Veteran And Her Service Dog

Wearing a mask and social-distancing are stressful for most people, but adding in PTSD and sexual assault provides additional strain, one Murfreesboro resident says. However, she says she is doing better thanks to her service dog, and she wants to help other veterans.

Stefanie Marvin-Miller is a wife, university student, veteran and public speaker on the topics of sexual assault in the military and service dogs. She said she was medically discharged after being diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder following an alleged sexual assault by a servicemember in January 2016.

As she was leaving the military with a PTSD diagnosis, she began applying to veteran service dog organizations. After sending 15 applications, Marvin-Miller said she received 11 rejection letters from organizations, which said her PTSD from sexual assault did not qualify for help – they recognized PTSD only from combat trauma, she said. Southeastern Guide Dogs of Palmetto, Fla., said “Yes.” A non-profit called Sierra Delta helped her find Southeastern. She got connected with her service dog, Leland, a yellow Lab.

Navigating the pandemic has added a layer of complexity to her life, said Marvin-Miller, a student at Middle Tennessee State University. She went from being in classes every day with thousands of people around her to “nothing,” being inside all day.

Having a service dog is a major responsibility, as it needs ongoing work to perform to keep its training fresh, she said. Staying at home meant Leland lost his job except for a few tasks around the house. She went from drilling him 10 minutes a day to one hour daily to keep him occupied. Bored working dogs tend to act out. “It’s a relationship,” she said about having a service dog.

Marvin-Miller said that for her, avoiding people is not conducive to healing.

“It’s not cathartic to me,” she said. “I really need to be around people. “I was on edge like before I got Leland.”

Furthermore, while masks may be helpful, they were a trigger for her as a sexual assault survivor, Marvin-Miller said. She said that even as she made progress in going to the grocery store or to campus, “it was like a switch flipped,” and Leland had to help. For three months after the pandemic started, she said she went out only into the yard to train him and walk in the neighborhood.

She said she began slowly going out into the public after three months. She would still have panic attacks at times in the grocery store or on campus while getting supplies. Further complicating her wearing a mask, she underwent a high-risk surgery a couple of years ago and experienced breathing issues for unknown reasons, she said.

During her time at home, she said she began sewing masks for the Murfreesboro Police Department with her husband, Joshua, and her parents, Michael and Vanessa Happel. The city recognized her work with a citizens’ award, she said. The family reached production levels of 50 masks a day and gave them away.

She said she forced herself to talk to people as they picked up the masks, giving her a social outlet. Making the masks was fun, she said. It took months of working with Leland for her to be able to go out in public and wear a mask, she said. She attends two on-campus classes this semester, so she has to visit MTSU in person.

“Leland – God bless him,” Marvin-Miller said. “He did his job every day. He knew all my signals. He took my leash and took me out of Kroger before I knew I was scared.”

One of Leland’s tasks is to sense when Marvin-Miller is about to panic, she said. At such a time, he will take his leash and walk through the nearest door. That exercise is called “find the door,” and it is something they practice as play.

Marvin-Miller said that during the pandemic, she went to work for Sierra Delta.

B.J. Ganem, founder of Sierra Delta, which is based in Wisconsin, told the Murfreesboro Post his organization focuses on any type of dog that a veteran needs. These veterans do not always need a service dog, but may just need a guide dog or a well-trained pet.

Service dogs like Leland take expensive training, and there are only about 1,000 trained per year, Ganem said. There are 18 million veterans, and 150,000 need some sort of public-access dog. Veterans are dying every day, including some who will never receive a dog.

“We think that’s wrong,” he said.

Ganem said this mission is his passion. The Marine veteran’s left leg was blown off below the knee in Iraq in 2004, he said. He divorced, filed for bankruptcy and was angry. He said he was close to committing suicide but came across an old English bulldog, which had no training; caring for the dog gave him purpose.

Sierra Delta has helped 400 veterans, including Marvin-Miller, since being incorporated in 2017, Ganem said.

“We’re about really focusing on a relationship that the veterans can focus on too without saying they are broken,” Ganem said. “Most clients don’t need a full-service dog. But they can be better with a dog.”

Mac The Therapy Dog

People can now have their very own Mac the therapy dog to cuddle.

Through a fundraiser launched on Friday (Dec. 11) plush stuffies of the popular University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) dog named Mac have been made available following his passing earlier this year.

Long-haired golden retriever, Macbeth (Mac for short), was an accredited Pacific Assistance Dogs Society (PADS) therapy dog who brought solace to students and staff at UFV. He died on June 26, 2020 at the age of 16.

Now 500 stuffies have been made in his memory for people to buy as part of the fundraiser for PADS which features three limited edition ‘2020 PADS Legends’ dogs.

“A very limited number of plush stuffies has been released by PADS, and Mac was chosen to be one of the phenomenal dogs immortalized this inaugural year,” said Dawn Holt, Mac’s former owner.

The other two 2020 PADS Legends are yellow Labrador retriever, Caber, and a black lab named Leahy.

Folks can purchase a 10” Mac – complete with his scruffy, long chest fur and a signature blue vest – for $20 online.

Mac worked for years with Holt in the counselling department at UFV. He retired at the age of 15 in 2019. “Mac was all about love and even though our world is full of powerfully negative emotions right now, he would want to remind us that love, compassion and kindness is still here, always,” Holt said. “One of Mac’s very good friends said, perfectly and profoundly, ‘Everyone could use a little Mac.’ I agree wholeheartedly,” Holt said.

Book For Dog Lovers

“If You’re Not Covered in Dog Hair, Your Life Is Empty!”

So reads the subtitle for “The UltiMUTT” Book for Dog Lovers,” a collection of 12 “tails” about dogs and their owners, published by Dare to Dream Knockout Publishing for $30 in color and $7 in black and white.

Debbi Dachinger, who compiled the stories, dedicates the 182-page, soft cover book “To all our dogs, past, present and future, who are our loves, life savers, protectors, favorite comedians, teachers, best friends, heart menders, foot warmers, selfie buddies, bathroom escorts, bed stealers, fluffy alarm clocks, playful therapists, beautiful, forgiving, pure magic and always there.”

Hal Price and Leana Orsua, both of Carpinteria, can relate.

Two of their stories are included in the book “Rescue Reilly: The COVID-19  Super Dog” by Mr. Price and “Roxy to the Rescue: In Memory of Denise Cohen” by Ms. Orsua.

The author of 11 international bestselling books as well as storybooks for children, Mr. Price tells his story from the creative perspective of Rescue Reilly, who he adopted in March from The Little Dog House in Goleta.

“I have Rescue Reilly share what life was like before I took him home — how he was found, along with four other newborns, in a Burrito Grande cardboard box next to a Taco Bell dumpster in Camarillo, taken to Ventura County Animal Services and then to Goleta,” Mr. Price told the News-Press.

“In my story, I have Reilly listening to other dogs at the shelter, making them comfortable, soothing them. He was a healing dog because he had a heart murmur.”

Rescue Reilly “writes” in the book that his heart was tested at the animal shelter, where a heart murmur was detected: “Each day as a new animal was admitted, I welcomed them quietly with my heart as it murmured loving messages to them. I always tried to calm them down when they first arrived at our noisy and sometimes chaotic location.

“By day, they were loved and cared for by the staff, but at night when the staff was gone and my new friends were all alone in their cages, I had my heart murmur to soothe them and bring them peace.”

During this time, the puppy, a mix of Maltese/terrier/poodle, was named Justin but as Reilly “writes” in the book, “As Hal and Maggie were leaving the shelter, I heard them discussing names for me. As they passed the auto repair store next door to The Little Dog House, Hal looked up and saw the name O’Reilly Auto Parts and said, ‘This dog is NOT A JUSTIN! Let’s name this little guy something a little more unique . . . How about RESCUE REILLY? Because today, we have all been RESCUED in some profound way.”

Not only has the dog provided a great deal of comfort for Mr. Price during the pandemic, the father of three grown children and three grandchildren has made him famous with the puppy’s own Facebook page and website.

Leana Orsua delivers a powerful story about the quiet comfort of her dog Roxy after the tragic loss of her dear friend, Denise Cohen, during a mass shooting in 2017 in Las Vegas at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival.

‘Denise was one of 58 people killed. We had been friends since 2008. We met at the Canary Hotel during one of the happy hours, and we just clicked,” said Ms. Orsua by phone.

“My dog Roxy, a mix of Chihuahua and dachshund, was 6 years old at the time. She seemed to have a sixth sense about the tragedy. It was so powerful, so moving the way she connected with me. She would stare into my eyes, giving me a sense of comfort and making me feel at peace. She helped me work through the sadness I felt. She had the innate ability to be right there in the moment.”

In the book, Ms. Orsua writes, “Her support timing became impeccable. She learned the cues, always squeezing up to me at just the right moment when she sensed my anxiety and grief. Her eyes had become so good at giving me a signal of compassion. And sometimes she would come up and lick my tears.”

A former television news reporter, Ms. Orsua, who is in charge of membership management at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, has another dog named Gigi. Both were adopted from DAWG (Dog Adoption & Welfare Group) in Goleta. (The nonprofit merged with another organization this year, and it is now Santa Ynez Valley Humane Society/DAWG.)

“Both humans and dogs are social creatures, so the bond between Roxy, Gigi and I evolved into a naturally symbiotic relationship,” she writes. “Dogs are generally friendly, trusting and always eager to please. Although I don’t have kids, I discovered a deeply maternal bond with my dogs …

“I’m especially grateful for the unwavering love and emotional support of my Roxy who penetrated through my pain and helped to heal the emotional scars.”

Canine Police Helps Raise Money

Come January, Police Service Dog Nixon will be ready to put his paws up and enjoy retirement.

While the retirement is well-deserved for the now-10-year-old dog, Canine Unit Const. Derrick Fox will transition from handler/partner to owner. That means veterinary bills once paid by the Regina Police Service will now fall to Fox to foot.

“The amount of work that these dogs are put to, the end of their life is when they start seeing the joint pain or hip damage and stuff like that,” Fox said. “It can be expensive with medication, so that’s where the SPCA steps in.”

The Saskatchewan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) launched the Stryker K-9 Care Fund in 2015, said program director Sandra Anderson.

“When law enforcement dogs retire, they generally don’t have any sort of support from the agency that they worked for, so the owner of the animal is responsible for all costs at that point,” she said. “These dogs have worked really hard throughout their careers and they may require surgeries related to the intense workload that they’ve had while serving the police force.” She added that medical conditions can crop up as dogs age, which also require care.

Fox said German Shepherds like Nixon commonly develop hip and back issues over time — something that is exacerbated by the nature of the work they do when serving as PSDs.

“Most of it, it’s repetitive strain,” he said. “Jumping in and out of the truck, it’s something very unnatural for them … They land on their shoulders quite frequently or they jump over fences and they’re landing and jarring their shoulders. So over time, over the seven or eight years the dog works in the unit, that arthritis builds up.”

In Nixon’s case, he’s already had to have surgery on his back legs so he currently works as a drug dog, keeping him from having to do demanding physical work. (Fox has a second, younger dog for those duties.) Nixon is on a muscle relaxant to help him walk, so Fox knows he will need the fund going forward for things like the vet mobility clinic they use. Other bills include things like yearly physicals and dental work, he said.

Anderson said since the Stryker fund’s inception, it’s given out just shy of $25,000 to 21 retired dogs belonging to various Saskatchewan police services — mainly in Regina and Saskatoon — and the Canada Border Services Agency. Funding is provided for things like yearly physicals, medications, dietary supplements recommended by vets and surgeries deemed medically necessary. Money is also used to pay for euthanizing and cremating dogs when the time comes. Anderson and Fox pointed out the fund isn’t usually enough to cover off the entire bill, but rather helps out with the overall cost.

Police services fundraise to ensure there’s enough in the fund when it’s needed. Both Saskatoon and Regina police have often done calendars featuring the dogs on their respective units, but Fox said Regina police changed things up this year. This time, they’re selling stuffed dogs with all money raised going to the Stryker fund.

Fox said the stuffies were already on hand at the RPS, usually given out to kids police encounter during their work to comfort or make them feel better.

Family Gets Reunited With Service Dog

A Michigan couple was reunited with their rescue service dog after spending three years looking for the dog in an emotional reunion made possible just in time for Christmas. The black Labrador retriever mix named Lola, or as Steve and Debra Mejeur affectionally refer to her, Lola Pup or Poo Butt, is home and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

“Are you ready for this?” Debra said to Inside Edition Digital before sharing Saturday was her birthday. “So yeah, I got an early birthday present, slash Christmas present.”

Debra recalled the day her dog had gone missing. It was in October 2017, when Debra and Lola were visiting friends in Elk Grove Village, Illinois for the day that Lola managed to escape the fenced-in yard she had been in. After she disappeared, they searched almost every weekend over the course of 16 months hoping to find her, traveling from their home in Kalamazoo to Illinois.

But Lola had vanished without a trace.

“I cried all the way home and a few days after because it felt like I abandoned her. There was so much guilt. I felt like I didn’t do enough to keep her safe,” she said.

Debra said she spent endless hours joining different Facebook groups and shelters in the search for her missing dog. She said she even joined the Greenbay Packers fan club page, hoping maybe someone would know something.

For Debra, Lola just wasn’t a family member, but was also her lifeline; her personal service dog that she said she trained herself, that knew how to help her when she had a seizure.

“When I have grand mal seizures, I wake up confused. Lola would lay next to me until I came to,” she explained.  “It was always such a comfort.”

After more than a year-and-a-half of trying to find Lola, Debra decided it was time to move on and they ended up adopting a dog they named Maddox, a black Labrador mix that just happened to be the same breed and color as Lola.

“He was labeled unadoptable. He was sick with heartworm. We didn’t care that he had heartworm. This felt right for us. We would take care of him,” said Debra. “Part of me felt like it was a sign not to let another dog die when it could have been saved. Maybe Lola was telling us to get him.”

Then, on Dec. 3, the phone rang. Debra answered and on the other end of the line, a computerized voice from a shelter told her Lola had been found. “I was stunned,” said Debra. “I kept on saying my husband’s name over and over. It didn’t seem real to me.”

She and her husband hugged, overjoyed by the news, and they went to the Illinois shelter that they soon learned had only been 10 miles away from where they visited friends in Illinois.

Debra soon learned Lola’s story of survival. She had been living in the woods for the last three years, and a retired couple had been looking after her, feeding her and giving her water for the last two-and-a-half years. Each time the couple tried to bring her inside their home, Lola would runaway. At one point, a neighbor called animal control, hoping they’d be able to get Lola on a leash, but they were unable to catch her, Debra said.

“We had the polar vortex last year when it was negative 30 and Lola was living in the woods and she survived it,” Debra said. “People can’t even do that.”

Finally, the couple earned Lola’s trust enough that they were able to finally put her on a leash. They drove her to the Dupage County Animal Shelter, where Lola’s microchip was discovered, and Debra and Steven were contacted. Debra and Steven were reunited with their little girl two days after Lola arrived at the shelter.

Debra recalled how overwhelmed she was with emotion. She said at first, Lola appeared hesitant, but once she called her by her nicknames, “Lola Pup” and “Poo Butt,” Lola began to slowly creep towards her. After a few sniffs and licks, she realized it was her mom.

“She burrowed into me smiling and running around me,” said Debra, whose husband was thrilled to see the pup, too, and was busy filming the long-awaited reunion.

Debra said the first thing Lola did once she was got home was drink and make up for lost time.

“She ran right to the water holder and drank about a gallon of water at one time, then we cuddled. It’s unbelievable. I’m still reeling from this,” said Debra, who said Lola had to get two of her teeth removed and was also being treated for Lyme disease.

Debra hasn’t yet met the people who helped care for Lola, but hopes to one day soon. In the meantime, she’ll be sending them lots of photos of Lola. “They are part of our family now,” said Debra.

Firefighters Get ESA

Battalion Chief David Picone remembers the car wreck on Mother’s Day some 20 years ago like it was yesterday. Picone, then a paramedic in Riverside County, comforted an uninjured toddler who was in one of the cars involved in the crash, holding the girl in his arms as he looked for her mother.

The mom was dead.

Years later, the crash remains in Picone’s memory the same way other traumatic events haunt his colleagues. Along with the “day-in-and-day-out grind,” the battalion chief said, it all takes its toll.

Last week, the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department introduced three new members to help with that: Bodie, a 2-year-old Labrador retriever; Ty, a 6-year-old mini Goldendoodle; and Genoa, a 2-year-old Labrador retriever. Each is paired with a chaplain. Together they will provide emotional support.

“It’s another resource that we can offer to our folks to cope with what they see day in and day out,” San Diego Fire-Rescue Chief Colin Stowell said.

Picone, who heads the fire department’s Health and Safety Office, called the pairing “a natural fit,” given that chaplains — the department has 17 — visit fire stations and attend debriefings in the aftermath of critical incidents, which can be traumatic.

Bodie, Ty and Genoa, who live with the chaplains, are specially trained to the standard of service dogs, although they aren’t considered service animals because their handlers, the chaplains, are not disabled. They are what is known as facility dogs, and are certified as crisis response canines.

The canine teams completed more than 120 hours of training and will be retested every three months in their first year, then annually after that.

The teams build upon other wellness efforts, including a peer support program and counseling services — initiatives that the fire department has expanded in recent years.

“There’s not one size that fits all when it comes to the mental health of our firefighters,” Stowell said. He said critical incidents in a firefighter’s career can “trigger an acute response — or over the years, it builds up.”

Picone said the COVID-19 pandemic has been an added stressor. First, there’s the concern of bringing the virus home. Then, with fire stations closed to the community, including families, there’s the isolation.

The stresses of the job have consequences. Studies have shown that occurrences of post-traumatic stress disorder, binge drinking and depression are higher among firefighters than the general population.

Stowell said suicide rates among firefighters have been on the rise across the nation for the past nine years. That hit close to home last month when a Rancho Santa Fe Protection District captain who had worked in the fire service for 31 years took his own life after what the agency said was a years-long battle with work-related PTSD.

“As fire chiefs we want to do whatever we can to never have our members experience that loss that Rancho Santa Fe felt,” said Stowell, who spoke at the captain’s memorial service earlier this month.

Stowell and Picone acknowledged there’s a challenge fire departments face in helping their staff cope: stigma of needing help.

“The stigma is still real,” Picone said.

“For our firefighters, lifeguards, dispatchers, reaching out is sometimes difficult, as it is for the rest of society, but much more for us first responders,” Picone said. “We typically are the helpers, not the ones who need help.”

He and Stowell hope something as simple as a chaplain and a dog brings some comfort and will cause people to open up — “anything that can provide the comfort to allow somebody to lose their inhibition, or lose the anxiety, or relax enough, to forget that you are (wearing a) superhero shield,” Picone said.

“It’s OK to be not OK,” he said.

Chaplain Betsy Salzman said her four-legged partner, Genoa, has been a welcome addition to the fire department.

“We have not met a firefighter who has not gotten down (to pet her),” Salzman said.

Recently, Salzman and the Labrador retriever stood with firefighters as they waited in line to get tested for COVID-19. “I don’t know what’s more stressful for us these days,” Salzman said.

Picone said he envisions the program expanding if other chaplains are able to take dogs into their homes.

Robot Therapy Dog

Animals, especially dogs, can have therapeutic benefits for children and young people. But researchers from the UK have found that the robotic animal, ‘MiRo-E’, can be just as effective and may even be a better alternative.

“We know that real dogs can provide calming and enjoyable interactions for children—increasing their feelings of wellbeing, improving motivation and reducing stress,” Dr Leanne Proops said.

“This preliminary study has found that biomimetic robots—robots that mimic animal behaviours—may be a suitable replacement in certain situations and there are some benefits to using them over a real dog.”

Dogs are the most commonly used animals for therapy because of their training potential and generally social nature. However, there are concerns about using them in a setting with children because of the risk of triggering allergies or transmitting disease, and some people do not like dogs, so may not be comfortable in the presence of a real therapy dog.

Also visits can be stressful and incredibly tiring for therapy dogs, so there’s merit in exploring whether using a robotic animal is feasible.

There are lots of positives to using a robotic animal over a therapy dog. They can be thoroughly cleaned and can work for longer periods of time. They can also be incredibly lifelike, mirroring the movements and behaviour of a real animal, such as wagging their tails to show excitement, expressing ‘emotions’ through sounds and colour, turning their ears towards sounds and even going to sleep.

The researchers used real dogs and a biomimetic robot in a mainstream secondary school in West Sussex to interact with 34 children aged 11-12.

The children were asked to complete a questionnaire about their beliefs and attitudes towards dogs and robots, before they took part in two separate free-play sessions, one with a real-life dog and one with a robot.

The researchers found the children spent a similar amount of time stroking both the real-life dog and the robot, but they spent more time interacting with the robot.

Despite the children reporting they significantly preferred the session with the living dog, overall enjoyment was high and they actually expressed more positive emotions following interaction with the robot. The more the children attributed mental states and sentience to the dog and robot, the more they enjoyed the sessions.

“This is a small-scale study, but the results show that interactive robotic animals could be used as a good comparison to live dogs in research, and a useful alternative to traditional animal therapy,” Dr Proops said.

Hero Pups Program

 It’s been four joyful and sometimes chaotic years for Laura Barker, training service dogs that will go on to assist veterans and first responders recovering from physical and emotional damage sustained while on the job or serving in the armed forces.

Barker founded the entirely volunteer-run nonprofit Hero Pups in 2016, and this week, she said her organization will prepare to place its 100th service dog with a retired veteran. She said she has already partnered 40 dogs this year with individuals and has another 23 in training.

“You can’t buy the feeling when the individual meets their dog for the first time,” Barker said. “We say even show dogs need someone to look up to, so they created service dogs.”

The story of how Barker came to start an organization dedicated to pairing service dogs with veterans and first responders suffering from emotional trauma connected to their service is rooted in her own personal trauma. Her son was shot three times in the chest serving in Afghanistan with the Marines in 2010.

As her son was recovering stateside in a military hospital in 2011, Barker said she saw firsthand how much service animals could help soldiers on their way to recovery when she saw how a seriously injured soldier responded to a therapy dog that was brought in to visit with soldiers.

“When I saw how much this service dog helped alleviate some of his symptoms, not just the physical but the hidden wounds as well, I said, ‘how could I not do this?’” Barker said. “I didn’t have a nonprofit back then, I was just a Marine Mom who wanted to help and that started this difficult but wonderful journey I’ve been on since. I tell people I’ve been housebreaking dogs for seven years but I don’t keep a single one.”

Barker said not all dogs make good service animals. She said she looks for mixed breeds because they are typically healthier, and they must have the right temperament. She and her volunteer trainers’ experience profiling potential candidate service animals and the behavioral evaluations they undergo helps refine the process.

“The dogs’ individual personality has to be such that they want to work, and that’ll be what makes them a long-term success,” Barker said. “They can’t just be cute and loveable. There needs to be an eagerness to please, but have a certain amount of drive and smarts.”

In order to qualify for a service dog through Hero Pups, the veteran must have been discharged from the military with honorable standing and seeking out some form assistance, like mental health counseling. First responders seeking a service dog have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and are receiving support treatment.

“It’s so worthwhile to help a dog that might have otherwise been homeless or face an uncertain future,” Barker said. “Then, to train that dog to help our heroes who serve us every day.”

Since launching, Barker credits her team of volunteer trainers for helping the dogs, and eventually the individual-service dog team, train and grow together. She said there is also a team of volunteer puppy raisers who tackle the hard work of house-breaking and manners.

Barker also said prior to the start of the pandemic, Hero Pups was running a program with the state Department of Corrections to bring puppies into jails where inmates would care for and train them.

“The inmates work with the dogs on specialized task training and they care for them,” Barker said. “It helps them on their road to recovery and gives them a purpose while they finish out their sentence.”

The only times things can become chaotic for Barker, she said, is when veterans’ and first responders’ current service dogs transition out of its working livelihood and the individual is seeking a new service partner.

Caring Canines

Add a couple more veterans who can ease their stress a bit thanks to the Canines Assisting Service Heroes program.

Enzo’s Purpose

Alexandra Padilla’s cardiologist recommended that she have a service dog so that she could have a little more independence, and make it easier for her to do things on her own.

Padilla was matched with Enzo, a Golden Retriever medical alert service dog, in late March. Since then, she has come to visit him at least once a month.

“Our bond got really strong now,” Padilla said.

Padilla is in the transfer process. In this process, the trainer will work with the owner so they understand and are comfortable having the dog perform all of the tasks taught. The transfer process will last anywhere from five days to one week depending on the dog, owner, tasks, and more. For the transfer, the owner has the option to travel to Doggie Do Good facility, or they can send a trainer to the owner’s home.

Doggie Do Good and Doggie Does Good are the same in-home environment located in Arroyo Grande. At Doggie Do Good, Inc., each service dog is trained to perform tasks specific to the owner. To match the right dog to the right owner, Doggie Do Good does temperament testing.

“Temperament testing consists in finding a dog that is easygoing,” said Sandy Sandberg, Dog Do Good founder and CEO. “A dog that says how can I serve you? What can I do for you?”

There are different kinds of service dogs. Stability dogs are dogs who will assist people with some kind of a mobility issue.

“We find dogs that like to pick up items, that want to go get things, also more sturdy, more outgoing,” Sandberg said.

For someone that might have a quieter lifestyle, PTSD or they need a dog to do nighttime alerts, they look for dogs that are more mellow and also very sensitive to the person’s needs.

“If someone has autism, they might need a calmer dog,” Sandberg said.

Doggie Do Good offers a lifetime training guarantee. The training guarantee states that for the rest of the dog’s life the owner will have access to them over the phone and via email regarding any questions and concerns. The owner will also have free, one hour-long private lessons at our Doggie Do Good facility. This training guarantee covers anything the dog learned at Doggie Do Good.

“Enzo alerts me to my blood pressure,” Padilla said. “He is letting me know two to three minutes before I start feeling any symptoms, so then I can sit down. He will stay by my side until I start to feel better, and he will not let me get up either.”

Because there are so many different tasks Doggie do Good can train a service dog to do, the cost of the training is dependent on the tasks taught and the difficulty of those tasks.

“Go through the proper channels to get the right dog so that the dog is performing the tasks, not only when it’s going out in the public or when it’s at home, whatever settings it’s in, but it is having manners and also making sure it’s keeping the public safe,” Sandberg said.

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, 1990) a dog is considered a Service Dog if it has been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability.  These dogs are more than just pets; they are companions, and often lifelines. A service dog will provide safety, confidence, independence, and companionship to its owner.