Volunteer Puppy Raisers & Sitters Needed

Adelante is looking for puppy raisers for the agency’s Working Dogs program. This innovative program, in which people with disabilities have a part in training assistance dogs, helps people with disabilities learn animal-related vocational skills including training, grooming, and handling.

Volunteers are needed to watch the dogs during non-program hours, primarily nights and weekends. Full-time, part-time, and back-up puppy sitters are needed.

Full-time Puppy Raisers should be stay-at-home, work-at-home, or retired people. Part-time workers are okay. The dogs benefit from people who are able to interact with them and will not leave them in a backyard, crate, or kennel for more than two hours at a time. Full-time puppy raisers must make a commitment of 18 months at which time the dog will be moved to Santa Fe for advanced training and then be assigned permanently to a person with a disability to help them live more independently. Time off for vacation or illness is understandable and is covered by weekend or back-up puppy sitters. Volunteers must understand that as puppies, the dogs will not initially be trained. Adelante and Assistance Dogs of the West cannot assume responsibility for soiled carpets or chewed items. Also, volunteers must have the ability to deliver the dog from Adelante’s San Mateo facility between 7:30 am and 9:00 am and pick it up between 2:30 and 5:30 pm Monday through Thursday. Puppy raisers must also visit the program weekly for training on the dos and don’ts of handling an assistance dog. There is no programming on Friday. Volunteers with no other dogs are preferred, however one other well-behaved dog is acceptable.

Weekend puppy sitters keep a pup or a dog from Thursday night or Friday morning through Monday morning. This is a commitment of every weekend. If volunteers go on vacation, the dog may go to a back-up puppy sitter who would not be making an every weekend commitment, but would still need to be able to watch the dog for an entire weekend or on an Adelante holiday and return the dog to the program on Monday between 7:30 and 9 am.

For all puppy raiser and sitter volunteers, Adelante will conduct home visits and interviews prior to allowing a dog to stay with any volunteer.

If you are interested in volunteering the next step is to download and complete a volunteer application and either a puppy sitter or puppy raiser application. All are at the top righthand area of this page. Submit those to the program manager, Melissa Winkle.

For more information, contact:

Melissa Winkle, OT

5400 San Mateo NE
Albuquerque, NM 87109
505.837.9474