Puppy Crèche Press Release
released November 2009

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‘PEOPLE IN NEED’ Trust helps our paws with a cause!
A big thank you to the ‘People in Need’ Trust for allocating funds of €20,000 towards the development of a purpose built puppy facility for Irish Dogs for the Disabled.  This specially designed puppy facility enables this young Charity to provide 24 hour care in a sterile safe environment at a critical time in their puppies’ development. 
At birth each puppy is weighed, health checked and marked for identification and future development.  Over the following weeks a progress report is kept on each puppy to ensure that they are developing at the correct rate.  The first 12 weeks is the most critical time in a puppy’s development and any mild stresses a puppy is exposed to during this period will help it cope much better with the stresses in the environment later on in life.
Once the puppies’ eyes and ears have opened at day 10 desensitisation starts through the use of specially designed sensory CDs playing in the background in the puppy facility.  These CDs are played whilst the puppies are suckling on their mum to introduce the puppies to a variety of sounds that they may encounter in the environment later on in life eg. fireworks, planes, babies crying etc.  This enables the trainee-assistance puppies to experience these often frightening sounds whilst being comforted by their mum therefore reducing the ultimate fear of these sounds later on during advanced training and in their working life.
All qualified Assistance Dogs must have the ability to cope and concentrate in a variety of environments and situations, hence this early intervention experienced within the puppy facility enables the trainee-assistance puppies to achieve the set standards required to become a fully qualified Assistance Dog.
The new puppy facility will enable this young Charity to provide a greater number of life changing partnerships for disabled adults and children throughout Ireland – THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SUPPORTED THE ‘PEOPLE IN NEED’ CAMPAIGN.

 Irish Dogs for the Disabled is a registered charity that provides fully trained Assistance Dogs free of charge to people with disabilities. These specially trained dogs make a life changing difference to disabled adults and children by helping them with tasks that so many of us take for granted.  The Charity has received no government funding to date and relies entirely on fundraising, grants and donations to carry out their work. You can help to turn these paws into helping hands by fundraising, volunteering as a Puppy Socialiser or making a donation. To find out more about the charity please visit the website www.dogsfordisabled.ie.