Group desperate for volunteers willing to foster service dogs

MONCTON, N.B. – People who train service dogs in the Maritimes are in desperate need of more volunteers to act as the dogs’ foster parents.

Without those volunteers, people might not get a service dog they really need.

Rhonda Langille is president of Therapeutic Medical Alert Service Dogs, which trains service dogs in the Maritimes.

“We are in the process of looking for approximately 30 puppy raisers,” she said.

Langille says foster parents are needed primarily in New Brunswick. But the adult service dogs will be placed in homes all over the Maritimes.

Chloe Gautreau and Anne Caron are both fostering their puppies for the first time.

“We will raise her as our own and give her as much love as possible and then she will go on to help somebody,” Caron said.

Both puppies are less than six months old, so they’re not quite ready to take on intensive service dog training yet. The puppy gets all of the formal training when they’re about a year old.

But they need foster parents to raise the puppies until they are ready for more intense training.

“We work with them as a team to teach the puppies puppy socialization skills to learn about life to learn about basic obedience,” Langille said.

Mike Parker has Cerebral Palsy and got his service dog, Bubba, four months ago.

“Unless people foster them, people like me will never get a dog,” he said.

Parker says his four-legged companion has given him back his independence.

Anyone interested in becoming a foster parent to a puppy can contact Therapeutic Medical Alert Service Dogs through their Facebook site.