VOLUNTEERS WANTED TO HELP TRAIN SERVICE DOGS FOR DISABLED
Carol Drury is hosting an open house May 2 for those interested
If you love dogs and want to help change the life of someone living with a disability, now is your chance. Carol Drury, who has been a volunteer puppy raiser with Canine Companions for about 14 years now, is looking for others who are interested in volunteering to train service dogs for the disabled.
Drury recently became a class instructor, eliminating the need for local residents who want to become volunteer puppy raisers to travel to Denver for classes. She is hoping this will draw more people to get involved. For those interested in volunteering, she will be holding a Puppy Talk open house on Thursday, May 2, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hagus Hall, 326 S. Third Street, in Sterling. Enter through the door on the left.
Established in 1975, Canine Companions is a 501(C) 3 organization that provides service dogs for adults with physical disabilities or deafness, children with disabilities working with the assistance of an adult facilitator, veterans with physical disabilities, hearing loss or post-traumatic stress disorder, and professionals working in health care, criminal justice or education settings. It was the first member of Assistance Dogs International to earn accreditation. To date, 7,850 dogs have graduated and been placed as service dogs, in 2023, the organization placed 450 dogs and as of right now, they have over 2,700 active graduate teams throughout the U.S., there are 4,300 active volunteers nationwide and 1,100 puppies are being raised by volunteers.
Out of eight dogs, Drury has had seven successfully graduate and be placed. She is currently raising dog number nine, a 14-month-old named Hank, and her husband, John Drury, and Lauren Payne are raising number ten, a nine-month-old named Donovan. Volunteers are only allowed to raise one dog at a time.
Drury became connected with the organization when her daughter was a junior in high school and wanted to participate in 4-H and she decided to do a service dog project. After
some research, she found Canine Companions.
“The thing she liked is they give you dogs for free, they do not charge their clients for dogs and they do not give up custody of the dogs totally so that they can continue to help them throughout the life of the dog,” Drury said, adding that all follow-up services are free to the clients as well.
Canine Companions believes that disability touches all races, classes and backgrounds and they are committed to providing services to all qualified clients. Their mission is to try to be the best service dog organization they can be and lead the way in research and development and placement. The organization has six regional training centers, Colorado falls in the organization’s southwest region.
The way the program works is a volunteer puppy raiser will get a puppy at eight weeks old and they will remain with that volunteer until they reach 18 months. Volunteers pay for everything that has to do with a puppy while it’s in their care and they must sign a contract stating they will take care of the dog and follow the organization’s rules for how cues or commands are taught to the dog.
While in their care, the volunteer puppy raisers are responsible for teaching the dog 30 different cues. It starts with the basics, learning their name, how to eat, go to the bathroom and get in a car, then as the dog gets older the cues get progressively harder.
“Everything they do is for a purpose, it’s not like they’re allowed to have free reign, they just can’t do that because you can’t unteach things as easily as you can teach them,” Drury said.
Tasks a dog must learn include turning on lights, picking up dropped items of various sizes including ones as small as a credit card, opening doors, pushing an elevator button, assisting with business transactions if the person’s in a wheelchair, and even how to pull a manual wheelchair. If it’s a hearing dog they will be trained how to alert to sounds such as microwaves, cell phones, sirens, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.
“There are lots of things that the dogs can do that people don’t really realize how important it is for the clients that we serve,” Drury said.
When volunteers first get the puppy, they can only take it to friends’ houses; it can’t go out in public until it’s fully vaccinated, which is usually at about 16 weeks. Then you can start taking the dog out to parks to let them interact with other people and make sure they’re not afraid.
“You go through the whole process of training the dog to be calm and confident because you have to take them everywhere. You have to take them to church, you have to take them to the beauty salon, the dentist, the doctor, you take them to Walmart, you take them clothes shopping, any place a graduate would take the dog you have to take the dog,” Drury explained.
When you see them out in public they will be wearing a vest identifying them as a service dog in training with Canine Companions, as well as a gentle leader, which is similar to a horse halter and puts gentle pressure from underneath on a dog’s nose, making them easier to control.
“Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there that think that pets are service dogs and although you can train your own service dog, these guys are in training for almost two years,” Drury said, explaining that “it’s really hard for the fully trained dogs that are with their clients because the other dogs will come and attack them, and these dogs are not trained to be dominate, they are trained to be subservient and listen to what the client says.”
One of the keys to being a successful puppy trainer is realizing that you will have to be consistent because dogs learn by repetition; you can’t just do it one time and think they’ve mastered the skill. All training is done by positive reinforcement; when the dog does something right it’s rewarded with a Kibble treat. The only negative word that’s used is don’t and that is only used for something very serious, for example, the dog is about to run out in the street or jump on someone.
During their stay with the puppy trainer, the volunteer will provide monthly reports to Canine Companions about what’s happening with the dog, how they’re behaving and any problems.
Once the puppy raiser has completed their portion of the training, the dog will go back to Canine Companions, where it will be taught for six more months by professional trainers. The dog will also take an aptitude test to determine if it’s going to be a good service dog, hearing dog, PTSD dog, or facility dog. If officials at Canine Companion don’t think any of those will fit the dog, they also have cooperative programs with the blind, DEA, search and rescue and the bomb squad.
Those interested in a service dog can apply online. They must go through a rigorous process to be successful including talking to someone to make sure that they understand that this isn’t an emotional support animal or therapy dog, it’s a service dog that falls under the Americans with Disabilities Act because it performs a task, and to determine what tasks the dog can perform for them. Then they must fill out a 12-page written application, which is followed by a phone interview and an in-person interview at the regional office.
After that, if you’re found to be a good candidate, you’re put on a waiting list. Right now there are over 200 people on the waiting list for the southwest region alone. If someone is picked as a match, they must attend a two-week team training class to learn how to manage the dog.
When the dogs graduate, the volunteers are notified and can come to California if they choose to hand over the leash to the client who will be using the dog. Canine Companions does provide clients with the puppy raiser’s name, phone number and email and they can choose if they want to keep in touch with the volunteer trainer. Some do but some don’t.
To learn more about Canine Companions or if you would like to donate to the organization, visit https://canine.org/.