As Matt explains in the video, he’s a wounded warrior who was paralyzed with the exception of his left arm by a sniper’s bullet near Ramadi, Iraq on February 24, 2007.  You can read more details about that in a number of places, including here: “After Surviving Sniper’s Bullet, Soldier Looks to Future”

Matt and Tracy have been super representatives for wounded warriors and their families in general and a number of organizations as well, including CCI, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Homes For Our Troops – pretty much anything they are involved with.

This is another placement that I’d describe exactly the same way I did Andrew Pike’s (Andrew and Matt are good friends, BTW) back  late last year:

“Every Service Dog Placement With A Veteran Should Be As Great As This One”

The story I’m referring to is this article from The Oregonian a few days ago about Canine Companions for Independence puppies being raised at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility for women in Wilsonville, OR:

“Future service dogs get their training by women inmates at Coffee Creek lockup”

It’s a good story, too (albeit with a few inaccuracies – for example, they aren’t “therapy dogs”), but my point is that, as I’ve said before, there are a number of service dog organizations who have puppy raising programs in prisons and place dogs with wounded veterans as well.  Some definitely do a much better job of promoting themselves than others, too, but you need to be very careful not to confuse the quality of the public relations effort with the overall quality of the program.

I remain convinced that Canine Companions is the premier service dog organization in this country, and that’s why I’ve chosen to concentrate my efforts there.  That surely doesn’t mean they are “the only game in town” and, in fact, contrary to what some seem to believe, they don’t want to be, either – there’s no way in the world CCI could handle the need for assistance dogs all by themselves, and they are well aware of that.

Make no mistake – while I’m a “CCI guy”, I’m for ANY service dog organization that’s doing a top-notch job of providing dogs for veterans, the key being “top-notch”, a subject I’ve addressed here many times.  Let’s just say I continue to see things organizations say about themselves that, as a minimum, are a stretch, and, at worst, could be intentionally misleading.

No organization is perfect, but that’s something I’ve just never seen from Canine Companions – if anything, they don’t toot their horn enough, certainly not anywhere near as much as I’d like them to. I think I have a good idea why that is, too – as I’ve said repeatedly, I don’t speak for CCI, but I have had a close association with them for enough years now to understand some things, so I can give you an educated opinion here.

First, they are very, very sensitive to graduate privacy or, to put it more bluntly, they aren’t gonna pimp their graduates. They certainly don’t hide them – you can go to the newsletters on the website and see pictures of all the graduate teams, for example.  But when you see a very public and active graduate team, that’s because they’ve chosen to be that way on their own with no pressure from CCI.

Second, there is also a great sensitivity to not pandering to what’s popular, especially where veterans are concerned. That means you won’t likely ever see CCI changing their core mission – as some service dog organizations have done without even mentioning it – from training dogs for those with severe physical disabilities to training dogs for those whose primary diagnosis is post-traumatic stress.  (The irony being that post-traumatic stress will almost certainly be present in a veteran with the type of physical injuries we’re talking about, anyway.)

Unfortunately, that sensitivity has also meant Canine Companions hasn’t talked about the work they have done to incorporate post-traumatic stress into both the screening of candidates and training of dogs.  For example, they long ago brought in outside post-traumatic stress experts who sat down for several days with training staff to discuss this subject in detail.  Those discussions were very successful and resulted in a number of improvements in both those areas – I hope someday you’ll be hearing about that directly from CCI instead of just me.

Bottom line is that you can be confident and comfortable in what Canine Companions is doing with veterans – you just may have to work a little harder to see it.  Some organizations might do a better job of promoting themselves, but no one does a better job making individually matched lifelong placements of assistance dogs.

]]> http://www.albrittain.com/service-dogs/wounded-warrior-receives-canine-companions-service-dog-raised-in-prison-program/feed/ 0 http://www.albrittain.com/service-dogs/think-that-prison-puppy-raising-program-is-unique-think-again/ http://www.albrittain.com/service-dogs/think-that-prison-puppy-raising-program-is-unique-think-again/#comments Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:00:32 +0000 Al http://www.albrittain.com/?p=1320 I keep seeing service dog places that promote their prison puppy raising program as if it was unique, the core element of their organization, and the biggest reason for you to support them.  Some even make claims that leave me shaking my head, because I have no idea what they’re basing those claims on.  For example, I just saw a story only a few days ago about a small organization in the Midwest that said theirs was “one of just three programs in the nation where a canine connection is made behind bars.”

The reality is that most, if not all, of the top ADI-accredited service dog organizations in the U.S. have very active prison puppy raising programs and have had them for many years.

In fact, I can’t think of any major organization that DOESN’T have a program with inmates training puppies – there probably is one, but it’d be the exception.  Here are just a few that I’m aware of:

• Canine Companions for Independence: 12 prison puppy raising programs in 9 states (AL, CA, CO, FL, MS, MT, OH, OR, WA); started in 1995.

• NEADS:  14 prison partnerships in 4 states (CT, MA, RI, VT); started in 1998.

• Canine Partners for Life: 5 prison programs in 2 states (MD, PA); started in 2000.

• KSDS: Pooches & Pals program at the Topeka Correctional Facility, KS;  started in 1998.

• Saint Francis Service Dogs: Program at Bland Correctional Center in VA; started in 2000.

Don’t get me wrong – I think these programs are tremendous.  But you sure don’t need to pick an organization based on it having a prison puppy raising program, nor should you.

And, to be honest, I have to wonder about any place that makes that kinda pitch, especially if it involves dogs going to veterans, which also isn’t unique. I know everybody’s looking for an angle to get your attention and stand out from the crowd, but having a prison puppy raising program doesn’t make you special – sorry.

Please just keep that in mind whenever you see one of these stories.  As I have said repeatedly, there are many great assistance dog organizations with long histories out there, and every one of them could use your support.  Evaluate the total program – ideally, based on the guidelines I’ve given you – and make your decisions based on that evaluation.