The Key Question That Drives What You See – And Don’t See – On This Site
Posted on | January 4, 2010 | No Comments
With the beginning of another year, good time to step back just a little and address the direction of things here.
Justin Kownacki is pretty obnoxious and profane, and there are a lotta times I don’t agree with or even read him, but I really like his “cut through the crap” style (most of the time).
His post today is the best one I’ve seen on this subject: “So What Do We *Do* With All This Information?” The whole thing is worth reading, but even if you don’t read it, there’s one key takeaway question he asks that anybody sharing information, especially online, needs to continually ask themselves:
“Am I just creating more white noise in your life, or am I giving you information that can be applied / acted on / experienced?”
Justin’s put into words exactly how I try to operate (and he sets a great example by doing the latter in his post, too). Might not always be successful, but that’s what I’ve aimed for in the past and will continue to aim for, and it drives what you see here – and don’t.
“A Pup’s Journey to Greatness”
Posted on | December 20, 2009 | No Comments
Today I’m gonna give you a chance to see something most people never get to see.
When they’re 8 weeks old, Canine Companions for Independence puppies are brought to the national headquarters campus in Santa Rosa by the breeder caretaker of the mama dog who gave birth to them. They are checked out thoroughly by the veterinary staff, given an identifying tattoo in their right ear, washed, and then sent on their way to puppy raisers across the U.S., who will raise and train them for the next 15-18 months. (You can read more about breeder caretakers and CCI’s very carefully controlled breeding program here.)
This new short documentary video shot just last month by Alex Lowry, an Academy of Art San Francisco student, gives you a rare inside look at that process. It’s not secret or anything, just something that even the vast majority of CCI volunteers and staff never get to see simply because you’d have to be in Santa Rosa and on days when this was happening (not to mention those puppies leave at the proverbial oh-dark-30 for early morning flights at SFO). For example, I’ve spent time at the campus, know the places and most of the faces in the video, and I’ve never gotten to actually witness this.
Here you go – enjoy this great inside look at something very special (thanks to Brenda Voght from the CCI Puget Sound Chapter for posting this).
A Pups Journey to Greatness
Judge Who Raises Guide Dogs Upheld In Barring ‘Service Dog’ From Courthouse
Posted on | December 17, 2009 | 1 Comment
Moral of this story is it’s not the smartest move to take your questionable “service dog” into the courtroom of a judge who raises guide dog puppies with his wife (I believe for Guide Dogs for the Blind, but haven’t verified that):
“Federal judge rejects Ryderwood woman’s service dog discrimination suit”
Haven’t heard much about this case, either, even though it’s been going on for over a year, but I can’t say I’m surprised – it’s exactly the opposite of those “service dog discrimination” stories the “outraged public” waits around to pounce on and be outraged about all the time.
My guess is you also won’t be hearing a lot about it being tossed now, which is exactly why I wanted to write about it here.
Big points to Judge Stephen Warning for standing up on this one. You can read the links below for more details, but here’s the heart of the matter:
“I was told by security that her dog smelled so bad that people were having to get up and leave the courtroom,” Warning said.
When he asked Brown what service the dog performs, he said, the situation became “laughable.”
“She said, ‘Well, she pulls me.’ … As she’s facing me, the dog’s trying to pull her in another direction. It was clear the dog was not trained to assist her in any way.”
Warning said he of all people would be especially forgiving of a service animal in his court. He and his wife have trained three seeing-eye dogs, one of which was sleeping at his feet when the incident unfolded.
And the real bottom line:
“Unfortunately a lot of people abuse the provisions of the ADA in order to keep their pets with them at all times and that makes it difficult and is one of the biggest problems legitimate service dog users and service dog organizations have,” [Judge Warning] said.
Amen.
“Two women take on county over service animal policies”
“County faces federal suit over service animal policy”
Wounded Warriors On Ice
Posted on | December 15, 2009 | No Comments
Saw this USA Hockey Magazine story about the USA Warriors Ice Hockey Program via the Walter Reed Army Medical Center fan page on Facebook yesterday – talk about motivational! (Not to mention probably the coolest hockey story I’ve ever seen.)
“I’m probably the only person you’ll ever meet who opted to have their leg amputated so they could play hockey, and that was my whole goal. I spent two and a half years at Walter Reed, and everyone there knew that my first goal in life was to get back on the ice.” – SFC Joe Bowser
Read the whole thing here: “The Warriors Way”
Tags: Amputee > Army > Disabled Veterans > Walter Reed Army Medical Center > Wounded Warrior
Spinal Cord Injuries Are Rising Sharply Among Troops In Afghanistan
Posted on | December 14, 2009 | No Comments
Recent short article from the Nov 4th USA Today (“Spinal injuries up among troops”) didn’t get much public notice, but it sure got my attention.
Turns out that, contrary to everything we’ve been hearing for some time about how spinal cord injuries are way down in Iraq, those injuries are actually way UP in Afghanistan.
And that plays directly with future placements of service dogs with OEF veterans. I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that with the recent increased troop levels, the reality is we’re likely going to see a concurrent increase in SCI for some time.
Which means we need to be taking a real hard look at things like the types and quality of service dogs we’re training and especially where government funding is going to be allocated for those dogs.
The overwhelming emphasis in the press, Congress, and even the Army in recent months has been placing dogs where post-traumatic stress or other mental health issues are the primary concern. While that’s certainly understandable during a time when the Army has just announced a record suicide level and everyone’s grasping for solutions, we can’t afford to lose sight of the more traditional need for those with severe physical injuries, particularly SCI. In some cases – like legislation that arbitrarily says 50% of the veterans who receive dogs must suffer from primarily mental health issues – I think we already have.
Given the length of time it takes to adequately train effective service dogs (not to mention moving things through government bureaucracies), NOW is the time to reassess and readjust as necessary, not several years down the road when it’s too late.
Tags: Disabled Veterans > Post Traumatic Stress > Spinal Cord Injury > Wounded Warrior
Another Perfect Example Of Why We Have Service Dog Access Problems
Posted on | December 4, 2009 | No Comments
I said I was gonna concentrate on positive stuff, but no way can I pass this one up.
“Pink poodle, owner get apology from Denny’s”
Yeah, maybe the dog is legit, and, yeah, service dogs come in all shapes and sizes, and, no, the ADA doesn’t say you can’t have a poodle and dye it pink.
But, seriously, c’mon – we gotta be smarter than this.
Remember this one next time somebody starts giving you the lecture about how there’s really no problem on the service dog end of the public access issue and it’s all businesses’ fault.
Every Service Dog Placement With A Veteran Should Be As Great As This One
Posted on | December 1, 2009 | 1 Comment
I said I was gonna stay positive and show you examples of how things should be rather than ones where I know they are not, and this story is a great start.
When you see someone talking about service dogs for veterans, I want the image of this team to immediately pop into your head, because this is the model, on both ends of the leash. Beyond just being a great story on its face, as you read it, compare what you see here – and, just as importantly, don’t see – with some of the other very visible “service dogs for veterans” stories of late.
Andrew Pike is a young Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran from Idaho who was paralyzed below the waist by a sniper in Palaji, Iraq on March 26, 2007. He graduated with Service Dog Yazmin from Team Training at the Canine Companions for Independence Northwest Regional Center in Santa Rosa, CA on November 21st.
You can read all about them here:
“A wounded vet and black lab become partners”
Please watch the following two videos which will tell you even more. (Guess it’s not my day for embedding videos since I couldn’t get either one to do it, which is very odd.) First one was taken during Team Training; second one was filmed after they returned home to Idaho.
“Iraq War Vet gets service dog from CCI”
“Andrew Pike: New life after the war“
You can make your own list, of course, but here’s just a few things I’m hoping you noted and will file away for comparison:
- Very calm dog under all circumstances – no evidence of stress, such as panting or pawing at her human partner.
- Dog under control by the human at all times, and that means a leash – shoot, Andrew even held onto the leash when Yazmin was at home – now THAT’s control.
- Dog actually performing physical tasks for the veteran, e.g., opening doors.
- Calm, stable, grounded veteran discussing his future in very positive terms.
- Veteran who’s very active in nonpartisan positively focused wounded veterans organizations like Paralyzed Veterans of America and US Paralympics.
I know there are more, but you get the idea.
Not really much I can add other than to say Andrew is a wonderful example to me of someone being positive under far tougher circumstances than I hope I ever have to deal with, and a great reminder of why those of us involved with CCI do what we do.
Tags: Army > Assistance Dog > Canine Companions for Independence > Disabled Veterans > Spinal Cord Injury > Walter Reed Army Medical Center > Wounded Warrior
Fighting Hard To Stay Positive
Posted on | November 25, 2009 | No Comments
I hafta tell you I’m really having a hard time staying positive lately, to the point of sometimes thinking about bagging my whole involvement with service dogs, especially getting them to veterans.
Almost every day I see questionable things from supposedly responsible organizations and people in the service dog world, particularly where veterans are involved. Like the veteran working his dog with no leash I just saw in a slick fundraising video from a service dog place that focuses solely on veterans (watched it four or five times and I still couldn’t believe it).
Or the veteran in a news story a month or so ago about how he and his dog are being discriminated against by a bus line who shows off a worthless registration card from one of those flaky places that sell ‘em and says something about how he even has documentation for his dog (probably just didn’t know better, but he – and the reporter – should).
Or a recent news video where a veteran with serious post-traumatic stress issues intentionally places both himself and the dog who’s supposed to help him with those issues into a stressful situation, the irony of which wasn’t lost on me (and, yeah, sure, you can take the dog pretty much anywhere, but should you?). And so on…
What makes it even worse is not only do most people not pick up on this stuff, they usually actually think it’s great and get behind it! Between the news media, people with thousands of Facebook friends or Twitter followers, continuous mindless retweeting, etc., I start feeling like one little ol’ guy nobody’s paying attention to who’s constantly swimming upstream against a strong current.
I’m torn – I’m really very tempted to start calling people out on this stuff, but I also don’t wanna “go negative” and end up spending my life arguing with people – there’s no future in that. So, for now, I’m just gonna continue to try to show you the way things are supposed to be, hope you pick up on that, and that you notice when things aren’t. That could change at any time, but I’ll try.
It all comes down to something one of my fellow Group Sergeant Majors taught me when we were on the Air Force Academy staff many years ago and that’s stuck with me. We were talking about some incident out in ‘”the real Air Force” where some sleazoid messed up bigtime, and I half-jokingly said, “You know, instead of handpicking only the best people for the staff, maybe we oughtta start bringing in some slugs so cadets can see what they’re like, too.” My compatriot said, “Nah, Al, trust me – they’ll see ‘em soon enough. We just need to keep setting the standard and example so cadets know how things are supposed to be and count on them to get it.”
Hey, I understand – the vast majority of people see a veteran, a dog, put the two together, and automatically say, “Wow, that must be a great thing.”, even though it may very well not be. It’s not so much that I wanna give people the answers – I just want ‘em to start asking the questions.
Ah, I’m not really planning on going anywhere. There’s too many good things going on, like the two fantastic service dog placements with seriously wounded OIF veterans that Canine Companions for Independence just made in the last couple weeks. More about those later.
“I Coulda Had A V8″ – Don’t Let That Happen To You With Service Dogs
Posted on | November 20, 2009 | No Comments
One of the biggest reasons I harp so hard on getting the best service dog you possibly can and point out things/places that aren’t so great is that I don’t ever want you to be this guy:
Where you get a dog that turns out to be a great companion but a not-so-great service dog, you see one later that really IS that great, and you realize, “Man, if I’d have only applied to a better organization, paid more attention, and done some more research, I could’ve had one of those.”
Or you support an organization or individual you later find out really isn’t up to the standard, or is training and placing dogs into situations you’re not comfortable with now that you know better (e.g., the dog is being asked to do things that may very well be beyond the capabilities of the dog – or any dog).
Look, there’s a ton of fun, laughs, and wonderful things that happen in the service dog world, no question. Make no mistake, though – once you get past all the “feelgood” stuff (like most of what you read online or see on the news now), it’s serious business, and you have to look beyond the surface stuff and pay close attention.
Don’t let it happen to you – I’ll do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t.
Every Veteran With A Disability Doesn’t Need A Service Dog, And This Is A Great Alternative
Posted on | November 19, 2009 | No Comments
Just read about this great program for veterans recovering at Walter Reed that teaches them to train dogs at the Washington Humane Society. I’ve heard of other programs like this before, but not this specific one, and I think they’re tremendous. Note particularly what the people involved say about the program:
Army Capt. Lawrence Minnis sits with his two adopted pit bulls at the Washington Humane Society’s Behavior and Learning Center.
“Homeless Dogs Help Healing Troops”
The reality is a service dog isn’t necessary or appropriate for every wounded veteran (or anyone with a disability, for that matter) – not the popular thing to say, but the truth. So much of the popular public opinion I see now comes off as “Hey, let’s just give every wounded veteran a service dog and that’ll fix things”, especially when we’re talking about mental health issues like post-traumatic stress as opposed to physical injuries. Well-intentioned, no doubt, but misguided, nonetheless – it’s just not that simple nor necessarily the way to go.
There are a myriad of factors involved in providing someone with a no-joke, for-real, fully functioning service dog, and, done right, it’s a time-consuming, extremely thorough, and usually expensive process that requires a lifetime commitment from everyone involved. Programs like this one are great because they provide troops who don’t have a more serious need with so much of what they do need, cost very little, if anything, and all of the factors specifically associated with a service dog are taken away. They also have the potential to not divert a lot of funding and effort away from areas where, in my view, they are better expended, e.g., the training of full-up service dogs for those people who have physical injuries as their primary issue.
No question whatsoever that there are still many veterans who really need and would benefit from a service dog, and I remain convinced that we still aren’t reaching those with severe physical disabilities, particularly the relatively younger group of OEF/OIF veterans. But I’m also convinced there are a whole lotta people that don’t need that level of support, and we need to be talking about these kind of programs first before making the big jump to right away talking about service dogs for everybody.
Tags: Army > Disabled Veterans > Post Traumatic Stress > PTSD > Walter Reed Army Medical Center > Wounded Warrior
