About 9 years ago, a young girl contacted me asking about my Standard Poodles. She was looking to train a dog as her personal service dog but she had no money to purchase a quality puppy. I asked her who was going to help her train the dog and what the pup was going to be asked to do. She had all the right answers, she had done her homework, she had a plan, and I decided I would donate one of my puppies to Summer for her to train. She was young, but motivated. I remember saving up every penny I had to buy my first purebred dog. I was 13 years old and sold everything I had of value to scrap up $200.00. I could see myself in Summer, who had no funds to purchase a purebred Standard Poodle.
This young girl and her mom did fundraisers. They gathered donations to pay for the plane tickets to fly down to California from her home in Alaska to pick up the puppy I selected to be her teammate. We were living in Arizona at that time and made the 3 hour drive to San Diego to give Summer the pup.
Summer has come a long way and a lot of the reason for that is because of Radar. It brings a tear to my eye to see her out, living life because of that puppy, now an 8 year old dog.
Summer has entered the Job Corp in Alaska and the local newspaper did an nice writeup on her and Radar. I thought all of you might enjoying reading the article.