04
Aug
2025

Susquehanna Service Dogs Celebrates 48 Graduating Dogs

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(Harrisburg, PA, August 2, 2025)—Forty-eight dogs and their handlers walked the stage in Susquehanna Service Dogs’ 2025 Graduation Ceremony, held on August 2, 2025 at Dauphin County Technical School in Harrisburg, PA.

SSD celebrated 19 service and hearing dogs teams, eight facility dog teams, and five skilled companion dog teams that have been partnered within the past year. Also recognized were five dogs that have entered SSD’s science-based breeding program and 11 detection K9s that began training as service dogs with SSD before transitioning to other organizations to train in detection work.

The dogs’ partners, puppy raisers, and other SSD volunteers came together to celebrate the way these dogs are changing people’s lives.

“River has given me back my spark,” said Hannah, partnered with SSD River. “She is the reason I can live a normal life and be myself. River effortlessly and flawlessly has merged into my daily life even better than I could have imagined.”

Susquehanna Service Dogs is a program of Keystone Human Services that breeds, raises, trains, and places assistance dogs to support people with disability to live more independently. Each dog spent their first 15-18 months with volunteer puppy raisers, attending puppy class with SSD staff and learning basic cues and behaviors. They then entered Advanced Training with SSD’s professional trainers, where they fine-tune these skills, were matched with a potential partner, and individually trained in tasks and behaviors designed to mitigate their partner’s disability.

“These dogs give people the confidence to do things they didn’t think were possible,” said Deb Tack, Executive Director of Susquehanna Service Dogs. “Each person or facility has a vision for what they want life to look like, and we work to train a highly skilled dog and build a partnership to make that vision a reality.”

SSD depends on volunteers and community relationships to create these life-changing partnerships between people with disability and their assistance dogs. To join in SSD’s mission, visit their website, www.susquehannaservicedogs.org.

About Susquehanna Service Dogs

Susquehanna Service Dogs is a program of Keystone Human Services and has been breeding, raising, training, and placing assistance dogs in the Mid-Atlantic Region since 1993. SSD is an accredited member of Assistance Dogs International.

About Keystone Human Services

Keystone Human Services is a multi-national human services organization based in Harrisburg, PA. KHS operates in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, the Republic of Moldova, and India, providing advocacy, services, and supports in early childhood education and family support, mental health, autism, and intellectual, developmental, cognitive, and physical disability. We build communities where everyone can thrive, direct their own lives, establish homes, find meaningful work, pursue education alongside their peers, and fill valued roles in the community. Additionally, we provide services through Susquehanna Service Dogs (SSD), Capital Area Head Start (CAHS), Partnerships for People, Key Human Services, Keystone Autism Services, Keystone Moldova, and Keystone Institute India.

More information can be found at KHS.org and KeystoneMoldova.md