Guided by Love: Story of a puppy raiser

Jennifer Becker anxiously checks her iPhone app that tells her when the flight will land.  “Twenty minutes left.”

She pulls it out again. “Six minutes till arrival.”

Then, she checks it one last time. “It’s puppy time.”

Jennifer Becker and her mother, Linda Becker, eagerly make their way to the cargo pickup office at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport to pick up their newest puppy.  

Huxley II is an 8-week-old golden retriever/yellow Labrador retriever mix. Huxley's arrival marks the 14th puppy that the Becker family will help raise and train to become a guide dog or service animal.

“I don’t name them, I just raise them,” said Linda Becker.

Jennifer and Linda Becker wait outside the office with the dog they’re currently training, a golden Lab named Norman. They watch the plane land on the tarmac, and a golf cart makes its way across the pavement. While they wait, Jennifer and Linda lay out toys, a leash, some cleaning supplies (it is a puppy, after all), a water bowl and Huxley’s new training vest. 

With the help of the Beckers he will grow up to be like the 289 dogs that graduated in 2014 from Canine Companions for Independence as either hearing dogs, skilled companions or service dogs. 

The Becker home is a revolving door of puppies training as guide dogs and assistance dogs. In the last 15 years, the family has helped raise nine for Southeastern Guide Dogs and five for CCI. 

“In the beginning it’s just learning its name still. Our biggest job is really to socialize them and bring them into any situations they might encounter,” Linda Becker said. 

On a routine elevator ride with a puppy named Bob that the Beckers were training for CCI the elevator made a grinding noise that spooked him. He hesitated to enter elevators again following the incident. 

“It’s funny how one thing can mess up a dog,” Linda Becker said. 

Typically the family takes in a puppy before they return the current dog they are training to help ease the transition between animals. Although the entire family (including dad Bob Becker and three sons) have lived in the home with the training dogs at one point or another, Jennifer, the youngest, is the only one who has taken an interest in making a career out of working with service animals. 

This fall Jennifer Becker will be taking Norman to college with her when she starts classes at Stetson University in Deland. 

“She really stepped up last year with Norman,” Linda Becker.

Jennifer Becker will become a part of a service animal community at Stetson University, a partnership with New Horizons Service Dogs. She and Norman will live in a dorm that is animal-friendly, and they’ll interact with other students training service animals. As part of the CCI puppy raiser program the Becker family keeps each dog for a year and a half.  

“It’s nice to be in a community where other students will be doing the same thing,” Jennifer Becker said. “He’ll go everywhere with me, all classes, football games, church and restaurants.”

The ultimate reason the Beckers chose to take on the financial and emotional responsibility to train service animals is the reward of staying in contact with the owners who grow to rely on the dogs they helped train. 

“It’s amazing what these dogs can do with kids, especially children in the autistic spectrum,” Linda Becker said. “The dog just opens up whole worlds for them. They go from being [labeled] ‘the kid with autism’ to the cool kid with the dog.”