Everyone Needs a Little Hope

This colorfully illustrated children’s book is a real-life story of raising service dogs. It is an exciting day at Camp Doodle Woods. India, a Bermadoodle, and Jones, a standard poodle, are having their puppies! To make sure everything goes well, Tracy, their person, makes a list of all the things she’ll need to help India have her puppies. All of the other dogs have their special jobs, too. Finally the puppies arrive, all 13 of them! Several days later, a therapy dog trainer comes to record the puppies’ achievements. The next eight weeks are filled with lots of new smells for the puppies to learn, and Tracy guides them to discover things for themselves and start to believe in their own abilities. After four weeks, some new people come to socialize the puppies, who learn to be touched all over without being nervous. And then in the final week of puppy school, a special test is given to the pups to find out what they are most skilled at doing. On the last day, Tracy takes them all out for a wonderful walk in the woods. But when they get home, they realize someone is missing! Oh, no!

Training service dogs takes a lot of work, love, and patience, as shown in this delightful, fact-based picture book for children ages 4-8. But it is so rewarding for the trainers and volunteers to help the dogs reach their full potential.