GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Paws with a Cause (PAWS) held a puppy training session in Grand Rapids Wednesday.
Future assistance dogs and their PAWS trainers were acclimated to the sights, sounds and smells of ambulances.
PAWS says this helps to prepare the puppies for emergency situations.
“For foster puppies, we really try to make sure that they get a variety of different exposures throughout their lifetime, both when they’re really young, and when they’re older,” Megan DeGraaf, a foster puppy trainer, said. “It’s really mutually beneficial for everyone. It’s great for the puppies, but it’s also just a really nice way for us to kind of give back to life EMS and as, like, a little thank you.”
After the training session, the golden and Labrador retrievers served up some “puppy love” to Emergency Medical Response and support personnel at Life EMS Ambulance’s Grand Rapids station on Cedar Street.
This event was part of National EMS Week, which runs from Sunday, May 21 to Saturday, May 27.
The week allows communities around the country to honor the frontline heroes dedicated to providing emergency medical care that saves so many lives.
Life EMS Ambulance, which has been in service for 43 years, is celebrating its more than 700 associates throughout the ten-county area it serves with a variety of fun and unique events all week long.
President Gerald R. Ford declared November 3 through November 10, 1974, the first “National Emergency Medical Services Week.”
It has been celebrated during the third week of May since 1992.
This year’s theme is “Where Emergency Care Begins.”
