Foster Families

As a foster family, you will socialize and train a puppy for one of four phases of training, typically 4-6 months. This involves bringing the puppy everywhere and introducing them to what life may be like when they’re placed with their veteran.  A foster commits to raising a puppy for the entire time the dog is in the service dog program. This includes attending mandatory training sessions and group outings once a week throughout the fostering phase. Fill out the Full-Time Foster application below.

Puppy Sitter

Puppy sitters are not paired with a single dog. Instead, they will take puppies sporadically to help full-time raisers and provide different learning opportunities. As a puppy sitter, you will be “on call” – you will be contacted for help when a puppy raiser may be out of town or have prior commitments. If a puppy sitter has a puppy during one of the mandatory training sessions, they need to bring the puppy to the training as if they were the full-time puppy raiser.

How to Apply

Please start by filling out a Volunteer Inquiry here:

Volunteer Inquiry

Volunteer Orientations are held on the 3rd Saturday of every month (except Septembers), 9:00am at Puppy Jake Foundation Training Academy, 3101 104th Street, Suite #2, Urbandale, IA 50322.