Abstract
Simple SummaryPuppy raisers (or foster families) are volunteers who care for assistance dog puppies until they are ready to learn how to help people with a disability. During this period, some puppies develop behaviours unsuitable for assistance roles and end up changing careers or being rehomed as pets, which is wasteful. Puppy raisers control the early experiences of their puppies, and they vary in their puppy-raising outcomes, but we do not know what specifically helps some puppy raisers produce puppies that are behaviourally suitable for an assistance role. In this study, we interviewed 17 people from seven countries who were either experienced puppy raisers or provider program staff, or both. Their responses suggested several individual factors (expectations, competency, perseverance and passion) and social factors (informational and emotional supports), in addition to the puppies’ characteristics, that influenced the experiences and perceived effectiveness of their puppy-raising practices. These factors are also evident in other well-established areas of research (e.g., education, volunteerism, social support, and organisational performance). We propose recommendations for assistance dog organisations based on those relevant frameworks, which focus on enhancing puppy raisers’ competency, positive experiences, and program retention.Assistance dog puppies live with their raisers for up to 16 months before entering advanced training and, hopefully, becoming qualified to help people with a disability. Almost half of the puppies fail to meet the behavioural standards required for assistance dogs, and some puppy raisers produce more behaviourally favourable puppies than others. It is unclear what factors influence puppy-raising practice quality. To understand this, we interviewed 17 participants, including experienced puppy raisers (n = 8), provider organisation staff (n = 4), and those who have served both as puppy raisers and staff (n = 5). Results of a thematic analysis suggest three groups of influencing factors, namely intrapersonal factors, social support, and puppy characteristics. Intrapersonal factors such as expectations, competency, perseverance and passion were reported to influence puppy raisers’ experiences, puppy-raising quality, and continuity of service. Contextual factors such as availability of social support (informational and emotional supports) and less-demanding puppies both led to positive puppy-raising experiences, while the former also contributed to puppy raisers’ perceptions of competency. Future research should quantitatively examine the interrelationships of these factors concerning puppies’ behavioural development. Meanwhile, organisations could consider these factors when developing their recruitment and puppy-raiser support programs.
Highlights
There has recently been an increase in demand for assistance dogs; dogs specially trained to help individuals with a disability such as visual, hearing, mobility impairment, autism spectrum disorder, and or post-traumatic stress disorder [1,2]
Regarding supervision in the context of assistance dog puppy raising, the current findings suggest that this activity generally involves routine visits from responsible personnel to meet directly with the puppy raisers regarding their puppy-raising practices
Previous research has suggested that experienced puppy raisers are more successful in puppy raising [6], but has yet to explain why
Summary
There has recently been an increase in demand for assistance dogs; dogs specially trained to help individuals with a disability such as visual, hearing, mobility impairment, autism spectrum disorder, and or post-traumatic stress disorder [1,2]. Very little information is available about graduation rates for assistance dog puppies in general, it has been reported that approximately half of all guide dog puppies fail to qualify and work in their intended role [1,9,10]. This high failure rate is unacceptable for various reasons, such as economic inefficiency and welfare of the dogs after being disqualified and rehomed [11]. That one primary reason for failure is dogs having behaviours unsuitable in public places, defined broadly as behaviours associated with aggressiveness, distractedness, stress and fearfulness [12,13]
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