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 thing and very much a part of what they do, but they have a tremendous role to play all on their own, and there aren’t nearly enough of them out there.

That’s why I was so happy to see this great recent video with CCI Facility Dog Scully and his partner Elizabeth Penny – they are perhaps the best example I’ve seen of using the full range of a Facility Dog’s capabilities in a physical rehabilitation environment. Video is only 7 1/2 minutes, but if you don’t even have that much time, fast forward to 2:25 where Elizabeth explains and demonstrates what Scully does, and give me 5 minutes.

The video speaks for itself and says more than I ever could, but note the big things Elizabeth talks about having Scully help with:

• articulation of speech – e.g., after strokes, aphasia, or brain injuries with the associated difficulty speaking
• physical therapy – grooming, walking, feeding, teaching commands
• education – patients who might benefit from a service dog get hands-on training and actually work with him
• pure motivation – especially with pediatric patients, just to get them up and outta the bed (“Sometimes patients will say ‘I’ll come down for Scully, but I’m not coming down for therapy.’”)

You can see a whole list of rehabilitation goals Scully helps with at his WakeMed page:

• Improve memory
• Improve word retrieval
• Improve sequencing skills
• Improve socialization
• Increase auditory comprehension
• Increase verbal spontaneous speech
• Increase motivation for participation
• Increase attention
• Improve use of upper extremities
• Improve ability to interact with dog
• Improve use of gestures in language
• Improve articulation
• Improve sitting balance
• Improve gait training
• Decrease situational depression

(By the way, Scully, as you some of you may have wondered about, was named for Vin Scully, the legendary Dodgers broadcaster. Very cool story about how that happened – I don’t know that Vin himself even knows there is a dog named after him.)

There are several CCI Facility Dogs involved in military settings, most notably Tommy at the Naval Medical Center San Diego Comprehensive Combat Casualty Care Center (C5); and Ascot and Bhadra at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center. Based on numerous conversations I’ve had over the years, though, I’m firmly convinced that the vast majority of occupational therapists have no idea what a Facility Dog can do, and if they did, they’d be pounding on CCI’s door to get one.

Elizabeth said it best: “I don’t know if I could go without having a dog in rehab. The impact that it has made on my patients, and my coworkers… I just don’t know that I could go without one.”

Next let’s talk about the law, or, more appropriately, Cesar’s apparent ignorance of it.

Now, if you’ve been here more than once, you know it’s no secret I’m not a big fan of the law or looking for legislative solutions to problems in general, and more specifically where service dogs are concerned.  It’s also way too easy to get into a complex and arcane legal discussion, courts have gone both ways in their rulings, I’m not an attorney, and chances are neither are you. So I like to keep things as simple as possible in this area, and that’s easy to do in this case.

For all the legal complexities, there are only a couple things you need to know here.  First, as I said in “When You Hear ‘Service Dog’, Think “Public Access’“:

When somebody says their dog is a service dog, public access is really what we’re talking about. If I describe my dog that way, the clear implication is that the dog does stuff for me and I can take it with me wherever I want. And, when it comes down to it, that’s the primary, if not only, reason to differentiate your dog in that way. (Note I didn’t say that that’s what defines a service dog – that’s another post.)

Keep in mind that, unless I state otherwise, my goal here is to give you brief, real world, practical, useful definitions and explanations that you can operate from daily, and not textbook, dictionary, or legal ones – you can go look those up for yourself, anyway.  In that vein, think of public access as “having your dog somewhere dogs normally aren’t allowed.”

So, if Cesar says Junior is a service dog, the clear implication is that he intends to take Junior into public access areas. Because otherwise there’s no need to say that.

It follows then that, second, Cesar and Junior need to meet the public access requirements, and, in that regard, what I said in “Bet You Have No Idea Just How Low The Bar Is To Say Your Dog Is A Service Dog” applies.  You can read that post for more details, including the pertinent section of the newly revised ADA, but here’s the key point:

All you have to do is be able to answer these two questions the right way:

* Is your dog required because of a disability?
* What does your dog do for you?

Did you see that addressed anywhere in Cesar’s post? In fact, I’ll even give him the benefit of the doubt since that post has been pulled, apparently because of the way it was written – have you EVER seen any indication ANYWHERE that he understands this concept? I didn’t, and I never have.

Nothing there about what Junior does for him, or even for other people with disabilities, either. For example, medical professionals with service dogs that were not trained for them, but for use with their patients with disabilities (e.g., Canine Companions for Independence Facility Dogs), have public access when they take the dog and those patients out into public access areas, the concept being the dog is required because of the patients’ disabilities and performs functions for them.

Nope, none of that.  Just a “hey, look at me and my great service dog Junior and how cool is that” picture with a really flaky explanation lacking any real substance.

On top of that, the real proof for me that Cesar doesn’t get it here is what got this controversy started in the first place – his use of a service dog registry.  Remember, as I said at the outset, this is not about Cesar, the issues go way beyond him, and service dog registries are a prime example.  And let’s be very clear here – even if  someone has a disability and a legitimate service dog, service dog registries and their meaningless documentation, patches, tags,  ID cards, and so on are still a bad thing.

More on that subject in my next post – it’s one I’ve let go for far too long.  We’re long past the point where the lid needs to be blown off those places, and this may be the incident that finally does that.

Next: Part 4 – Registries

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, LCSW.

“Brevard therapy dog wins humanitarian honor”

I really don’t have the time to try and pick through the article and point out all the problems with it (e.g., the most glaring one – Dart is not a therapy dog, he’s a service dog).*See comments. Go ahead and read the whole thing, but just understand that there are some – it’s still a great story.

As I’ve said, I have a special place for Facility Dogs – this is yet another classic example of the great work they do.

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 the four types of CCI assistance dogs.

Until people learn about them, that is. Once they read about what Facility Dogs are trained to do (all but three commands that Service and Skilled Companion Dogs learn) and how they are integrated into school, hospital, and other institutional programs, then that attitude changes.  I know about that one firsthand because I made the same mistake.

There’s a tremendous untapped potential for Facility Dogs, particularly in the active duty military and Department of Veterans Affairs hospital and clinic environment. I’m convinced if more occupational and physical therapists knew what the dogs are capable of and offer to them, they’d be knocking down CCI’s doors trying to get one.

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 Dog At A Major Wounded Warrior Medical Care Center”), and you can read lots about Buddy and Ellie if you look around – they’ve been on Montel, among other things.

Not only a great picture, but a perfect example of something I mentioned just the other day about not confusing how much you hear about a service dog organization’s program (particularly where veterans are concerned) with how good that program is.

There are many cases of highly trained service dogs (CCI dogs being the prime example) helping veterans like this that happen every day without a lotta fanfare, hype, or drama. No big publicity push from the organization that placed the dog, no big screaming headline about how a veteran and his dog are being unfairly treated by (fill in the blank), no big pronouncement from a celebrity or legislator about yet another new dog program that will help veterans – all stuff that I see daily and, frankly, am worn out on.

No, none of that – just someone’s personal picture in a group of pictures linked on Facebook that caught my eye because I know everyone in it and that I asked if I could use.

And a coupla working dogs working.

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

This is a huge placement and a major milestone for assistance dogs in the military medical world that’s been two years in the making – how very appropriate that it happened a little over a week before Memorial Day! What makes it so special is a combination of two things:

First, C5 is one of only three major active duty military medical centers where our most severely wounded warriors, primarily amputees, do their rehabilitation – Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) in Washington, DC for those living back East; Center for the Intrepid at Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC/CFI) in San Antonio, TX for those living in the central US; and NMCSD/C5 in San Diego, CA for those living out West.

Second, CCI Facility Dogs are really a class unto themselves among dogs in the rehabilitative hospital environment. You can read more detail in the story I’ve provided in the links section below, but basically that’s because (1) Facility Dogs go through the same two-year process and learn all but three of the same commands as all other CCI assistance dogs, and (2) they are integrated into the ongoing daily rehab program and are trained to respond to the instructions of the therapists conducting that program.

(BTW, I realize that trying to differentiate Facility Dogs from other dogs can be very confusing for those not involved with assistance or therapy dogs, and can also seem disrespectful to those other dogs.  As someone with a Delta Society complex-qualified therapy dog who visits in a military hospital, that is definitely not my intent, but it’s essential to understand that difference – all the dogs are wonderful and do great things, but there’s really no comparison.)

Put those two things together and you have a truly one-of-a-kind combination.  Ideally, though, it won’t be that way much longer – I’m hoping that, on top of all the great work he is already doing, Tommy will be the breakthrough who will make it much easier to get this idea across now, and we will see CCI Facility Dogs in the other rehab centers as well.

Links:

Official website of Naval Medical Center San Diego, Comprehensive Combat and Complex Casualty Care:

http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmcsd/Patients/Pages/ComprehensiveCombatandComplexCasualtyCare.aspx

“Tommy Time” – fantastic interview with Tommy’s puppy raisers with many background details at Ross’ DogBlog:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/family/19458606/detail.html

Short but detailed article about Scully, a CCI Facility Dog at WakeMed Rehab Hospital in Raleigh, NC, that will tell you everything you need to know about Facility Dogs:

http://www.wakemed.org/body.cfm?id=832

Pictures from the graduation:

Ken Sergi: 

http://www.shutterfly.com/pro/KenSergi/ccigrad051609

Carol-Ann DeMaio Goheen:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AZN2jJq4YtGLCWg

You can check out the complete list of things Facility Dogs do on the CCI website, but one of those things is working with kids in an educational setting. There’s a nice story and video from WRCB in Chattanooga today about Zorro, a Facility Dog at Chattanooga Valley Elementary School in Flintstone, GA.

Lotsa great stuff in the story – the comment that sticks out in my mind is the one from the principal: “Zorro has made a huge difference in these children.”

Read more here: Chattanooga Valley’s Zorro is a Dog-Gone Good Teacher