Five eight-week-old puppies bound for jobs as service dogs arrived in Leesburg in style Tuesday afternoon, stepping off a private jet after their cross-country journey.
Thoryn, Ticket, Verl, Lina and Landry came from the national headquarters of Canine Companions in California. It is the country’s largest service dog organization, serving adults, children, and veterans with disabilities free of charge.
Future Canine Companions service dog Landry gets a warm welcome from volunteer Maggie Tomlin on the tarmac at Leesburg Executive Airport on Nov. 1.
The puppies arrived at Leesburg Executive Airport at about 5 p.m. after a long day of flying with Jim Stewart, the chief operating officer of California-based venture capital firm True Ventures, aboard his Cessna CitationJet. They took off from Hayward Executive Airport near San Francisco at 7 a.m. Pacific Time—about 10 a.m. in Leesburg—and stopped in Wichita, KS, for fuel along the way, cruising along nearly 40,000 feet high and at more than 400 miles per hour.
They were greeted eagerly at the Leesburg airport by local volunteers Tom Newton, Jackie McCool, Emily Bracken, Sherie Bors-Koefoed, and Maggie Tomlin, who will provide homes for the next 18 months. They’ll teach the puppies basic commands and social skills. Then it’s off to school: the puppies will spend the next six months with Canine Companions professional instructors learning more than 40 advanced commands geared toward serving a person with disabilities, before being matched with a client at no cost.
Future Canine Companions service dog Landry explores the tarmac after landing at Leesburg Executive Airport on Nov. 1.
Canine Companions trainees previously flew commercial, but the air traffic interruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic caused the organization to seek help from private pilots like Stewart, a regular volunteer.
“At the beginning of COVID, all the commercial airliners stopped flying live animals, and they had no capacity,” he said. “And I got introduced by a really good friend who had one of the release dogs and said, ‘we've got a real need.’ And so we have now flown 29 trips and almost 200 dogs. It couldn’t be better.”
But despite riding in crates, in some ways the puppies are like most airplane passengers.
“There’s almost always one or two that make noise, and it’s always hilarious,” Stewart said. “The air traffic controllers hear it. They ask about it. It’s pretty fun.”
Learn more about Canine Companions at canine.org.
Canine Companions volunteer Sherie Bors-Koefoed holds future service dog Lina on the tarmac at Leesburg Executive Airport on Nov. 1.
(3) comments
Puppies, Jets, and helping people in real need. What a combo. Outstanding.
Aww. The pups are so cute. And they'll provide a vital service in Loudoun. Welcome aboard, pups!
If only there were a way to source 5 puppies without flying a private jet across the country.
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