Building the Future

FSD Nursery Gets a Makeover

At Freedom Service Dogs, the health and wellbeing of all our puppies and dogs is a top priority. Dedicated FSD staff and volunteers work diligently to ensure the facility is as clean and safe as possible—especially for puppies under 8-weeks-old. The newborn residents are still developing their immune systems and are not as resilient as older puppies and adult dogs, which makes them particularly vulnerable to injury and illness. That’s why maintaining a pristine nursery is imperative to preventing disease and nurturing our pup’s health. 

To safeguard our tiniest trainees and make the cleaning process more efficient for nursery staff and volunteers, we launched a construction project in August 2024 to revamp the nursery play yards. Funded by a generous anonymous donor, this initiative will introduce several key improvements, including a more advanced drainage system, a leveled yard, and a shift from asphalt to concrete. Additionally, we are adding a polyaspartic polyurea treatment with a non-slip additive to seal the concrete, which withstands cleaning chemicals, blocks bacteria from infiltrating the concrete, keeps the ground cool for the pup’s paws, and allows for easy upkeep. 

This project is expected to take up to two months, during which our puppies—who rely on these yards for socialization—will have to explore alternative spaces. The first eight weeks of a puppy’s life are vital for their development, helping them build the confidence they need as they grow into life-changing assistance dogs who must easily navigate bustling environments such as sports games, restaurants, grocery stores, and community events. Through daily enrichment activities that encourage running, climbing, sniffing, pulling, chewing, and exploring, our pups can start building their confidence from a young age.

To ensure our pups continue to thrive and receive the essential socialization and enrichment they need during the construction period, the creative FSD nursery team has transformed both indoor and outdoor spaces into themed socialization pods tailored to the puppies’ developmental stages. Each pod offers a unique adventure filled with new and different stimuli, with themes such as a hidden garden, outer space, an ice castle, a puppy “car wash,” a sleepover fort, and a sun-soaked beach! 

These themed pods are equipped with a variety of items that enrich the puppies and enhance their confidence. Textured mats, hanging streamers, sound machines, statues, different surfaces, and a variety of toys provide a sensory-rich environment for the puppies to explore and learn. For example, the outer space pod featured a starry night sky, dangling “planets” and streamers, spaceship shaped mats and surfaces, tubes full of interesting new scents, outer space sound effects, and plenty of extraterrestrial life forms (stuffed animals and toys that resemble aliens)—creating a dreamy atmosphere that introduced the pups in the nursery to new stimuli and experiences. 

Projects like the nursery makeover are made possible by the generosity of our supportive community. When you give a gift today—no matter how big or how small—you can make a big difference in helping us complete this project and give our FSD puppies with a purpose the nursery of their dreams. Give now!

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