We are always looking for breeders whose priorities are the health, temperament, working ability, and longevity of their dogs. The job of a service dog is a very difficult one and it takes a remarkable dog to do it. A service dog needs to be:
- impeccably friendly, yet able to ignore people when working
- calm enough to wait quietly with their partner for long periods, yet willing to go to work in an instant when needed
- confident in new situations, yet responsive to someone who may have little or no physical control over them
- an able and willing retriever
We believe that dogs who come from long lines of confident, yet calm and focused, working dogs, and who receive critical handling and social and environmental stimulation in their first weeks of life, have the best chance of becoming service dogs.
We use primarily Labrador retrievers and golden retrievers. Like most service dog organizations, we have found that Labs and goldens are in general the right size, interested in putting things in their mouths, gregarious, and easy to motivate and train. Although many other breeds can become service dogs, Hero Dogs does not use dogs with coats which require extensive or professional grooming (for example, poodles or poodle mixes), dogs with extremely heavy or thick coats (like a Samoyed or Akita), or brachycephalic (i.e., short face) dogs (such as a boxer).
The qualities we desire in the sire and dam are:
- At least three generations of:
- orthopedic clearances (OFA or PennHip) on hips and elbows
- CERF and cardiac clearances
- other breed-specific clearances (such as EIC and CNM in retrievers)
- never met a person they didn’t like
- appropriately sociable to other dogs
- not afraid of virtually anything
- able to be touched and handled everywhere, even by a stranger
- happy to put things in their mouth and equally happy to give them up
- eager to work with a human
- working titles
The qualities we seek in the puppies are:
- whelped and raised in the house
- daily handling from birth
- exposed to and handled by many people of all ages (including children), shapes, sizes, and colors
- exposed to a large variety of sounds (both “indoor” and “outdoor” noises) from three weeks onward
- provided with environment stimulation in the form of different types and textures of objects to play with, walk on, and climb on or in
- exposed to numerous environments, including a crate, riding in the car, and a wide variety of indoor and outdoor locations
- introduced to grooming rituals
- allowed to copy adult dogs in learning appropriate toilet habits
- natural ears and tail (this makes public access for our clients much less difficult)
- highly sociable and confident around new things
- approximately 8-10 weeks old
- ideally, within about 200 miles of Washington D.C.
We realize that breeders who are conscious of all of these things love their breed. We understand your commitment to your puppies and their futures, and we are cognizant of how much we are asking in requesting a donation of a puppy from one of your litters.
It’s hard to express what a service dog means to their partner, and what your contribution to that person’s life would be. You have raised dogs for many years and you know the special bond you achieve with a working dog partner. Imagine if that dog was your lifeline as well as your companion! Your gift of a puppy could make that happen for one of our heroes. And, of course, your kennel would be acknowledged on our website and at the dog’s graduation.
If you could donate a well-bred and well-raised puppy to our program, now or in the future, please contact us at puppyprogram@hero-dogs.org. We would love the opportunity to tell you more about our program and goals, and about the life your puppy would lead. Thank you for considering us.
If you are not currently able to donate a puppy but feel you have dogs who meets the qualifications above, please send us an e-mail; we may have the resources to purchase a limited number of puppies.
