News from Vancouver International Airport isn’t always about flight delays and bumpy landings. On Monday, YVR’s Twitter account had just the thing to brighten anyone’s morning: puppies.
These three, one-month old golden retriever pups are a litter from PADS, an organization that trains puppies to become service dogs. While these three won’t actually work at YVR when they’re older, the airport recently went into partnership with PADS after its employees overwhelmingly chose to support the organization through an employee giving program at the end of last year.
“Our values really aligned,” Tara Doherty, communication manager for PADS told the Richmond News. “One of the main pillars of the airport is accessibility and that’s why we exist, to improve the independence of people with physical disabilities.”
Doherty said the partnership is an opportunity for service puppies in training to be exposed to airports and travel.
“We hope down the road, as we continue to work together, to have learning opportunities for our puppies at the airport. Most of them will travel with their future partners so having those opportunities to experience things like going through security, and boarding a plane and learning to settle, all those kinds of things that typically are hard for us to give our puppies,” Doherty said.
“For us our dream would be that every puppy in our program experiences air travel before we match the client.”
As the puppies grow up, they eventually take on one of four jobs: a service dog, hearing dog, accredited facility dog or PTSD dog for veterans and first responders.
Now, YVR is asking for the public’s help to name these puppies that they’ve sponsored. Anyone can send in their airport-themed suggestions via Twitter with the hashtag #YVRPADSPUPS. To encourage creative ideas, the airport later tweeted, “Forgot to mention that the person who chooses a winning name gets a snuggle session with the puppies!”
LOOK AT THESE PUPPIES. Do we ever have a ruff task for you! We need your help naming our YVR @PADSdogs puppy litter. Share your best YVR-themed puppy names using #YVRPADSPUPS and the best will go to a vote next week. pic.twitter.com/k7e9YIePdh
— Vancouver Airport (@yvrairport) March 19, 2018
From this litter, one airport employee is volunteering to be a puppy-raiser, giving YVR employees the opportunity to watch the pup grow up.
“As a community-based organization, supporting our community is fundamental to YVR and the people who work here. Inclusivity and accessibility are at the core of our business,” Kim Halowski, manager, community relations, Vancouver Airport Authority told the Richmond News via email. “We support programs and organizations that focus on advancements in inclusivity, universal access and access to opportunity and that’s why we are proud to support Pacific Assistance Dogs Society (PADS) and the work they do to remove barriers and give persons living with disabilities independence.”
For anyone interested in volunteering with or learning more about PADS, visit www.pads.ca.
With files from Lindsay William-Ross/Vancouver is Awesome
