International Breeding Program: Helping 56 Service Dog Organizations

An international breeding cooperative is helping dozens of service dog organizations receive quality bred puppies— mostly Labrador Retrievers— to be trained to help veterans, autistic children, and other disabled persons.

Marina Phillips and her husband Bob Phillips are the brains behind the operation. In August 2013, Phillips retired from the Guide Dogs for the Blind but knew she wanted to use her expertise to help more than just one service dog organization.  After more than thirty years of working in the service dog field, she’d identified a need for a program that would provide quality puppies to nonprofit service organizations and help reduce the long wait times for needy individuals to receive well-trained service dogs.

Phillips had first worked as a kennel technician at Guide Dogs of America before joining Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) in 1987. At CCI,  she earned her assistance dog instructorship and served as the nonprofit’s inaugural director of breeding and puppy raising.

She and her husband approached the board of directors of Assistance Dogs International (ADI) with their idea to pool breeding resources to benefit participating members. For more information about ADI, see: https://assistancedogsinternational.org

To their surprise, the board endorsed their plan to develop a cooperative breeding program of primarily Labrador Retrievers and some Golden Retrievers as well as a few Lab/Golden mixes. The cooperative now also breeds a few Labrador/Golden/Bernese Mountain dog mixes after the mixes were donated to the program by assistance dog schools that had successfully worked with them.

The nonprofit ADI breeding cooperative has three divisions: Europe, North America, and Oceana (New Zealand and Australia). Phillips says that ADI  service dog organization members (members), all nonprofit, must be fully accredited by ADI before they can join the breeding program officially called the International Breeding Cooperative (Cooperative).

Currently, the Cooperative has 56 members: 46 from North America; seven, Europe; and three, Australia.

Phillips says the Cooperative’s breeding philosophy is “to provide access to purpose-bred canines on an equitable basis.” It facilitates bringing together quality breeding lines and diversifying genes by carefully breeding Cooperative-approved canines with one another.

As the facilitator, Phillips reviews proposed breedings of the Cooperative’s dogs and makes recommendations. She considers the dogs’ health clearances, structure, and personality traits.  For instance, she explains if the proposed dam is an EIC (exercise induced collapse) carrier, she’ll make sure the sire is EIC clear to ensure their pups won’t be EIC affected.

All dogs in the Cooperative program must pass health tests that are considered standard for their breed. The Cooperative uses PawPrint Genetics’ breed test panels, PennHip examinations, and elbow radiographs as well as echocardiograms. Additionally, she says, PawPrints gives her a heads up about developments in genetic diseases of Labradors and Goldens.

The detailed Cooperative guidelines include the number of puppies that the member-owner of the dam and/or sire receives from each litter as well as a distribution guide of the remaining pups to other members. For a litter of seven, the stud dog member receives one pup, the dam’s member keeps four puppies, and two pups are given to other Cooperative members based on need and a rotation basis. As the program facilitator, Phillips matches puppies with members. That means, if one member needs pups with a high drive or more males, she can make that match occur.

She also approves the use of Cooperative’s stud dogs, the purchase of either females or stud dogs for the Cooperative program, and assists in making decisions when dams should be retired.

As the facilitator, she’s able to quickly find a good Cooperative stud dog match should a female come into season early. She’s also available for consultation by phone.

Phillips says there are 45 dams currently in the Cooperative program and about five or six stud dogs. She says that most stud dogs are retired after siring five or six litters so they can return to training for service careers and to keep the gene pool diverse.

She adds that females usually aren’t bred until their third heat cycle and whelp an average of three litters. After that, they retire to live with their caretaker family.

Phillips says that since the cooperative’s founding eight years ago,  members are producing higher quality canines that are trained to serve deserving individuals with disabilities in the community.

Her husband Bob, a retired business development executive, handles the finance and governance side of the Cooperative as an unpaid volunteer. He oversees membership and administration of the Cooperative and facilitates its ongoing relationship with ADI.

Phillips notes that the Cooperative allows members to “all have the opportunity to work with the first pick puppy of a litter.  Regardless of which member the puppies are placed with, the puppies with the greatest breeding potential will be available to the population for all. By working together no opportunities are lost.”

IS THE PROGRAM HELPFUL?

Does this program help Cooperative members?

Laura Edwards, director of dog operations of Freedom Service Dogs of America (FSD) based in Englewood, CO, and Molly Morelli, director of the dog program of Warrior Canine Connection of Boyd, MD serve on the Cooperative’s Steering Committee which helps set guidelines for the program.

They say that the biggest benefits of being a Cooperative member are the ability to talk with and help other members as well as incorporating diverse genetic lines into their individual breeding programs.

WCC

WCC has been part of the Cooperative program since 2015. It breeds and trains its service dogs for disabled veterans. For more information, see: https://www.caryunkelbach.com/warrior-canine-connection-how-reputable-breeders-give-back/  and https://www.caryunkelbach.com/ryan-and-luke-a-veteran-and-his-ace-service-companion/

Since its first homebred litter was born in December 2011, WCC canines have whelped 11 litters in the Cooperative program. That means that the sires and dams were part of the Cooperative’s program, according to Morelli. WCC also has whelped another 36 litters outside of the program. WCC’s stud dogs have sired a total of 42 litters but only participate on a short-term rotation basis before being returned to service dog training, she adds.

Morelli recalls every service dog program was an island before the Cooperative was established. She’s seen an improvement in the quality of members’ pups since the start of the Cooperative program. And, she says, the Cooperative is extremely transparent about health issues.

WCC receives a pup from a Cooperative litter if Morelli helps with the breeding- natural or through artificial insemination. If WCC doesn’t need another puppy when its stud dog’s or Morelli’s services are used, WCC can bank credit for a puppy with the Cooperative to be used at a later time.

Morelli says 35 veterans are waiting for WCC service dogs. Most veterans wait two to three years to be matched with the perfect service dog.

FSD

Edwards says that FSD started its own breeding program in 2020 and joined the Cooperative in 2019.

FSD places trained service dogs with veterans and active military members with post-traumatic stress (PTS) or physical injuries related to service; children with autism and other neurocognitive disabilities; and adults with disabilities stemming from cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, and traumatic brain injuries. It also trains therapy dogs to assist licensed counseling professionals using animal-assisted therapies. See: https://www.caryunkelbach.com/quality-purebreds-sought-to-assist-disabled/

It’s used dams and/or sires from well-recognizable kennel lines including Amigas, Cressmoor, Hyspire, RidgeView, and Union Hill. The arrangements differed- some services and/or dogs were donated and other times FSD paid a stud fee or gave back part of the litter to the dam’s owner. It’s also bred its dogs to other service dog organization’s studs and has produced two Cooperative litters and raised Cooperative allocated puppies. Edwards says FSD has taken different approaches in its breeding program to build its in-house program to meet the needs of clients who are waiting for a service dog.

Currently, FSD has three Cooperative-dogs. Allison Peltier, FSD’s reproduction and genetics manager, consults Phillips about breeding plans for these dogs and notes that the Cooperative program diversifies genetics.

Edwards notes that some of the advantages of breeding dogs in the Cooperative program include not having to pay a stud fee, genetics are easily diversified, and members can receive pups without having to breed one of their dogs.

FSD has produced 18 of its own Labrador litters, for a total of 88 puppies, according to Edwards. Of those, 66 are in service dog training. She says the first of FSD’s homebred puppies is scheduled to graduate in December.

This nonprofit has an extensive waiting list: 89 individuals, including 51 veterans, with PTSD and mobility issues, and nearly 30 children. An additional 51 persons have applied for a service dog. Their applications are pending.

Edwards says right now FSD’s greatest need is for puppy raisers thanks to the number of pups they’ve bred- especially puppy fosters who would rear and socialize the puppy until about 14 months of age when the canine would return to the FSD facility for advanced training.

Puppy raisers don’t have to live in Colorado and can be high school or university students, Edwards notes. She’s also looking for fosters to take dogs home from the FSD facility on weekends and holidays. And she encourages breeders to come into the FSD Englewood facility to help socialize the puppies and young adults too, a special need thanks to COVID.

To learn more about volunteering opportunities at FSD, see: https://freedomservicedogs.org/volunteer/  or contact Hannah Perruccio, volunteer & community outreach coordinator at hperruccio@freedomservicedogs.org

Edwards and Morelli both credit the Phillips for establishing the Cooperative and serving as its facilitators. Their work is not only helping service dog breeders but also children, adults, and veterans who benefit from the support and companionship of an assistance service dog.