Facility Dog

May 4, 2013

Canine Companions For Independence Facility Dog Waffle At The Denver VA Medical Center

, , Service Dogs

 Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Waffle - Denver VAMC

Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Waffle – Denver VAMC

I haven’t posted here for a long time, and I may have more to say about that in the future, but for right now I just want to share this great new picture with you.

Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Waffle, who’s been working at the Denver VA Medical Center since February, received her official photo yesterday.

I’ve talked a lot about Facility Dogs, and, sadly, there are very few in military or VA medical facilities. We need many … Read More

Aug 17, 2012

Warriors And Dogs I’m Very Proud To Call Friends

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Nico Marcolongo, Major, USMC (Ret) with Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Tali; PJ Glavey, Capt, USMC; David Rozelle, Major, USA with Canine Companions for Independence Service Dog Domi; Al Brittain with Zephan and Ophelia

Nico Marcolongo, Major, USMC (Ret) with his Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Tali; PJ Glavey, Captain, USMC; David Rozelle, Major, USA with his CCI Service Dog Domi; me with Zephan and Ophelia

Great picture with a couple old friends and a new one taken by Army Major Dave Richkowski at Nico’s Buddy Bowl event in Louisville, Colorado last Saturday.

I’ve talked about Nico and Dave here before; I met PJ for the first time that day – great guy. I could put up links for all three of them, … Read More

Jun 15, 2012

One On One, One At A Time

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Sutter Children's Center, Sacramento Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Hazel's getting ready to hang up her vest! Come celebrate her retirement with her next Wednesday 2-4pm on Sutter Memorial's front lawn.

“Hazel’s getting ready to hang up her vest! Come celebrate her retirement with her next Wednesday, June 20, 2 – 4PM on Sutter Memorial’s front lawn.” Sutter Children’s Center, Sacramento 

Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Hazel graduated in August 2003 and has been on the job at the Sutter Children’s Center, Sacramento for almost nine years – amazing.

Who knows how many kids, families, staff members, and others she’s made an impact on during that time – no doubt thousands. And it’s all been one on one, one at … Read More

Apr 13, 2012

Facility Dog Working With Traumatic Brain Injury Patients

, , , , Service Dogs, Video

Great new video – Seamus is the Canine Companions For Independence Facility Dog at the Drucker Brain Injury Center at MossRehab in Elkins Park, PA near Philadelphia where he works with Physical Therapist Carolyn Tassini.

Note that Carolyn very quickly reels off and demos a whole list of specific patient therapeutic goals that Seamus helps with:

  • Physical Therapy: balance and endurance
  • Occupational Therapy: fine-motor activities like brushing and grooming and putting on / taking off different collars
  • Speech Therapy: speaking more loudly and clearly
  • Neuropsychology: feeling more relaxed and comfortable

    • … Read More

Jan 26, 2012

Facility Dogs – The Rodney Dangerfield Of The Canine Companions for Independence World

, , , Service Dogs, Video

I’ve said for a long time that Facility Dogs are the Rodney Dangerfield of the Canine Companions for Independence world, and, in my experience, even most associated with CCI aren’t really aware of the wide variety of things they do.

I know I sure didn’t give them the respect they deserve initially, and that was largely because every time I heard them being brought up, it was as a means to an end, specifically in military hospitals, of educating patients about applying for service dogs. Now that’s certainly a great … Read More

Sep 6, 2010

Cesar’s Way Wrong About Service Dogs: Part 3 – The Law

, , Service Dogs

So far in my series about Cesar Millan’s recent “Junior gets his Service Dog certification!” post, I’ve talked about how it was so wrong and how it’s a classic example of misplaced priorities.  Please review those if you haven’t read them already.  And, again, the page that started this controversy has been taken down, but you can read a cached version here, and you can click on the photo for a larger screen capture image of the article as well.

Next let’s talk about the law, or, more … Read More

Apr 14, 2010

Facility Dog Becomes First Non-Human To Receive Volunteer Service Award

, Service Dogs

You really gotta wade through this article (and there are definitely some inaccuracies in it, too) to find it, but here’s the key point of the story:

Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Dart at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, FL just became the first dog to ever receive the Rainbow Award from the Brevard Association of Human Services – it’s always been given to humans before.

Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Dart with human partner Karen Hersing.

Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Dart with human partner Karen Hersing, LCSW.

“Brevard therapy dog wins humanitarian honor”

I really don’t … Read More

Mar 14, 2010

Third Canine Companions Facility Dog Coming To Chattanooga Area Schools

, , Service Dogs

Nice story and audio in this morning’s Chattanooga paper about three Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dogs in the Chattanooga area schools – Reebee II, Zorro II, and a third yet to be chosen that’s been approved and is on the way.  Kay Gaither, the teacher getting the third dog, says she hopes to attend the May Team Training at CCI’s Southeast Regional Center in Orlando.

Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free Press Samuel West pets Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dog Zorro in Jose Jimenez' office at Chattanooga Valley Elementary School.

Stone Creek Elementary To Get Walker’s Third Facility Dog

I always like reading about Facility Dogs, because I think they’re the Rodney Dangerfield among … Read More

Oct 25, 2009

Canine Companions for Independence Assistance Dogs On-Duty For Veterans

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Great picture of two Canine Companions for Independence assistance dogs and their humans taken during the recent US Paralympics Military Sports Camp that was held at Naval Medical Center San Diego (NMCSD) Oct 14-17:

Buddy Hayes, Canine Companions for Independence service dog Ellie, Kristin Valent, CCI facility dog Tommy.


Left to right – Buddy Hayes, her Service Dog Ellie, Kristin Valent, physical therapist at NMCSD Comprehensive Combat and Complex Casualty Care (C5), and Facility Dog Tommy who is assigned with her there. (Click the image for a larger version.)

I wrote about Tommy right after his graduation back in May (“CCI Places First Facility … Read More

Sep 9, 2009

“The Marines Wanted a Manly Dog”

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Pfc. James Burns plays with service dog Finn at the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Detachment, Camp Kaneohe, Hawaii.Pfc. James Burns plays with service dog Finn at the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Detachment, Camp Kaneohe, Hawaii.

Hey, how about something a lot more fun and upbeat than yesterday’s depressing post about the VA (one of these days I hope to be able to write about them and have a good feeling instead of the bad one I always get now).

That quote in the subject line of this post cracked me up when I read it yesterday.  It’s from Susan Luehrs, executive director of Hawaii Fi-Do, the

… Read More

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