Seventeen months ago, we brought a tiny Labrador puppy to the farm. You helped us name him, helped us feed him, and helped us train him. A lot has happened since then, and we’re excited to introduce the next chapter of Buddha’s story.

Philly Unleashed had been commissioned to train several service dogs in the past, including Queenie, an adult yellow labrador purchased by a Jersey Mike’s fundraiser for a local family in 2016. Nicole wanted to do it again, starting from the very beginning, with the goal of donating a trained mobility service dog to someone who needed one free of charge.

It all started when Nicole met Buddha’s half-brother, Cooper in 2016. There was something special about Cooper’s demeanor, work ethic, and intelligence. Knowing that Cooper had the temperament for work as a service dog, Nicole asked Cooper’s owner, Katelin, to let her know if the breeder had another litter like him.

Buddha arrived in August of 2017.

Service animals have important jobs and must be behaviorally reliable. In a world where there are no regulations on the amount of training needed to become a service dog, we wanted more for this little pup. Our driving morals as professional dog trainers would not allow us to contribute to a growing problem of untrained service dogs. The Philly Unleashed team took Buddha’s training seriously from the beginning. And Buddha was up for the challenge.

Buddha has been training continuously with the Philly Unleashed team; traveling to conferences, taking field trips to sports games and grocery stores, going on vacation with us, and even spending several weeks with a trainer in Pittsburgh working on public access.

Eventually, we found Buddha a partner to assist.

And we learned a lot during that process. We realized that what we’d planned and hoped with Buddha hasn’t been what Buddha wants or enjoys.

This happens with dogs. Certain types of roles require certain types of dogs, and what we expected for Buddha just isn’t the sort of dog that he is.

We discovered that Buddha struggles when he is asked to sit under a desk or remain in a position in public for long periods of time.  And that when a dog is placed as a mobility support dog, up to 75% of their day can be spent lying down under a desk. Particularly if their partner keeps regular work hours in an office. Buddha loves to work, but he didn’t love the job that we’d given him. We had to rethink his career.

Enter Team Foster.

We found Team Foster with the help of our trainer, Alicia Haranshuk.

Team Foster is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit dedicated to supporting and rehabilitating injured combat veterans, at no cost to the recipient.

Team Foster’s training staff shares Philly Unleashed’s mission and is dedicated to training and producing exceptional service dogs for veterans in need. They took Buddha on a three-week interview, and they loved him as much as we do. We can’t say that we’re surprised.

They also said that they’d never received a dog so well trained. And that made us feel like all our hard work was worth the effort.

Buddha has already been placed with a veteran with PTSD and will be learning tasks to mitigate her disability. Next year, he’ll start training to become a diabetic alert dog.

We’re sad to close this chapter with Buddha, but we’re excited that he’s found a placement that suits his drive and abilities. He loves people and he loves working, and this is a good situation for him. We wish him the best of luck in his new endeavors.

While the Philly Unleashed Team’s time with Buddha has come to an end, this is just the beginning for him. If you’d like to continue to support Buddha, you can follow Team Foster on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You can also donate to Team Foster to continue Buddha’s training and to produce more dogs just like him.

Thank you for joining us over the past two years, and for loving Buddha the way we have.  He is truly a special dog.