Testimonials

LaVonne & Buttons

buttonsMy first exposure to “Puppy Love” was at a Good Sam camping club rally. There are usually between three and four hundred recreational vehicles at these spring and fall “Samborees”. There are always lots of events and seminars being offered to entertain, teach or provide demonstrations of items or subjects of interest to the many avid RV‘rs. Good Sam is a non-profit organization and members support several charities. A demonstration on Hearing & Service dog training titled “Puppy Love Caring Canines” by Grete Krause, drew our interest.

I had become a paraplegic two years previous at that time, following back surgery. Then after feeling the need for a companion, we had recently become the proud owners of an eight month old little Bichon puppy. We rescued “Buttons” from the Animal Humane Society here in Blaine and fell in love with him immediately. I never really dreamed that this small white puppy would actually become my service dog. The presentation and demonstrations included several Puppy Love trained dogs. Grete Krause, who is the trainer and founder, included information relating to the reasons that she had started this non-profit assistance dog-training program. One was that other service dog organizations refuse to train and existing pet. Grete has done just that with Puppy Love, though not all dogs qualify. They must have the proper temperament, intelligence, and desire to please. She receives other dogs from animal rescue groups, humane societies, and breeder donations. They are trained and donated to needy individuals or provide therapy to children with special needs, learning disabilities, or physical handicaps.

Grete met with us and started training Buttons and myself soon after. Since then we have been very successful following her training system. Buttons now has a special “Service Dog” cape that signifies that he is a full-fledged service dog and is entitled to accompany me in public. The training goes on and there is much more to learn. We have also completed training and certification as a “Therapy Dog”. This has been an exciting and rewarding experience for both Buttons, myself and my husband. One of the most useful things that he does is to retrieve my husband for me when I need assistance -on command “Find Dad”-no mater where he is around our home. He will close a door for me when I am on the wrong side to reach the door knob, he will pick up anything I drop that's not too heavy and climb up and hand it to me. Even tiny items like a key or a small piece of paper. Buttons is more than a loving companion; he is now a useful contributing member of our family.

Thank You Puppy Love!

LaVonne

 

 

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