Great post from one of the newest CCI graduates that gives you an inside look at his truly life-changing Team Training experience in the last few weeks.

Yet another classic example of why my short version answer to a question I get asked all the time – “Where do I look for a service dog?” – is always “Start with CCI, then look at the rest of the organizations on the ADI-accredited list.”

I get asked all the time some variation of “I’m looking for a service dog, where do I start?” Longer discussion, I should put a short checklist up, but the first thing I normally tell people is to start with the Assistance Dogs International accredited organizations list:

http://www.assistancedogsinternational.org/assistancedogproviders.php

In addition to the repost below, see these posts. I’ve been talking about this here for two years now, so I won’t guarantee they are 100% what I’d say today, but they’re pretty close, I’m not gonna go back and update them right now, and they will still steer you in the right direction:

“How to Find the Best Service Dogs for Disabled Veterans”

“Tough Questions You Need To Ask About Every Service Dog Organization”

“Places You Should Know: Assistance Dogs International (ADI) Accredited Members”

The one big thing I’d emphasize right now even more than two years ago is this:

Go look at what the organization says about itself.

Forget whatever news stories you read (good OR bad) or what somebody says (including me) – go look for yourself at what places say about themselves. Look everywhere, too – their website, Facebook, online forums, you name it. What’s coming right out of their own mouths, is it consistent, and does it paint the same picture in all those places?

Granted, I’m a search guy, and I’m used to finding stuff that most won’t (even though I honestly figure they will), but most of this stuff is staring you right in the face if you just look.

For example, let’s say I see a great news story about somebody who runs an organization and the wonderful things they are doing, but then I look over on Facebook or in an online forum, and I see the person that runs it acting up, maybe calling people names or making remarks that some might even feel are harassing or even threatening, and so on. What would that tell me about the place?

Or say maybe I go to a place’s website, and not only is there no nice clear head shot picture of the person who runs it, but the only picture there is of the leader of another organization along with some pretty serious accusations about that person. Well, again, I think I’d have to ask myself – what does that say about that organization, and is it the kinda place I wanna do business with?

I’d like to think that most people get that and things jump right at them, but we are all so awash in information now, I know how hard it can be to keep up with things and get the real story. The temptation is to not make that little extra effort, and I’m just asking that you do that – might save you a lotta grief.

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Great time for a reminder about this with the annual Assistance Dogs International conference taking place in Toronto next week.

Said it before, say it again: first thing you need to look for with a service dog organization is if they are ADI accredited, which you can find here: ADI Accredited Members

And don’t go by the ADI logo on their website, either, because that can be misleading. Like this one on a heavily promoted place’s site:

Note that it says Full Member underneath it – it’s nice that they at least joined, but, sorry, that’s very definitely NOT the same as being an Accredited Member.

Now, being accredited doesn’t tell you that a place is perfect – in fact, there are a coupla places on the ADI accredited list I’m not wild about. But NOT being accredited is a red flag and tells you that the organization must have some reason for not doing it.

To begin with, the accreditation process, while thorough, is not overly difficult or expensive and any top-notch organization should be able to complete it with no problem.

Beyond that, ADI was formed in 1987 to address the need for standards within the industry. That’s still an ongoing problem 23 years later and something service dog places still take flak about all the time – for example, that’s been one of the VA’s biggest concerns for years.  ADI is the closest thing there is to a governing body for assistance dogs, and any place interested in seeing only the best dogs produced and the industry’s reputation strengthened needs to back that up by being accredited.

What it pretty much comes down to is, if an organization isn’t accredited, they either CAN’T or WON’T do it – either way is not good.

But, hey, as always, it’s your decision.  If you decide to talk to a place that’s not accredited, you at least need to ask why they aren’t.

Who knows? Maybe they can give you a reason that’s acceptable to you, but I haven’t heard one yet.

Peggy Fox at WUSA in DC nailed it – watch the short video and read the story:

“Seizure Dog In Heat On Its First Day In Class”

A coupla minor quibbles as always for me, but not many, and, frankly, if every service dog story I saw was this accurate, I’d be happy – the vast majority aren’t. It answers most of the questions I asked in my last post (“A Service Dog IN HEAT? You Gotta Be Kidding Me“), and in so doing raises new ones.

As I said in that post, I very intentionally stayed away from this story, and only finally said something when I heard the dog was in heat because of the big red flag that raised. I also didn’t realize this was an active duty Army family, which puts a whole ‘nother angle on it for me with my focus on service dogs for veterans.

Now that I AM looking at it more closely, it’s simple: the more I see, the worse this gets.

Remember, my concern, as always, is providing those who need them with only the best service dogs, and ensuring that when they deal with organizations, they only deal with the best, most responsible places who will not only give them a highly trained dog, but will provide them the lifelong support they need. That’s one of the biggest, and also most overlooked, reasons for going to an organization as opposed to an individual trainer or trying to do it yourself.

That’s my focus in this case as well. All the discussion about the legal issues, or whether it’s appropriate for a young child to have the responsibility for a service dog without an adult facilitator (many organizations won’t place a dog with someone this young), or how well the dog is trained to perform her assigned tasks… those are all legitimate discussions, but not stuff I’m gonna get into.

What I AM gonna get into and am very concerned about here is the organization where the family obtained this dog. Unfortunately, the common thought here seems to be that that’s just some secondary issue that’s overridden by those others, i.e., if everything works out, the dog does what it’s supposed to, the family’s happy, then everything’s OK. No way. Those things go hand-in-hand, and that issue is even more important given the high visibility this situation has gotten.

What I fear is that many families who are dealing with tough situations like this and are desperate for anything that will make things better will turn to places they shouldn’t, and we simply cannot let that happen.

I did some looking last night, and found some very interesting discussions about this placement in a German Shepherd forum, including posts from the father in this story. Never been to this particular forum before, but I have many years of experience in online forums that’s given me a very clear idea of places that are “the real deal”, and this one definitely has all the signs of being just that. Here’s the link to a current and very relevant thread: “Alaya Not Attending School This Week”

Too long to go into detail about everything there (and the tone and nature of the discussion really does shed a lotta light on this whole deal and tells you a lot), but let me address one very important thing: this dog was already five years old when she was placed in November, which adds even more on top of an already bad situation.

First, this is yet another “Service Dog 101″ issue – service life of the dog. You want the max amount of time for a team to be together, so you normally place a dog old enough to have been socialized, trained, and effectively work for someone, but still young enough to have the maximum service life. Most organizations who breed and raise dogs specifically to be service dogs (which doesn’t appear to be the case here) very intentionally place the dogs with raisers when they are 8 weeks old, they stay with those raisers until they are about 1 1/2 years old, the dogs then receive advanced training from professional trainers for 6 to 12 months, so they are usually around two years old when placed with their human partners. Five is not terrible, but sure not ideal, either, and would normally only be done by exception.

Second, that means, obviously, as was mentioned there, this is not the first time this dog has been in heat. Which makes that situation even more unbelievable. And when the dad says “…I am fairly certain the GSD forum understands why the breeder and trainer did not want her spayed until confirmation of a good pairing was acknowledged…” – well, yeah, unfortunately, I think I do: $$$. What possible other reason is there?

(You can also wade through this much longer thread that’s been going on for some time and appears to deal mostly with the legal issues with the school – I only took a brief look, but it gives more background and a definite feel for things I have seen nowhere else: “School Denies Student’s Service Dog (GSD)”)

OK, so let’s be clear about a couple things here, right up front.

First, this family NEVER should’ve been placed in this situation. Yeah, fine, apparently they sought this place out, signed a contract or had a private agreement stipulating to this arrangement, missed an appointment to have her spayed, still plan to do that, are sticking by and singing the praises of the trainer, and, sure, we’re all responsible for our own decisions, but no matter. C’mon – who’s the dog expert here? And who’s getting paid, and a lotta money, too?

Second, barring some major changes, there’s no way I would send anyone to Seizure Alert Dogs for Life.  For all I know, Jon Sabin is a tremendous trainer, really great guy, very well-meaning, super humanitarian – I have no idea. But I’ve seen enough here that service dogs are not something I would go to him for.

No doubt some people will think that it’s very responsible for them to offer to take the dog back, and, I assume, refund the Stevens’ money (and, according to the dad, they “…would provide us another dog in a heart beat…” ). It is not.

Look, this isn’t something like a TV or an iPad that you just return if it doesn’t work and get another one (or your money back if it’s an organization who charges). Yes, that does happen (rarely, fortunately), and if you’ve ever talked to someone from an organization who’s been involved in something like that, you know just how painful it is for everybody concerned. Which is why the best places go to the great lengths they do, including a through application process with extensive personal interviews, to do everything they can to ensure that doesn’t happen and they make a successful lifelong match. They’re also committed to placing another dog with the person if that happens, as well as a successor dog when it’s time.

And they STILL neuter or spay all the dogs BEFORE they are placed.

Some other points from the WUSA video:

• Great to hear Peggy mention the behavioral issues. As I said, it’s not just a case of putting a diaper on a dog.

• “…there is no guarantee when training a seizure alert or seizure response dog that a dog is going to work with any individual person…” There’s never a guarantee when placing ANY service dog, but, among other things, that doesn’t mean that you don’t spay or neuter them before you place them.

• Service Dogs of Virginia is listed as a full voting member of ADI, not ADI-accredited. That policy is changing, i.e., you have to be accredited to be a full voting member, so I’m guessing they are working toward that. That’s one of the quibbles I have here, but it has no bearing on the thrust of the story.

• Now the number is $18K, before it was $20K, the dad says he had to save $6K on their site. I’m still not sure exactly what the family paid here, but it was a lotta money, no question.

So where do we go from here?

At this point, the best we can hope for is that everything works out for the Stevens family, Alaya is spayed, and Seizure Alert Dogs for Life supports them in the manner they need to, and for life as their title suggests.

But let’s not forget what’s gone on with this placement, either. And let’s not compound the problems by sending anyone else to this organization or putting any other families in this situation.

I’m no expert on epilepsy or seizure alert dogs, but I know enough to know this. There are a number of very well-known ADI-accredited service dog organizations with excellent reputations who train seizure alert dogs (Canine Partners For Life in PA is right at the top of that list). I have no idea whether this family contacted them or not (and it would be very sad if they didn’t), but whether they did or didn’t, it doesn’t change the fact that anyone who has a potential need for one of these dogs needs to talk to them FIRST. Go here and do a fast search on “seizure”:

http://www.assistancedogsinternational.org/assistancedogproviders.php

Don’t let any of that stuff about how long the wait supposedly is stop you, either – where that “5 or 10 year” number I keep seeing comes from, I have no idea, but that’s simply not accurate. Yes, I personally know people who’ve waited several years for a service dog, and also others who’ve waited a few months – there are way too many variables, and the only way you’ll ever know is to contact them and apply if appropriate.

And if that’s the concern, fine, then let’s attack that directly and use our resources wisely. Support the good places and put your money there so they can provide more dogs, don’t squander it elsewhere.

Again, I’d never planned to write about this story in the first place, much less say as much as I have, but it was simply too important to let slide. These families already have enough to deal with without adding  the additional burden of being put into situations they simply should never have been put into by those of us who should know better.

Oy, yoy, yoy – you cannot be serious. You mean after all the hoopla about this dog, and this kid’s story, that they are using an intact female as a service dog? Please tell me they got this story wrong (trust me, I’ll let you know).  If they didn’t and this is true… there are a lotta people with some serious ‘splainin’ to do, starting with the family, the place they got the dog from at a cost of $20,000 (Seizure Alert Dogs for Life), and NBC.

I’ve very intentionally left this story alone until now, even though I saw it well ahead of all the hoopla, because, as I’ve mentioned many times here, first off, it’s generally not the kind of story I write about. For one thing, children taking service dogs into public schools is a far more complex legal subject than clearly most people realize (whether it should be or not, that’s how it is – ask most anybody who’s been involved in one of those cases), and surely not my area of expertise.

Really, though, it’s more because every time one of these deals comes up (which is pretty regularly), I get inundated with posts and tweets from the “outraged masses”, most of whom know even less about that subject than I do, but who are irate nonetheless (“OMG! How can they do this! This is so wrong!”). I get tired of it very quickly, there are already plenty of people writing about it, and there’s really nothing I can add (not that most of them would wanna hear, anyway).

Nowhere has that been more true than this story, with many of those same people “declaring victory” when the story made The Today Show and the dog was allowed into the school on a trial basis.

Well, I don’t know what they are all gonna say now – sure haven’t seen anywhere near the reaction from them to this news, but if it’s true, it’s not just some funny sidelight. It’s a very serious issue, and puts a whole new light on things, and I hope they realize that.

Me? I’m incredulous. My jaw dropped and I was actually speechless when I first saw this, because it is such a known, basic, “Service Dogs 101″ thing that I can’t imagine this happening.

Sure, there’s nothing in the ADA or any other law I know of that says you can’t do it, but it is obvious why you wouldn’t use an intact female as a service dog, right?

Just in case it’s not, let’s start with basic sanitary issues. Then there’s the idea of a dog in heat working in public where there are intact males. But the real question is, why is she even still intact in the first place? What were they planning on doing – breeding her? Taking her “out of service” for a few months at least once a year? Didn’t we just go through a big emotional thing about how this dog needed to be by this child’s side constantly?

Just makes no sense for this dog to be intact, and there are a lotta questions to be answered here, particularly since they paid $20,000 to a service dog place questions were already being raised about. Did they knowingly sell this family an intact female dog? If so, that is simply irresponsible, even if the family asked them to do it. And how would the organization not know the dog was intact? And if this was somehow just some kinda awful mistake, are they now gonna spay the dog? And on and on… just doesn’t add up for me no matter how hard I try.

All of this is why responsible service dog organizations don’t do things like this. Take Canine Companions for Independence, for example, who breeds all of its own dogs. All CCI dogs (male OR female) who graduate as assistance dogs, as well as those released from training, are neutered or spayed. Period. Only dogs selected as breeders remain intact, and they are removed from training when that selection is made and assigned to the breeding program – they will not work as assistance dogs.

I’m anxiously awaiting those answers and others, but, bottom line, this changes this whole story. Maybe not the legal end or this child’s needs, but certainly the coverage, particularly all the discussion about service dog quality and where you get them.

Let’s hope that all those who raised such a fuss about this to educate the public about children being able to have service dogs in public schools now spend as much time educating everybody about why you don’t use an intact female (or male, for that matter) as a service dog, the importance of going to recognized organizations, and so on.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Here’s the key paragraph:

“He based the list on the five essentials that helped him to get back to living an active life after his spinal cord injury. Would you believe that a service dog was the number one essential on his list? I sure would!”

Doesn’t say it there, but Justin Moninger, the guy who wrote the original article and is in that great cover photo with his dog Rocky, is a Canine Partners of The Rockies graduate, a small ADI-accredited place in the Denver area that I definitely know of, but have no personal experience with.

Might seem like a very obvious statement, especially to those with SCI and service dogs, but, trust me, it’s not – there are many with physical disabilities who haven’t made that connection for one reason or another. (And it’s even more interesting because Justin is a serious technogeek with a Master’s in Computer Science/Software Engineering and a big interest in adaptive technology.)

That’s one of the big reasons I bristle at all the stuff I see constantly that takes the predictable “everybody knows that service dogs are great for those with physical disabilities” line and then goes on to make the inevitable jump to them being great for those with mental health issues. (Not to mention some of the thinking that floats around, most notably at the VA, that assistive technology is the primary answer for everything where those with severe physical disabilities including hearing loss are concerned.)

No – everybody DOESN’T know that, and I remain convinced we are not effectively reaching that population, particularly among military veterans.

Thanks, Justin, for saying this, and Marcie for pointing it out.

It’s not long – just go read the whole thing, and have anyone you can think of with a possible interest read it as well. Lotta stuff said there in a very public venue that’s needed to be said and, frankly, hasn’t been. Or at least not often enough or by those I’d expect to be saying it, anyway.

“Disabled troops, vets misled on service dogs”

Coupla small quibbles for me there, but not serious enough to be relevant or affect the overall thrust at all.

I’ve been directly involved with this specific subject daily for over four years, and service dogs in general longer than that, and I can tell you with complete certainty that most veterans, their families, and the professionals working with them still have NO IDEA what’s available, which places are good, which are not, and so on.

In fact, it’s even worse now than when I first got involved with it because of both the increased potential veteran demand for service dogs and the misleading information pumped out daily by the media, bloggers, some organizations, and even veterans with dogs themselves.

Super job by my friend Christina Roof at AMVETS once again stepping into the breach to educate everyone with the straight story.

In one case, I reached out several months ago with no response; the other one I just saw today and didn’t. I really don’t have the time to keep everybody straight, and it’s not my responsibility, anyway.

But I can make this point – you might have a great program, and I’d love to support you, but I simply can’t if you do stuff like this. Sorry.

If you recognize where they’re from, please, don’t yell at me about it – I already know who they are. Help THEM out and let them know about the problem.

Pretty obvious what’s wrong and the people involved oughtta know better, particularly since they are pitching these as patriotic programs for veterans. In case it’s not, though, I put a short explanation under each picture.

And to those who will say it’s small stuff… well, it’s not, especially the flag one (I cringe every time I see it or other ones in the series of photos like it). C’mon – we can do better than this, and we have to.

You don’t drape the US flag over something like that AND, to top it off, you sure don’t let it touch the ground (Ugh!).

Unless the Army’s got some new casual look thing going (trust me, they don’t), that uniform always includes a tie.

Definitely worth reading the whole thing because there are a lot of good background details you want to be aware of in it (and, for the record, I had nothing to do with it at all – we just agree about a lot of  things), but here are the two main issues.  The first one everybody will get behind, the second I have no doubt AMVETS will take heat for, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re correct and the issue needs to be addressed:

“…access for service dogs other than guide dogs to VA facilities remains at the discretion of each individual medical center director.”

I’ve discussed this before, but the ADA doesn’t cover public access for anyone at VA facilities other than employees.  The result (and there are documented cases of this happening right now) is the classic Catch-22 where a veteran has a legitimate service dog under the ADA, that dog has been approved for benefits by the VA, but the veteran can’t take the dog into VA facilities, in many cases the very ones where he’s receiving treatment for the same physical issues for which he has the dog.

“There are no current ADI standards for psychiatric service dogs and minimal scientific data to support assertions on their overall effectiveness… Given the current situation, AMVETS warns that accepting assertions about psychiatric service dogs at face value could prove to be a disservice to affected veterans, only creating more hurdles to earned care and benefits.”

If you went by the majority of what you see online, on TV, and in print, you’d never realize this was the case – you’d think this was a done deal.  Well, it’s not, and as I’ve said many times, I have big qualms about this whole area, particularly since so many have “declared victory and gone home” on this subject, as if the mere fact that a veteran suffering with post-traumatic stress is out in public with a dog proves that the dog is working and that it is an effective solution.

As I’ve said, I want to write shorter posts more often rather than longer ones, so I will continue to address why I feel that way in other posts.  There are a number of solid reasons, and I will, as always, do my best to give you the information and tools you need to make your own decisions.

(Hey, I liked Billy – he was a true “Pittsburgh guy”, and he loved dogs, too).

Certainly applies with service dog organizations, especially when it comes to their names. For example:

There are a lotta places with “Canine” in their name, but only ONE Canine Companions for Independence.

There are also a bunch with “Paws” in their name, but only ONE Paws With A Cause.

And some with “Assistance Dogs” in their name, too, but only ONE Assistance Dogs of America, Inc.

I could keep going, but you get the idea.

Now I have a very good feel for “who’s who”, so knowing who the real players are isn’t really that tough for me.  But for most of you, I’m sure that trying to make sense of all the service dog organizations out there is confusing, and the naming similarities aren’t helping any.  So whaddya do?

I’ll say what I always say – just look closely, and start with the list of Assistance Dogs International accredited organizations.

Things will start becoming clearer, I ga-ron-tee.

Said it before, say it again: first thing you need to look for with a service dog organization is if they are ADI accredited, which you can find here: ADI Accredited Members

And don’t go by the ADI logo on their website, either, because that can be misleading. Like this one on a heavily promoted place’s site:

Note that it says Full Member underneath it – it’s nice that they at least joined, but, sorry, that’s very definitely NOT the same as being an Accredited Member.

Now, being accredited doesn’t tell you that a place is perfect – in fact, there are a coupla places on the ADI accredited list I’m not wild about. But NOT being accredited is a red flag and tells you that the organization must have some reason for not doing it.

To begin with, the accreditation process, while thorough, is not overly difficult or expensive and any top-notch organization should be able to complete it with no problem.

Beyond that, ADI was formed in 1987 to address the need for standards within the industry. That’s still an ongoing problem 23 years later and something service dog places still take flak about all the time – for example, that’s been one of the VA’s biggest concerns for years.  ADI is the closest thing there is to a governing body for assistance dogs, and any place interested in seeing only the best dogs produced and the industry’s reputation strengthened needs to back that up by being accredited.

What it pretty much comes down to is, if an organization isn’t accredited, they either CAN’T or WON’T do it – either way is not good.

But, hey, as always, it’s your decision.  If you decide to talk to a place that’s not accredited, you at least need to ask why they aren’t.

Who knows? Maybe they can give you a reason that’s acceptable to you, but I haven’t heard one yet.