Returning a Puppy for Dog Guide Training: Factors That Affect Grief in Puppy Raisers and the Decision to Foster Again

Abstract

Introduction:

Guiding Eyes for the Blind (GEB) breeds, raises, and trains dogs to serve as guides for people with visual impairments (i.e., those who are blind or have low vision). Their puppy raising program enlists volunteers to foster puppies for a year or more, providing socialization, basic skills training, and comfort, so they will grow into confident dogs. The volunteers must ultimately return these dogs to Yorktown Heights, New York, to begin training. For raisers, the emotional toll of this parting can be great.

Methods:

Utilizing the 2017 GEB Puppy Raiser Survey data, this study analyzed factors that might affect emotional grief and the decision to continue to raise puppies. Cross-tabulation and ordinal regression analyses examined the associations of puppy raiser demographics (i.e., gender, age, marital status, and employment), organizational integration (i.e., number of dogs raised for GEB, perceptions on how well GEB supports raisers in returning a dog, belief that they are part of the GEB community, and formation of friendships), and goal attainment (perceptions on how well GEB communicated progress in training, whether they raised a dog accepted for guide training, and whether they attended a graduation ceremony) with self-reported emotional difficulty, recovery time, and likelihood of raising another puppy.

Results:

Although the demographics of the raiser had minimal effect on emotional difficulty, recovery time, and likelihood of raising again, factors that measured organization integration and goal attainment were associated with grief and continued participation.

Discussion:

Raiser demographics are not strong predictors of grief and continued raising; however, a welcoming organization that communicates effectively will inspire volunteers’ commitment.

Implications:

With a growing need for assistance dogs and puppy raisers, identifying and addressing the challenges that these volunteers face is critical if skilled and dedicated raisers are to be recruited and retained.