Eva’s First Litter Has Arrived!

Do you remember SSD Eva, the dog who joined Susquehanna Service Dogs from Guide Dogs Queensland in Australia? She just had her first litter of puppies! Meet the F Litter: Forte, Freya, Fitz, Frankie, and Finnick! These five puppies were born on Saturday, February 21, and they’re growing quickly.

You can watch them on the puppy cam.

The F puppies have a big future ahead of them. Eva and her puppies are part of the Assistance Dogs International’s North America Breeding Cooperative (ABC). ABC is a group of service dog organizations throughout North America that are dedicated to producing quality service dogs. The co-op helps strengthen the genetic lines of our service dogs so the dogs we raise and train are the ones who are best suited to service dog work.

Half of Eva’s puppies will be raised here at SSD and the others will go to other ABC members to start their service dog journey.

When Eva first joined us a little over a year ago, some of you donated $3,455 to support Eva and her future service dogs. Thank you to everyone who contributed!

Would you like to continue to support Forte, Freya, Fitz, Frankie, and Finnick as they grow into service dogs? You can make a donation online.

We’re looking forward to watching these five puppies grow into service dogs and change  lives! 

Thank You for Helping Us Raise $3,455 for Eva!

Thank you for helping us raise money to support our new dog Eva! Sixty days ago, we set out to raise $3,300 to support Eva and her future puppies. With your help, we blew past our goal! We raised a total of $3,455.

Thank you to everyone who contributed and helped spread the word!

Eva Settles in to Life in Pennsylvania

SSD Eva has been living in her new home with her new family in State College for a little over a week, after spending time with other puppy sitters. She will be staying with them for a while, and then she’ll move into her whelping home closer to Harrisburg.

Eva is definitely settling in well. She has excellent manners and house behavior. At first, she was a little hesitant, but now she’s getting used to her sitters. She’s still quite a “velcro” dog, but after a week of adjusting to the apartment, she has stopped waking up to follow her sitters whenever they leave the room. She loves to cuddle and will curl up at her sitters’ feet or anywhere close to them. 

During her first few days, she thought she was supposed to sleep in bed with her sitters. Now, however, she knows the bedtime drill. They have a crate for her with a soft bed made out of a sheet stuffed with old clothes. Eva is very comfortable in her new bed—and she’s as reliable as an alarm clock in the morning. She wakes up her sitters every morning at 7 a.m. with a funny whine-grunt noise.

Living in an apartment usually involves some adjustment for dogs. They need to get used to hearing the other occupants of the building. Right now, Eva barks at the dogs she sees out the window. She also barks when she hears the neighbors through the walls. Her puppy sitters are working with her on it.

Monday through Friday, Eva’s puppy sitter Daisy takes her to work on campus. Eva is great at sleeping in her crate or under the desk. She seems to like the snow, but she doesn’t go crazy in it.

Eva came from Guide Dogs of Queensland, and she was fully trained as a guide dog. Service dog training is different than guide dog training, so Eva has some new things to learn. When she was walking with Daisy, she would scan ahead for obstacles, just like a guide dog is supposed to do. As a service dog, however, we want her to be checking in with her handler every so often. She’s learning quickly that she should watch the person with the treats. She and Daisy can usually walk all the way across the Penn State campus with the leash nice and loose.

They’ve also been practicing walking up and down the stairs. Entering, exiting, and riding in an elevator is an important skill, too, so they’ve also been practicing that.

Her sitters are getting her acquainted with clicker training and the cues that SSD uses. So far, she’s learning “go to bed,” “stand,” and “leave it.” She’s almost ready to put these behaviors on cue. 

Want to support SSD Eva? We're over halfway to meeting our goal to raise $3,300 for Eva. There are 21 days left. Will you help? 

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!