ATLANTA, Ga.— Service dogs are something special to our communities, and it takes a family’s love coupled with effective training to raise a quality service dog. Well, Atlanta United partnered with America’s VetDogs to make sure Spike— a 12 week old Labrador Retriever— becomes a prime service dog.

Over the next 14-16 months, Spike, named after Atlanta Utd.’s Golden Spike tradition, will be trained to become a service dog for veterans, active-duty members, and first responders who are disabled. During his training, Spike will be partly raised by an Atlanta volunteer and partly by the Atlanta based soccer team that have sponsored his training.

More pictures and videos of Spike’s journey can be found here. You can also follow him at @ATLUTDPup on Instagram and Twitter.