The Story of the "A" Litter Puppies

Guest post by Susan Tyson, SSD volunteer

We all know it takes a village to raise a child, but in the past few months SSD has elevated that sentiment. PADS Abby and her ‘A’ litter demonstrate that perhaps it’s more like a small town or city to birth and raise seven service dog pups.

It all started with the new Assistance Dogs International (ADI) program, known as the North America Breeding Cooperative (ABC) program, where assistance dog programs share their breeding stock to help everyone diversify their genetic pool and the type of dog each program needs. Nancy Fierer was on the original committee that worked hard to figure out the many angles of the program. Included in this is Marina Phillips, in California, of the Phillips Next Generation consulting firm. She knew that Pacific Assistance Dog Society (PADS) in Vancouver, Canada (see, it has gone international!), had a lovely breeding dog named PADS Abby. She has had two litters and is housed by Cory Patterson when not on maternity leave. She came to SSD to whelp, via US Airways and Amanda and Becky [SSD’s Training Coordinator and Puppy Coordinator] in October.   Abby went to stay with Crystal Garman and her daughter Alicia and there whelped her pups at her home in early November with the aid of the SSD whelping team of Diane Bohenick, and the SSD staff of Amanda, Becky and Ryan.

Then when the puppies were two weeks old, Abby and her seven pups moved homes to Bill & Susan Tyson where they spent the next eight weeks.  They were hugged and handled by many folks interested in helping them on their road to being service dogs. One hundred people of all ages from 18 months to 85 years hugged the puppies!  They came from the Philadelphia area, Washington DC, Spain, California, and all of central PA. Thanks to Peter and Betsy Smith for all the newspapers all flattened and rolled up; Sandy Smith for the delicious dog treats; Jane Seymour for the many paper towels; Mary Duval and Ciara for all the doggie massages and clean-ups; and  the gang that handled the pups at their first vet visit at the Palmyra Animal Clinic: Jane Jackson, Ciara Capilletti, Steve Doyle, Kate O’Farrell, and Sharon Kemble.

A few days before Christmas, three of the pups became lethargic and sick, necessitating a quick trip to the closest emergency animal clinic (remember just like kids, puppies don’t get sick Monday through Friday during regular working hours!) The staff at Willow Mill Veterinary Hospital gave superb care to the three pups, who, being babies, made a quick recovery in a couple of days.

Thanks to Dr. Nancy Dreschel of the Animal Science Department at Penn State; Katie Grube, a junior, spent a week at the Tyson home helping with the litter, which was especially wonderful since the pups all developed an intestinal bug and there were days with some late nights of worrying. A recent Penn State Animal Science graduate, Lauren Applegate, also came and spent the day caring for the pups that did not go to the vet. When the pups were all feeling well again, Katie and Lauren helped with early clicker training and a trip in public to Wal-Mart and Wendy’s.

All the SSD pups made a visit to the veterinary ophthalmologist at the Veterinary Referral Center in Malvern PA when they were seven weeks old where they examined by Dr. Brady Beal and her staff. The day long trip needed helpers—imagine taking seven pups, plus SSD Olympia, to the vet! Assisting Becky were Nelda Wachtman, Carol Nesbitt, and Susan Tyson.

The ‘A’ litter pups are now in puppy raiser homes. One pup is being raised by Service Dogs of Virginia. Thanks to Carol Nesbitt for transporting the puppy. Two puppies are being raised in Massachusetts by a program called NEADS.

One more item of business before the story ends: the mother, PADS Abby, will be transported back to Vancouver, Canada via the generosity of a US Airways employee, through US Airway’s program called Puppies in Flight.

Assistance Dogs International North American Trainer’s Conference, October 7-9

Post by Nancy Fierer, SSD’s director

The Assistance Dogs International North American Trainer’s Conference, hosted by Pacific Assistance Dogs Society (PADS) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was wonderful. It was full of diverse material with something interesting for everyone. PADS arranged for the conference to be held at the Rosemary Heights Retreat Center just outside Vancouver. We had wonderfully comfortable beds, great food, and beautiful grounds for walking.

Many attendees arrived on Sunday evening (Oct. 6) to settle in, and there was a dinner and later a wine and cheese reception. It was great to see old friends and greet new ones. In addition to me, there were three other people representing SSD at the conference: Amanda, our training coordinator; Becky, our puppy coordinator; and Susan, our volunteer extraordinaire. SSD Julia, one of our yellow lab breeding females, also came along.

On Monday morning, we had a great session about courthouse dogs. Celeste Walsen Ellen O’Neill-Stephens, and CCI Molly B gave a wonderful presentation about what they do, how it works, and some of the wonderful successes they have had. Kim Gramlich with PADS Caber from the Delta Police Department spoke about the use of a specially trained dog in police-based victim services. The dog provides emotional support and aid during crisis intervention and response. The dog is a very effective tool, often giving “permission” for emotions that are under the surface, which allows the healing process to begin. This was a different type of facility placement from an ADI program than I had seen before. I found this session to be very informative and professional.

The women from the Courthouse Dog Foundation stress how careful and thorough the training and placement must be for courthouse dogs because these dogs are now part of making case law to smooth the way for future courthouse dogs. There are now fifty of these facility courthouse dogs working in twenty-one states. The third part of this session concerned the placement of facility dogs by PADS in a child protection center. Here again, professionalism was stressed. Margaret Hicks, PADS training manager did another great job with this final presentation.

After lunch, Susquehanna Service Dogs “Make the Right Match,” a presentation about matching people with dogs. Rebecca Lamb, our puppy coordinator, began by discussing the extensive process each potential puppy raiser must go through before we match the puppy with the raiser family. I gave a brief overview of the application process for people who are applying for service dogs, targeting the areas where we gather information for the future match, as well as information to measure how well the service dog team is doing six months after placement. Amanda Nicholson, our training coordinator, talked about the process of matching a person with a service dog. She discussed the questions we ask each person before they meet the dogs, which are used in outcome measurements and to create a list of behaviors and tasks needed to mitigate the person’s disability. She listed all of the things we consider before matching a person with a dog, including some of the common pitfalls. We also consider the dog’s choice as well. There were many questions for us, since the information was new for some people.

Next we had breakout sessions in three areas—Diabetic Dogs Panel, Starting a Courthouse Program, and a Breeding Program Managers session. I attended Starting a Courthouse Program, since we recently placed our first courthouse dog (SSD Buster). This session was very informative, and people made specific and systematic suggestions.

The evening was another fun time. Everyone shared funny and embarrassing moments involving service dogs in their lives. Marina Hall Phillips won the prize for the funniest, and I still laugh thinking about it.

Tuesday, October 8 was a day full of serious breeding discussions. In the morning sessions, Marina Hall Phillips discussed the ins and outs of managing a productive and sustainable working dog breeding colony. She stress the importance of knowing your production value and the significance of data integrity and phenotype, as well as what tests we need and why.

In February, SSD had hired Marina to visit our program for three days to help evaluate our needs. Much of the information in this session were things we learned from her visit and the follow-up report we received. The session was a comprehensive overview and a great reminder for us to help keep us on track. This was an awesome presentation!

That afternoon, Marina moderated a panel discussion with presenters from PADS, SSD, Indiana Canine Assistant Network (ICAN), and British Columbia Guide Dogs. The audience had lots of questions.

The final session of the day concerned the Assistance Dogs International North America Breeding Cooperative (ABC), and again, there were many questions. ABC was recently created, and we are a host member. (Read more about ABC.)

In the evening, the potential males from PADS were assessed. We discussed the issue of looking at the dog as an individual vs. the big picture. How much weight is given to the individual and what other important considerations need to be taken based on the dog’s pedigree? We also discussed the importance of weighing the dog’s faults and merits and not letting “perfect” be the enemy of “good.” Finally, we looked at pre-breeding management of broods and studs. It was a long but interesting exercise.

Wednesday, October 9 brought a slide and video presentation by Joey Iverson about Behavioral Adjustment Training (BAT). The presentation showed the systematic approach to using BAT to rehabilitate dog reactivity by examining why the dog is reactive and helping the dog meet their needs in other ways. BAT is a dog-friendly application of functional analysis that gives the dogs a chance to learn to control their own comfort level through peaceful means. I really enjoyed this presentation made it clearer to me how SSD can improve the way we use BAT. I find BAT helpful for reactivity for puppies and young dogs, but not necessarily for addressing aggressive behavior.

In the afternoon, we listened to a presentation by PADS puppy raising supervisor Heather Kidd on Footfall Techniques. She came up with the idea after working with her horses. She feels that if you teach the pup efficient footwork as puppies, then they will be able to become more confident as adults. They are able to move more efficiently and also be more confident that their feet will move them where they need to go in times of stress. Heather demonstrated that confidence in a wonderful video of a PADS dog and a ramp. I think the footfall techniques are something that SSD will start teaching. It’s easy, fun, and may be very helpful in the future.

We then had a hands-on workshop with BAT and footfall techniques, which was  nice for the last day.

Most of the attendees returned home on October 10, but we decided to take advantage of the visit to PADS and the trip to Whistler BC. It was a beautiful day, with wonderful scenery, great company, and a reminder of how proud Canadians are of their wonderful country! 

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!