At Your Service
This is Dr. Bonita Bergin. She is the incredible woman who initially created the idea of the "service dog." Dr. Bergin then went on to establish Canine Companions for Independence, the world's very first service dog program. This was followed by her founding and becoming president of the Assistance Dog Institute (TADI). TADI is providing college programming, and doing research on training and the use of assistance dogs. They want to see just how much benefit these specialized canines provide for those persons who need them. They are doing this by:

Studying how to match the personality of an assistance dog with the personality of its human companion. This, of course, provides the best team partnership.
Studying the use of assistance dogs in Special Education classes for kids with severe disabilities.
Studying the use of therapy dogs for adults that are clinically depressed.
Studying what benefits emotionally disturbed kids & hospice patients get via interaction with assistance dogs.

This video was created for the Canine Companions for Independence gala on October 27, 2007 to show what could not be expressed with words. It features Service Dog Team, Cole and Ilia Massie. Ilia is one handsome and smart dude, the best offered through his Golden Retriever-Lab breeding. In fact, he received ASPCA's 2008 Humane Dog of the Year Award.

In LA, you will never see Cole without his furry sidekick. In order to break away from being wheelchair-dependent, Cole underwent surgery in July 2008 so he would be able to walk again without assistance. Ilia travelled over 7,000 miles on six planes to be by Cole's side for surgery. He supported Cole through medical treatments and physical therapy, and he encouraged the boy throughout his road to recovery. These days, Cole is able to use his whole foot, and Ilia is still by his side, walking alongside him.

“He provides amazing incentive to Cole during therapies, doctor’s appointments and procedures,” says Cole’s mom, Michelle Massie. “He calms, inspires and motivates my son far better than anyone ever has.” Or, as Cole sums it up: “I like when he lies next to me in bed at night and we listen to Harry Potter on CD, and that he helps to clean me when I’m in the bath by licking my face and arms. He’s my furry brother and best friend—and a serious bed hog!

This past July, three years after boy and dog were paired by the nonprofit Canine Companions for Independence, Cole was faced with a difficult, but life-changing surgery. “He had walked on his toes, and his feet were totally rolled in,” says Massie. “The operation would allow him to use his feet and free him of the wheelchair.” “Cole was frightened by the idea of surgery at first,” remembers Massie. “We explained how much more independent he’d be afterward, but he wasn’t buying it. Finally, we told him that if he had this procedure, there was a very good chance he’d be able to walk Ilia on his own—with no parents and no walker.” After that, says Massie, “Cole would stroke the dog’s head in bed each night and whisper, ‘I will walk you, Ilia. I will walk you.’”

Did you know?
Service dogs are extremely important to those with disabilities. They include: guide dogs for the blind; hearing dogs that alert their humans to sounds; mobility assistance dogs who may pull a wheelchair or directly support a person; seizure alert dogs; medical condition alert dogs; and others. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, persons with disabilities are entitled to take service animals with them wherever needed.

Did you know?
Service dogs help people overcome the limitations of their disabilities & the barriers that they have in their environments. In 1995, a two-year study led by Dr. Karen Allen, found that people with disabilities who had service dogs actually scored higher for psychological well-being, self-esteem, and for the amount of control they could exert over their environment. Other studies tell us that self-esteem, independence & social acceptance are all improved. Research has shown that companion dogs can: Lower your blood pressure; Help lower your stress; Improve your motivation; Decrease your serum cholesterol; and, Lessen the effects of loneliness
 

Did you know?
Goldens, according to Dr. Bergin, have proven to be the best breed for doing service work. That's because their calm disposition and strong body strength (needed for pulling wheelchairs) are important traits for having successful placements. However, it is very expensive to train service dogs. Presently, it costs more than $10,000 a dog. As service dogs are given to disabled people free of charge, much fund-raising is necessary to get these canines to the people who need them. The average waiting period to get an assistance dog is currently five to ten years.

Did you know?
Dr. Bergin has been looking at better methods of producing service dogs. She has developed a more cost-effective way of training the dogs. It involves getting help from at-risk teenagers in juvenile detention facilities. Only one professional instructor is needed, working with only five students at a time. This allows for careful, step-by-step instruction.

The kids teach their Goldens obedience skills such as sit, down, and stay from early puppyhood. There is also advanced training given to older dogs in the program. This includes turning on light switches, pulling wheelchairs, retrieving dropped items and handing money over the counter to clerks. This is achieved by having daily one-hour classes, which are part of the on-site school curriculum. Here is a young Golden learning proper wheelchair manners from a teenage trainer.

Everybody is benefiting greatly from this program. The teenagers have formed loving relationships with their dogs, based on trust and motivation. They've learned the value of positive reinforcement, consistency & praise, as these are the techniques used in training these Golden guys. And, they have gained pride and a sense of self-worth from their new success. The disabled persons who receive these service dogs have been amazed at how well-trained their new partners are from training provided by at-risk teenagers.  

Did you know?
There are also Assisted Service (Social) Dogs and Facility Dogs. An Assisted Service Dog placement is made with a disabled person who needs someone else's assistance to work with the dog. This type of dog is taught to perform interactive and practical tasks. Click here to read a wonderful article about using such dogs with disabled children. A Facility Dog placement is made with a trained professional who uses the dog for pet therapy and interactions.

Service Dogs are often utilized to provide demonstrations. This is a picture of Mary & Blake, with their TOP DOG's Sedona & Savannah. Here, they are talking to a large classroom of really fascinated kids. TOP DOG helps people understand lots more about disabled people and their service dogs. They have done hundreds of educational demonstrations for thousands of children and adults in schools, nursing homes, hospitals, and organizations in the Tucson area. The audience gets to see how a service dog assists its human companion in the daily activities we able-bodied take for granted. They show how their service dogs help them get dressed, turn lights on & off, bring a phone to them, and push or pull wheelchairs.

Here's Savannah again, with her companion Blake. He uses crutches due to a spinal cord injury. But, they both love the tennis courts. And, get this! Savannah even has her own membership card. She must think, 'what a dreamy life, to be surrounded by tennis balls!' Because as we all know, tennis balls are one of the most favorite things of our Goldens.

Did you know? Assistance dogs are generally evaluated and trained by professionals through formal organizations. However, many programs that provide service dogs have long waiting lists, are out of state, or charge too much money. Through new resources (DVDs, online groups, etc.), many in the disabled community are training their own dogs to help in everyday tasks. There are a multitude of tasks that dogs can be trained to perform that qualify the dogs as service dogs under federal law. In actuality, there are more owner-trained service dogs in the United States than the service dogs from all of the programs combined.

Meet Christina, the President of Paws to Freedom, a Service Dog Team education group, teaches those with disabilities to positively train their own service dog. Christina, who has Cerebral Palsy and uses a wheelchair, has a 2-year-old Golden named Maverick who she trained to be her assistance dog. These videos feature a 9-month-old Maverick's turn and basket commands. The turn command helps dogs out of messes with their leashes, getting them to utilize their entire bodies. The basket command, which teaches dogs to use all four legs, when normally they're only aware of having two, helps when they need to get in close quarters such as an airplane. Christina used Barbara Handelman's Clicker Train your own Assistance Dog: A Four-Part DVD Series as a reference.

Did you know?
Sometimes, Goldens who train to become assistance dogs are released from the program due to medical or temperament related issues. They are referred to as Change of Career dogs. However, many of these pups go on to work in another program such as pet therapy or search and rescue.

Did you know?
Many assistance dog organizations choose the "best of the best" to become Breeder Dogs. These dogs are selected only after temperament and medical evaluations and are housed with volunteer Breeder Caretakers. The Breeder Caretakers of the females are responsible for whelping litters and caring for the puppies during their first 8 weeks of life. And, the Breeder Caretakers of the male dogs are required to have the dog readily and promptly available for mating purposes.

	Christopher Reeve Foundation video on mobility service dogs