National Volunteer Week: Hosting a Leader Dog Mom

Our path to hosting a Leader Dog Mom was totally unexpected.  We raised Leader Dog Mom Brynn to be a Leader Dog and had no intention of hosting a mom or whelping puppies. A few weeks after Brynn returned to Leader Dog for training, we got a phone call telling us that she was pulled for breeding because they believed she had valuable traits that would be worth passing on to future puppies and, hopefully, future Leader Dogs.  We knew we would welcome Brynn back to our home if she was career changed, but hosting a Leader Dog Mom?  After soul searching, talking with the breeding team, and our breeding mentor Ann, we decided to pursue this path. We had plenty of questions and concerns about what this volunteer experience would entail.  We knew right away that we would only do the host model and would not whelp any puppies at our home. We thought we were going to take the easy route. How mistaken we were!   

Brynn’s first litter was whelped by our new friend Julie. We followed these puppies from a distance as Brynn and Julie did everything. Upon Erin’s retirement, we knew we wanted to whelp too. With everyone’s help, Brynn whelped her last three litters at our home, and we love it! Not everyone is lucky enough to watch a puppy go from being a small newborn to a confident puppy. We are lucky enough to be part of a great change in those puppies. When puppies leave, we feel satisfaction at a job well done, plus a lot of sadness.  These puppies will always have our love with whatever they do, wherever they go. 

As a whelp host, our responsibility is to help provide confident healthy puppies ready for new challenges to their raisers. We strive to expose these puppies to as many new experiences as possible.  We provide toys, play videos for them, and expose them to loud noises. We also expose them to different spots in our house, and we have friends and guests come over to play with the puppies. It is quite a production, keeping everything new and challenging.   

Brynn’s first litter had five puppies graduate, and they are now working Leader Dogs.  We know that all the work that goes into having a puppy being born in your home, the puppies being placed with a raiser, then working with a guide dog mobility instructor, and finally being matched with a client is worth all the work. The puppies from Brynn’s second litter will be starting their training as you read this. We will have just returned our fourth and final litter to Leader Dog ready for their raisers at the end of March.  

After this last litter is returned, we still plan to continue to whelp puppies as a whelp host. It is rewarding to work with puppies and provide them with a great start on their journey to being a Leader Dog. Something that we would never do is now something that we plan on continuing.

Written by Dan and Erin Gertiser, volunteer breeding hosts