Donate a Puppy

CHAMP assistance dog candidates come to us through many avenues, including breeders, shelter/rescue groups, and pet homes. We prefer to start the training process with 8-week old puppies, however, we will occasionally evaluate older puppies and dogs on a space-available basis.

A working assistance dog is a very special animal. It must be intelligent, friendly, and compliant, more interested in humans than in other animals, and enjoy learning new skills and performing the tasks which its partner needs. It must also be comfortable around the unique sights, sounds, and people it might encounter in a wide variety of public settings.

For these reasons, all puppies entering our program must first pass a temperament evaluation. During the evaluation, our experienced trainers observe how the puppy responds to different people and different gentle environmental stimuli. Our goal is to select those puppies that have the greatest chance of successfully completing the service dog training program.

Puppies that pass the initial temperament evaluation must next pass a series of health screenings, including orthopedic and vision. We prefer puppies whose parents have hip, eye, and elbow clearances.

If you have a puppy you feel may enjoy a service dog career, please read the following:

Ideal candidates should be:

between 7 weeks old and 1 year old
of a ‘typical’ service dog breed, or cross (Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, crosses)
of excellent general health (health clearances for both parents strongly preferred)
more interested in humans than in other dogs
friendly and non-aggressive towards people
friendly and non-aggressive towards other dogs, cats, and other animals
confident and non-reactive
housebroken, if older
quiet

Note - We prefer to start the training process with young puppies, however, we will occasionally evaluate older puppies if we have an opening in our training program..

CHAMP has a limited number of puppy caregivers. At times, all of our caregiver homes will be full, and we will be unable to accept puppy donations.