By TR Robertson
The start of National Service Dog Month was celebrated in style on Thursday at Canine Companions in Oceanside with a well attended open house at their facility at 124 Rancho del Oro Drive. These amazing service dogs assist adults and children with physical disabilities, veterans with physical disabilities, hearing loss or post-traumatic stress disorders and professionals working in health care, criminal justice or education. Canine Companions has been providing this amazing service since 1975, now located in six centers across the nation. The Oceanside center serves Southern California, Southern Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Arizona and Hawaii. All of the centers combined, these service dogs have 5.2 million interactions in various communities each year.
The open house began with a tour of the facility, hosted by volunteers from Canine Companions followed by a presentation featuring proclamations from city and state officials, service dog demonstrations and the first public release of Canine Companions short, animated film, “Andy – A Dog’s Tale”. For the tour we learned about the beginnings of Canine Companions and the various categories the service dogs could service, learned about the volunteer puppy raising program, saw the various pens and areas used for training, visited the kitchen, community area and dorms benefactor Dean Koontz donated for the two-week training program participants go through. Our tour guide explained that Labradors and Golden Retrivers are the best dogs to use as Service Dogs. She said she got her start with Canine Companions as a puppy raiser. The puppies go to selected individuals at eight weeks and stay with the puppy raiser for 1 1/ 2 years, teaching the puppy 40 ques and crate training the puppy. When asked if it was hard to let the puppy go to their new owner at Canine Companions graduation, she said, “Hard yes, but satisfying knowing that the puppy was now a service dog that would be assisting people in need”. The service dog will also go through training with professionals to make sure the dog learns the specific tasks to assist the person with disabilities who will own the dog.
Following the tours, the visitors to the facility gathered for presentations to honor National Service Dog Month. Representatives from Canine Companions received Proclamations and Commendations for Service from Oceanside Deputy Mayor Ryan Keim and Community Relations Liaison Adrienne Cisneros-Selekman from Supervisor Jim Desmond’s Office. Next, Amy, with Service Dog Cotter, and Sarah, with Service Dog Mocha, demonstrated a number of tasks each dog had learned that would assist with different needs their owners would have on a daily basis. Both dogs were amazing, showing what they had been taught. Mocha’s demonstrations were interesting as they were specifically for individuals that are hearing impaired. Gentle nudges from the dog would signal to the handler that something that dropped or been heard by the dog. Following the demonstrations, a short 7-minute animated film, “Andy-A Dog’s Tale”, was shown. The award-winning film showed a young puppy as he went through training to be a service dog and how he conquered his fear of wheels to help his potential owner.
Incredible Service dog facts:
*Canine Companions currently serves people with more than 65 different types of disabilities.
*Canine Companions has more than 3,000 active teams throughout the country and has placed more than 8,000 teams since 1975.
*64 million people in America live with a disability.
*There are 15,000 Service Dogs from accredited organizations in the U.S.
*4.7 million veterans have a service-related injury.
*95% of veteran teams report a decrease in frequency and severity of PTSD
*100% of veteran teams report increased independence confidence and quality of life.
Canine Companions emphasized that Service Dogs are working dogs not pets. They require years of training to do their job and are allowed wherever their handler is permitted. It is important to understand that Service dogs are trained in specific tasks to assist a person with a disability. Therapy dogs are certified pet dogs that provide comfort to groups in places like libraries, schools, hospitals and other locations. An Emotional Support Animal is a pet that provides comfort to people with mental health conditions. Canine Companions also provided a handout that discussed stopping Service Dog fraud and supporting changes to the ADA to protect real Service Dogs. It was said some people are posing their pet dogs as service dogs to gain access to airplanes, restaurants and other places pet dogs are not allowed and they encourage people to help stop Service Dog Scams.
Another promotional open to the public will be held at Local Roots at 1430 Vantage Ct. Suite 101 on September 21 from 2 pm – 6 pm, called DogFest. Everyone is encouraged to bring their dogs, family and friends to a fun, dog-friendly community event and festival. Go to www.canine.org/DogFestSanDiego for more information and to register.
For anyone interested in volunteering opportunities available at Canine Companions for Training Center Volunteers, Event Volunteers, Mission Volunteer, Canine Volunteers go to www.canine.org/getinvolved for more information. Go to www.canine.org or call 1-800-572-BARK.
