SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) - As the new Sedalia Retrieving Freedom Inc., headquarters is being built, puppies are already being placed into foster homes and receiving classroom training.

RFI provides service dogs for military veterans and for children who have autism. It was founded in 2011 by Scott Dewy and Charles Dwyer, with the first facility established in Waverly, Iowa. The $2.5 million Sedalia location will be the third RFI facility and sits on property donated by Bob and Barbara Hayden.

Puppy classes were hosted for nine pups last week at Katy Park Baptist Church, with two designated to enter local foster homes.

“We host puppy foster class once a month here in the Sedalia area,” Director of Dog Training and Placement Kyle Cory-Yaeggi told the Sedalia Democrat . “We’ve had two very generous churches that have allowed us to operate here.”

Foster puppy classes have been hosted at First Christian Church and Katy Park Baptist and also on the Missouri State Fairgrounds.

“For our foster program, these are families in the local community that want to foster a puppy for future service work,” Cory-Yaeggi explained. “They go through a set number of classes within our program to get the training, before we give them a puppy.”

After foster individuals receive a puppy Retrieving Freedom still meets with them on a monthly basis.

“They will foster the dog from eight weeks of age up to 10 months or a year,” he noted. “We have 15 or so different families that are actively in the process of working through the different classes.”

Three families have finished the training; two families received puppies at the Friday class session.

The program uses Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers and crosses such as Lab/Golden and some Doodle crosses.

Once the puppies leave the foster program they will be housed at the new Sedalia RFI facility which has room for 28 dogs.

“Once we get those dogs . our placement time frame is about two years of age,” Cory-Yaeggi said.

A unique aspect of the program is the community involvement in training the service dogs.

“We are a 501(c)(3) so everything we do is based on fosters, volunteers and donors,” Resource Development Director Sally Zinevich said. “And the generosity and kindness of the community and the folks that we serve.”

“As of today, without this facility being up and operating we placed 24 dogs in 2019,” Cory-Yaeggi said. “Now, with a building of this capacity, we’re going to able to extend our outreach, extend the assistance we are providing for the individuals with disabilities and be able to place more dogs.”

Zinevich said the building will be ready to occupy by the end of November. She said they will host a soft opening in early 2020 and invite the community to visit the facility.

“One of the things that’s most impressive about the entire organization,” she continued, “was the fact that not only are we helping those veterans and children with autism at the end of this process, but all of the people that these dogs impact along the way through the process of their training.”

RFI not only offers puppy foster classes but also community impact programs. The program encourages teacher fosters who can check out a dog for a day and take it to the classroom. RFI also offers a prison program geared toward veterans.

“That’s really what kind of sets us apart from all the other service dog organizations,” CEO Billy Rader explained. “Is that we’re very intentional about our programs affecting hundreds of lives, before we actually affect the life of the veteran or child with autism.

“Those programs are intentional and we measure them,” he continued. “We form relationships with colleges, with schools, with troubled teen programs and also the prison programs.”

To participate in the Retrieving Freedom Inc., puppy foster classes, contact Missouri Unit Director Alyssa Curtis at 660-596-4661. For more information, visit www.RetrievingFreedom.org.

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Information from: The Sedalia Democrat, http://www.sedaliademocrat.com

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