On Tuesday, June 20th Retrieving Freedom Inc. visited RidgeView in Iowa to aptitude test three of the Auna and Ben puppies. They tested them on coming to sounds, fetch and willingness to give the ball back, food driven, problem solving, walking over foam, and willingness to follow out of their element (outside away from their litter mates). All puppies did well but they narrowed it down to the one they would like. Retrieving Freedom Inc. places the training puppies with foster homes that put them through their first round of basic service dog training. This includes introducing them to their working vest, leash training, heel, and stressful situation such as public stores. We are pleased to announce that the Auna and Ben puppy that they chose is now named Levi, after Specialist Levi Hoover. Here is a quote from Bobby Henline, a burn victim veteran that Retrieving Freedom Inc. chose to name their puppies.

Included are some pictures of Levi Hoover, Levi's (the canine) new foster mom Sarah, and Levi's first day in his working vest. We are very honored to work with such a special organization that works hard for those who have fought for our freedom. We are forever grateful. For more information about Retrieving Freedom Inc. please go to their website. 
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"Land of the free, because of the Brave"

Yours Truly, 
​Kristie & Brittany

On Thursday, June 22nd we made our monthly trip to the Lutheran Home with two of our RidgeView puppies. Trip, a chocolate male and Rascal, a yellow male accompanied Kristie to Strawberry Point, Iowa. The puppies enjoy entertaining the residence as well as the staff and learn more about our RidgeView dogs, our breeding program, and canines in general. Socialization is important and this is a great beginner step for our puppies. The residence love to watch the puppies run around and play with the toys we bring with us. This is usually a highlight of their day and they talk about their visit with the puppies for the rest of the week. We are very honored to get to work with such great people and dogs and get to put them all together for a lasting experience.

Yours Truly,
Kristie & Brittany

If you have made it this far then you are pretty far into the new website. I hope you are enjoying your experience and welcome to RidgeView Membership. This lets you see the behind the scenes of how we run our kennel, meet our people, and OF COURSE meet the dogs. 

We've been keeping the look of the new kennel pretty under wraps, well here are some much needed updates. We have finished the outside of the kennel except for some cement yet to pour (hoping for nice weather). The inside office is set up but still under construction as we work towards painting the dry wall and getting trim up around the edges. The bathroom is also steps from being completed. Located in our office is also transition pens for puppies 6 weeks and up awaiting to go to their new homes. This makes working in the office (like I am now typing you this nice blog) much more enjoyable as I have cute puppies to entertain me. Our latest genius training idea in the office area is introducing astro-turf as a potty area. As you can see, it is going over well!

In the main kennel we have set up many large fans to help keep our beloved adults comfortable. They all believe that the concrete is cooler than the dog beds. We have also been working hard on getting exercise pens built and maintained outside. This included finding panels from all over the property and surrounding three houses, but..they look great and the dogs enjoy their sun bathing. We have been working hard on setting up shade screens on the outside pens off the side of the building and it has been nothing short of a battle in this Iowa wind. Pictures to come soon. 

~~ I invite you to leave comments on this new blog option. Also feel free to fill out a form in the footer below with any things you would like to see more of on this site and any comments, feedback is important to us here at RidgeView. ~~

Yours Truly,
​Kristie & Brittany