Email Edition 17 July 2015 The next get-together is Saturday, July 25, 2015 at Spanaway Park Training class will meet at 11:00 am at TACID (Tacoma Area Coalition of Individuals With Disabilities) Website http://www.assistancedogclub.org E-Mail Address assist_dog_club@hotmail.com Mailing Address Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound 2522 N. Proctor Street, Box #459 Tacoma, WA 98406 Assistance Dog Club and the Annual Picnic Saturday, July 25, 2015 The ADC s annual picnic will be held on Saturday July 25th at Spanaway Park in Spanaway. Please arrive at 11:30, plan to eat and enjoy the day with our dogs. As usual we ll have games for the dogs as well as goodies for prizes. We will need to know how many will be joining us. We invite you to bring family members and good friends. For those of you who have never been to one of our picnics, the club provides the fried chicken and the drinks. It s a pot luck event so let us know what you ll be bringing. The food is always wonderful! Most importantly, be prepared to have a good time with great food, games and good conversation. You ll find a map to the park in the newsletter. We have reserved the 1st shelter on the right as you come into the park. It s usually comfortable, shady and lots of seating. Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound Board of Directors President Pat Kessler Vice President/Treasurer Wayne Terry Secretary Diane Funai Assistant Secretary Sally Montejano Social Coordinator Fred Fuller Mission Statement The mission of the Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound is to provide a safe, supportive, and educational environment that will enhance the partnership of persons with disabilities and their assistance dogs. Published through the generous support of the Dimmer Family Foundation 1.
President s Corner by Pat Kessler Greetings everyone! Well we have two great outings lately and for those of you who attended I thank you for participating. Well all had a great time at both events. The fire station, like always, was very educational for both handlers and dogs. Lots of information for us and them exchanged hands and the dogs got to smell and hear sounds and see the fireman dressed up. A great educational trip for all of us. We just recently went to the Light Rail in Tacoma and took the dogs for a ride. All the dogs did really well. It is important for us to get our dogs used to alternate means of transportation. You never know when you may use it and our dogs need to be familiar with it. Afterwards we all had lunch in the Freighthouse Square. Again a great opportunity for our dogs all who were fantastic! Outings like this help train our dogs to be at ease with places we might not regularly go on our own and also gives us a great time to get together and just socialize with one another. By getting to know one another more we can help each other more and learn about our dogs from one another. It also helps the public to see us together. They get to see what real service dogs look like in public. They also see that service dogs come in all sizes and breeds, but they also see how well behaved they are versus the many Fakes out there and allowing the public to spot the difference. All of our service dogs wear vests and I have noticed the Fakes aren t even bothering with them a lot of times now. That can help tell them apart (although they can get them easily enough) but they can t fake how well behaved our dogs are. So our outings help us and the public at the same time. Since 2 Aug-8 Aug is Service Dog Awareness week, maybe we can get together for lunch somewhere and let the public see our beautiful well behaved dogs. July we will be having our summer picnic. It is a potluck and the club will be providing chicken as usual and drinks. We need to know how many will be attending so we know how much chicken to get so please let us know by July 15th if you are coming and how many will be in your group. We hope to see you all there even those without dogs. Let s have a big turnout. Future Meetings and Events Mark Your Calendar The Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound organizes meetings and events that will serve to strengthen the relationship between the service dog and their human partner. If you are interested in joining us at a meeting or event, please email us at assist_dog_club@hotmail.com. July 25 - Annual Picnic - Spanaway Park July/August - Newsletter and Meeting Minutes Hiatus August 31 - Deadline for Board Applications AND Membership Packets September 19 - This meeting was originally scheduled for Sept. 26 but has been changed to the 19th to accommodate TACID s ADA celebration on September 26th October 24 - Annual Mandatory Membership Meeting and Potluck November 28 - No meeting in November - Happy Thanksgiving December 12 - Annual Christmas/Holiday Celebration Published through the generous support of the Dimmer Family Foundation 2.
Cataract Surgery for Service Dogs by Pat Kessler In 2014, I like many others with service dogs took advantage of the graciousness of veterinary eye specialists to have my service dog s eyes examined for free. A list of doctors in my area was identified on the web and I chose the Animal Eye Clinic located on Roosevelt Avenue in Seattle for my dog Coby s exam. The clinic and doctors were very pleasant and the examination took about 15 minutes. Afterwards the doctor told me Coby had a cataract starting in his right eye and that for now we would just watch it. They followed up with a written report. This year, 2015, I signed up for the eye exam again and the eye clinic also sent me a reminder for a new check-up. We had our exam and found that Coby was now ready for surgery for the cataract in his right eye. I immediately had them schedule his surgery. On June 17, 2015, Coby had his surgery and it went great. They replaced the lens in his right eye. The surgery took about 45 minutes to perform. Afterwards he was fitted with a cone and given eye drops and two antibiotics to take at home. We had to return the next day for a check-up and his eye looked great and the pressure in his eye was excellent. We will return for his final checkup on July 2nd. At that time he should no longer have to wear the cone and be good as new. I can t say enough about how pleased I am that Coby had this surgery. Without it he would have eventually gone blind in his right eye. Instead he will have normal vision again. I want to point out that this kind of surgery, like many others, is not cheap. The cost was over $2200 for just his one eye. If you don t have insurance on your dog you really need to obtain it. If he had cataracts in both eyes it would have cost over $5000. Can you afford to pay that outright for your dog? Dog health care is not cheap. We love and depend on our dogs and they deserve the best health care we can provide. Dog health insurance helps you provide that. I am lucky that Coby is part of the VA Service Dog program that provides health care insurance for my dog and pays 100% of his medical costs. Most of you don t have access to this coverage so you must provide insurance on your own. But it can pay for itself with one surgery. To all of you that held Coby in your prayers for his surgery, thank you and please next year take advantage of the free eye screening for your dog. You could save their eyesight. Published through the generous support of the Dimmer Family Foundation 3.
Editor s Notes By Jack Pearce-Droge Looking for something New! In pursuit of looking for new ideas for the newsletter I am putting out a call for information from members as to the types of things that you do for or with your dogs. How do you provide your dogs with some down time? Chester was trained to enjoy dog games, particularly if they involve treats! Games are great for keeping them focused while they are also having a good time and for involving commands such as wait, go ahead, find, sit, etc. He got this game for his birthday this year from his initial trainer and family. It s called the Dog Casino Interactive Game by Nina Ottoson. Games work well for Chester and I. I m not up to running with him but I do make sure that he has the chance to run beside my chair. The games help him to focus on an item or an object and that s always helpful. We learn from one another. I d like to take this opportunity to invite our members to submit some photos and share some of the activities that help your dog to learn to refine their abilities to do their job as your partner. Please just email your write-up and photos to me at jpdroge@earthlink.net. If you re interested in finding games for your dog I have good luck with Amazon. I have to say that I don t get anything extra for making that assertion but they offer a wide variety of games, toys and activities at very good prices. All activities and meetings will be held at TACID unless otherwise noted. TACID s address is: 6315 S 19th St, Tacoma, Washington 98466 Published through the generous support of the Dimmer Family Foundation 4.
International Assistance Dog Week (IADW) International Assistance Dog Week (IADW) was created to recognize all the devoted, hardworking assistance dogs helping individuals mitigate their disability related limitations. You will find more information at www. assistancedogweek.org The goals of IADW are to: Recognize and honor assistance dogs Raise awareness and educate the public about assistance dogs Honor puppy raisers and trainers Recognize heroic deeds performed by assistance dogs in our communities Buy Kurgo Products at a Discount and Help IADW Kurgo is offering a 20% off coupon code for IADW supporters. You can shop at Kurgo, the top-rated dog travel product supplier in the world and get everything you need for your dog on the go, such as seat covers, collars, leashes, harnesses, bowls, and more. Go to kurgo.com and use coupon code DogWeek15 when you place your order. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to International Assistance Dog Week. IADW Media Sponsors Help Build Awareness Look for the IADW ad in the July issue of New Mobility Magazine. You can also keep up with the latest from New Mobility on their Facebook page. We want to thank New Mobility for being a media sponsor for the fourth year. Remember, you can sign up to be a member of National Spinal Cord Injury Association (NSCIA) for FREE which will provide you with access to their full range of programs and benefits. Just go to www.spinalcord.org Thanks to Pet Life Radio the number one pet podcast radio network, for being a media sponsor for IADW for the fifth year. Published through the generous support of the Dimmer Family Foundation 5.
Training Tips: Medication Alert By Jeanne Hampl The goal of this month s lesson is to teach a dog to respond appropriately to a specific sound. First choose both the sound you want the dog to alert to as well as the method you want the dog to use to alert the individual to the sound. In order to teach this task each part of the task must be broken down into individual behaviors. Once the dog has learned each behavior they will be chained together to perform the task. The example I am going to use is to teach the dog to alert to a specific cell phone ring which will be paired with alerting the handler so they will know it is time to take medication. Rather than a cell phone you can use a multi-alarm pillbox. (http:// www.epill.com/alarms.html). First we will teach the dog to respond to the specific sound of the cell phone ring. We do that by pairing a treat with the sound. The sound predicts that the dog will receive a treat. Secondly we teach the dog to target with either paw or nose a specific spot on the handler s body, hip, hand, elbow etc. If the dog has had no target training we begin by teaching the dog to press its nose or paw against a see through lid with blue painter s tape in the center. Once the dog understands the concept of targeting we transfer the target i.e. the blue painter s tape to the handler s clothes at the place they have chosen. The dog is then asked to Touch the target on the person s body. We will than teach the dog to find the target spot with the handler in a chair, standing up as well as lying down. Once the dog is reliably responding to the sound, the handler will cue the dog to Touch the appropriate spot on handler when the sound is presented. We have chained together two behaviors to get the task of alerting to a medication alarm. We will then have to slowly increase the distance the dog will travel to alert the handler until the dog will reliably come any distance when it hears the sound. Once the dog is reliably performing the task at home we will have to proof the behaviors in other environments to help the dog generalize the task. We build in persistence once the dog is reliably performing the two behaviors by withholding the reward until the dog re alerts the handler. Ignoring the first alert, which has been previously rewarded, will actually for most dogs increase the insistence of the alert. We can then apply this alert to different sounds such as the alarm clock by introducing the new sound the same way that we introduced the original sound and then once again pairing the sound with the Touch. 2015 Published through the generous support of the Dimmer Family Foundation 6.
Congratulations to our newest Canine Good Citizen Graduates! Sarah J. Keck, CPDT At our June Assistance Dog Club meeting, we offered free Canine Good Citizen evaluations to any of the available members. We had three teams take the test, and all three passed! Two of the teams were club members Diane Funai and Katie and Sally Montejano with Kalia. Congratulations to all the teams that participated! Taking a test like the Canine Good Citizen is a great way to assess the current status of your dog s training. It reflects many of the daily challenges that an urban dog will have to face because each piece of the test is designed to work on a real life aspect. For example: well behaved, trained dogs should be able to walk smoothly and loosely on a leash, come back quickly to their owners when called, and calmly settle when left with a stranger. The two pieces that seem especially crucial for service dogs are the Reaction to Distraction and Reaction to another Dog. These two test items are two of the more difficult things that the dogs will encounter every day and must understand how to cope with confidently. One can never predict what you will run into while out training your service dog. For example, when I was training my most recent service dog we encountered two mounted police in Seattle. The Labrador puppy had never seen a horse before and was very confused at first. Because we had done so much work socializing and training prior to that day, I was very confident that he would react calmly in that situation. We have also encountered more than one service dog that has moved towards us, growled and even tried to bite my dog in training. Deciding to assess your dog every couple of years as they mature and their behavior changes is one way to help understand your dog, and learn what type of training they might need for that time in their life. As one of the newest members of the club, I realize many of you reading this newsletter may have never met me! Ever since elementary school, I have been involved in some kind of dog training. I have worked with Search and Rescue teams, detection dogs, and competed in the ring with my little Cocker Spaniels. I have been lucky enough to morph this passion into a career and for the last eight years of my life I have been a professional dog trainer at Riverdog Canine Coaching in Issaquah. Most recently, I have found the opportunity to train my first Diabetic Alert Dog and joined this club about a year ago to learn all I could about Service Dogs. I have learned so much from the members of this club, and am excited to continue my journey training service dogs. I hope to meet you all soon! Published through the generous support of the Dimmer Family Foundation 7.
Wear Your Support for IADW Visit the IADW CafePress store. Renowned Santa Fe artist Krista Brooks of Retro Pets created this delightful assistance dog image. It has been applied to T-shirts and other products so you can show your support of IADW. 100% of the profits from sales of these items will benefit International Assistance Dog Week. You can shop for the T-shirts and all the items at www.cafepress.com/assistancedogweek Support ADC While You Shop If you are interested in supporting the Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound there are a few options that are available to you! ADCPS has entered into a partnership with both Amazon.com and Fred Meyer. If you would like more information about both options offered by these two corporation you will find it on ADC s website, [http://www.assistancedogclub.org/home/support ] complete with links that will guide you through the process. Published through the generous support of the Dimmer Family Foundation 8.