently, there have been times when we have had very few puppies in our program—which mean that we were placing fewer service dogs at that time. A steady supply of puppies means that we won’t need to worry about whether we’ll have enough service dogs to meet people’s needs.

So what is ABC exactly? It’s a cooperative breeding program based on the concept of group breeding. Members assign their best broods and studs to the co-op. A certain number of the puppies will stay with the organization that whelps the litter, and the other puppies will be distributed to the other members of the co-op. This group breeding method vastly improves the dogs’ genetics, which ultimately means that our service dogs will be of even higher quality.

As you know, we just received SSD Lexi through ABC. We have also entered SSD Opal into ABC for her next litter, which is due at the end of October. She’s expecting 3-5 puppies. Approximately 50% of her litter will stay with us and the rest will be distributed to ABC members. SSD Meade is the stud we have chosen to enter the program.

We are a Host Member of ABC, which means that we will be hosting one or more breeding dogs that have been assigned to ABC. Right now, we are hosting Abby from Pacific Assistance Dogs Society. Abby was bred to PADS Buffet (who is also the father of our own Ice Cream Litter), and she will give birth at the home of one of our breeder caretakers. Some of her puppies will then stay with us. Abby recently flew from to Pennsylvania with our training coordinator, Amanda, and our puppy coordinator, Becky. She was an amazing traveler! She fit under Becky’s seat on both planes and mastered trains, shuttles, buses, vans, and lots of walking. After her puppies are eight weeks old, she will return home to PADS and her caretaker, who already misses her. 

We’re very excited about the breeding cooperative and how it will improve the quality of service dogs in our program!