Paws for Purple Hearts: A Service Dog’s Journey From Puppyhood to Placement

Drew is ready to go! photo: Paws for Purple Hearts PFPH

“Congratulations to the graduates! We look forward to watching your lifelong partnership continue to grow!” As the final speeches ring, applause accompanies the graduating service dogs and their veterans, ready for their new lives together.

This moment is the culmination of years of training and hard work. The graduating service dog is ready to change their veteran’s life through companionship and assistance. But what does it take for a puppy to become a service dog?

To prepare service dogs for careers helping vets, Paws for Purple Hearts begins training puppies from a young age. The pups are able to grow throughout the program, gaining more commands and assistance skills as they progress. Service dogs generally train between two and three years before they are fully prepared for their important life’s work.

At just four weeks, pups-in-training are already on the road to becoming service dogs. photo: PFPH

Paws for Purple Hearts puppies are born at the organization’s headquarters in Penngrove, California.  At just four weeks, pups-in-training are already on the road to becoming service dogs. They begin to learn verbal lures that will grow into commands, are exposed to distractions, and begin attending field trips in puppy slings to accustom them to changing environments. By starting exposure at a young age, service dogs-in-training grow up comfortable in many different situations with different people, noises, and smells. This is important as they must be able to remain focused on the task at hand while working.

By 12 weeks, the pups are settling into their final training sites, where they will spend the next few years mastering commands. At this age, they are just starting basic training and working on loose leash walking. These early stages in puppy training are vital as they learn core skills that will be used daily in their careers as service dogs.

In addition to daily training, experience in a typical home is important to prepare service dogs for life outside of their training facility. This is where Puppy Parents come in. Puppy Parents are volunteers who take dogs-in-training between four months and two years of age and keep them on the evenings and weekends to give them the experience of a typical home. By living in a home, future service dogs are better able to prepare for their ultimate life with their warrior. Puppy Parents take their dogs-in-training on errands and help them learn about typical home routines outside the training room. These dedicated volunteers are an essential part of the training process, helping future service dogs prepare for life beyond graduation.

In addition to CAWT®, four-month-old puppies continue to go on field trips to a variety of environments. photo: PFPH

By four months of age, dogs-in-training are already helping veterans by attending Canine-Assisted Warrior Therapy® sessions. Canine-Assisted Warrior Therapy® (CAWT®) sessions are Paws for Purple Hearts’ one-of-a-kind therapy sessions where veterans help to train and take care of dogs-in-training. This allows participants to develop a deep therapeutic bond and creates a positive experience for both the veterans and dogs. CAWT® is crucial for teaching dogs-in-training to work with different people, while also helping alleviate veterans’ symptoms from trauma-related conditions, like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Traumatic Brain Injury. Through CAWT® sessions, each dog helps roughly 40 to 60 veterans and active-duty service members even before graduating. 

In addition to CAWT®, four-month-old puppies continue to go on field trips to a variety of environments and have already typically mastered between 20 and 30 commands. Continued exposure while dogs-in-training progress through the program is important as it prepares them for any situation on graduation. Consistency in both training and exposure are vital to their development as they grow. 

At six months, the puppies are mastering more commands, working on commands in public and at home, and continuing their exposure field trips. Working on commands in public is important so that dogs learn commands by verbal cues rather than by the situation they are in. This allows them to remember the correct command word in any environment. 

By 12 months, the young service dogs-in-training know roughly 70 commands and continue to advance. It’s about this time that the dogs also begin their ADI (Assistance Dog International) Public Access Testing. Passing the ADI test allows service dogs to go anywhere humans are allowed to go. 

Finally, at about two to three years of age, the dogs are fully prepared. They are ready to graduate, having mastered over 100 commands, while helping scores of veterans along the way. They’ve also left a lasting imprint on the hearts of many volunteers and staff members. 

As the graduation cheers fade, these intelligent, well-trained dogs are officially ready to begin life with their veteran partners, helping them navigate their futures every step of the way.