Two new litters of puppies, 13 in total, have recently joined the ranks of Hearts of Gold service dogs and will soon be in need of community fosters to give them a home for their first year of life and training.
The puppies will be a part of the long track record Hearts of Gold has with placing service dogs with veterans who have mobility or psychiatric issues. Established in 2006, the project is a joint effort between West Virginia University and the nonprofit Human-Animal Bond.
The program relies on community fosters to house and care for the dogs until they are ready to begin more intense training.
Dr. Jean Meade, Human-Animal Bond executive director, said the group has tried a lot of different models when it came to finding dogs for the program.
Initially, they thought it would be a win-win to take dogs from the shelters to give them a good home and new start and be able to place them with someone in need.
Unfortunately, Meade said the success rate was very low and with shelter dogs, it’s nearly impossible to know their past and what their health is going to be or has been.
“These dogs go into training for two years,” she said. “It’s expensive to house and train them and with minimal success, it just wasn’t an efficient way to go. It’s also heartbreaking for someone to get attached to a dog thinking that they are going to go on and do service work and it not work out.
“Over time we realized with the amount of effort and the expense that it takes to train one of these dogs – we wanted our highest chance for success and our best chance for success and that’s just to breed your own,” Meade said.
The new puppies are still only a few weeks old but will soon need fosters in the community to help get them started on their journey.
“We like people on the front end to commit for a year,” Dr. Meade said. “That doesn’t mean that if things don’t go well for them, we won’t happily take the puppies back.
“We provide all expenses,” she said. “So, all medical care, all vaccines, their crates, their leashes, their food – everything they need for the entire year. So there is no financial obligation – it’s a time obligation.”
They are also looking for part-time community fosters who can take them for weekends or during vacations to give some respite to the full-time community fosters.
The first year of training for the dogs is focused on socialization and good citizenship – “we just want them to be comfortable in their own skin and behave themselves both at home and in public,” Meade said.
Fosters will need to make sure the puppy attends puppy-training classes once a week for the first four to six months and are asked to socialize them as often and broadly as possible.
“We want them around all ages of people, all ethnicities, male, female, whatever – and out in social settings,” Meade explained.
Fosters will receive training before receiving the puppy and Hearts of Gold will do a home safety evaluation to ensure there are no loose wires or other items that are potentially dangerous or not puppy-proof. A foundational year coach will also be available to provide support and guidance to community fosters throughout the year.
“Safety is first in everything that we do with these puppies,” Meade said.
Additional pets in the house is also not a problem as long as they are up-to-date with vet records and vaccines and are compatible with the puppy.
“As a matter of fact, we kind of like that because we want the dogs socialized to other animals,” Meade said.
After the first year, the pups will go into professional training at either the WVU Hearts of Gold training facility at the WVU farm on Stewartstown Road or at the Federal Corrections Institution (FCI) Morgantown on Green Bag Road, which is a minimum-security prison.
Earlier this week, West Virginia football player Garrett Greene and Country Roads Trust stopped by the Hearts of Gold facility for a little play time with eight of the pups and to help spread the word about their need for community fosters.
The English Labrador Retrievers, two black and six yellow, were having a great time climbing on and playing with Greene.
The mother of the puppies was purchased from breeder Fairfax Pines in Bruceton Mills, where the male stud is from as well.
Another litter was born about two weeks ago to a chocolate lab and black lab but weren’t old enough to come out for the play date with Greene.
Meade said in total Hearts of Gold has six breeding dogs in the program, so future opportunities to foster will likely be available.
For more information on the Hearts of Gold program and the work it does, visit humanimalbond.org/heartsofgold.
Through a partnership with MVB Bank, Country Roads Trust student-athletes have teamed up with various local charitable organizations to make a positive impact in West Virginia. The Trust and its athletes are looking forward to expanding community efforts in 2024 and are looking for new organizations throughout the state to partner with. If you are interested in having athletes participate in your next community event, visit countryroadstrust.com/in-the-community.
Anyone interested in learning more about the Community Foster Program and how to apply to become a foster, can email Margaret Kitt with Human-Animal Bond at mkitt@humanimalbond.org.
“We realize how difficult it is to take a puppy into your home, love it and have to give it up,” Meade said, “but hearing the stories of the veterans that receive these dogs, it’s well worth it. These puppies truly do save lives.”
