Linda Herskowitz’s puppy Hubert is a spunky four-month-old lab/golden retriever mix who loves to play and cuddle at nighttime. And while other pups can rest easy, knowing that their future is filled with belly rubs, playing fetch and having their owners take care of them, Hubert is a little different.
As a puppy with Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), Hubert has a mission—to one day help take care of a child or adult with disabilities. Since 1975, CCI has been helping train and place highly trained assistance dogs with children and adults with disabilities. The nonprofit provides dogs to those in need for free, which opens the door for children and adults with disabilities to live a much more independent life as the dog can help with day to day activities such as pulling manual wheelchairs, pushing elevator buttons, opening doors and transferring money, receipts and packages.
But the work of CCI would be impossible without the help of puppy raisers like Herskowitz. The Hicksville resident recently took Hubert into her home and now has the tall task of teaching him 30 commands, including how to sit, roll over, stand up, jump, speak and drop things on command. Socialization is also a huge part of training, and soon, Hubert will accompany Herskowitz to places like the mall, grocery stores, church and more, to get him acclimated to different environments.
“It’s a lot of work, I can’t let him rule the roost,” said Herskowitz, who said that a lot of training was based on luring and rewarding. “He has to be able to walk up the stairs, use the elevator comfortably, go through TSA security.”
Hubert is the second dog Herskowitz is raising and she also adopted a dog from the organization in 2013. And while Herskowitz is now head over paws for CCI and her pups, she wasn’t always that way.
Herskowitz heard of CCI from a friend who was on the board, but remained opposed to the idea of getting actively involved. She and her husband had just put their 12-year-old dog down, and she felt unready to take another a puppy into her home.
But then, she and her husband attended a CCI graduation, an event she described as emotional and eye-opening.
“You feel happiness and joy, and that’s when I really understood what CCI does for people,” Herskowitz said. “I really wanted to be a part of giving someone something that couldn’t be given to them—their independence.”
And while her heart was moved to get involved, she was still hesitant to take on the full-time responsibility of raising a puppy. She and her husband took a tour of the CCI facility in Medford and began looking for ways to get involved. They learned more about release dogs—dogs that have been fully trained by puppy raisers but don’t pass the advanced training—and decided to adopt Norm, who she described as “sweet as the day is long.”
After a few months, she and her husband decided to become puppy raisers, a decision she’s never regretted.
“It’s a journey and a blessing you’ll never understand unless you do something like this,” she said. “They [CCI] teach you what to do and you raise the puppy to the best of your ability.”
When the dogs reach about 18 months old, they are returned to the CCI facility, where they then begin six months of advanced training with nationally renowned instructors before they are matched with a child or adult with disabilities. Only four out of 10 dogs pass the advanced training, the others—release dogs like Norm—are placed with families.
Herskowitz returns Herbert back to CCI in May of 2017. While it will be hard to let go of a dog that has been a part of her family for 18 months, Herskowitz said being a puppy raiser is an amazing experience.
“I want to do this until they put me in the grave,” Herskowitz said. “It’s very rewarding. It’s your way of giving somebody their independence. If they didn’t have puppy raisers, they wouldn’t have that independence.”
Find out more about Canine Companions for Independence and ways to get involved at www.cci.org.
