Red Maple Dog Care & Paws Forward Training is home to puppies who are being raised to do a big job.
“We raise and train puppies to be service dogs” said head trainer Sarah McMurdo. We get the pups at different ages, at eight weeks or a bit older and teach them the basic skills to be a working service dog said McMurdo.
3 month old Yellow Lab. Mylo is in service dog training.
When the dog is ready to go to their forever family, McMurdo and team still see them for check ups every couple of months to advance training and refresh what they already know.
National Service Dogs (NSD) out of Cambridge Ontario also trains, as well as breeds service dogs. Their wait list has currently been closed and for the people on it they can expect to wait four years for a dog. Where the two differentiate is that NSD breeds and trains the puppies but Paws Forward takes in an already purchased pup for training. With a non-for profit organization wait times are a lot longer than going to somewhere like Paws Forward.
Working with dogs all day, and seeing them progress and grow, is really cool to see. “Getting texts and calls from clients telling me how great something went or how well they are bonding with the dog, feels great to hear,” says McMurdo.
Well it’s hard to train a puppy at the beginning they say it’s totally worth it. “The basics like sitting, lying down, peeing in the house, crate training…those are all hard at first.”
4 month old female Golden Retriever. Sadie is a Service Dog in training.
Just like Mylo and Sadie, Yellow Labs and Golden Retrievers are the most popular service dog because of their personality and because of how hard they are willing to work. McMurdo adds “they are very food driven, and they will work for you without having to be told.”
So if you see Mylo or Sadie or any of the other Paws Forward training pups around the London area, know they are being trained to do a very important job.
