CGC Success!

On Sept. 14th Hugh McDonald of Love My Canine in Woodland Park, Co tested five service teams and ALL 5 teams passed!

We really appreciate Hugh and Angela and look forward to a long lasting personal and business relationship with them! If anyone needs an excelent quality working line GSD or any type of dog training services please look up Love my Canine!
http://sites.google.com/site/lovemycanine/contact-us

Blessings are still flowing!

We have been very busy here in Colorado making the most of our last month in this area. We went to the state fair and supported Aiimee and Chip where they won reserve grand champion in rally and took 10th place in off leash obedience. On Sunday afternoon Aimee and Chip also passed their public access test. THey are doing GREAT! Aimee will also be using our owner training program curriculum as part of her high school individualized learning plan.

Scott has found his canine partner Chloe. She is a beautiful black lab and has bonded to him almost instantly. She is doing very well in public and on her task training. Just having her with him during training has already improved his quality of life as noted by our case manager at TBI Freedom. I can't explain the joy we get by knowing that we have helped to make the life of someone like Scott a little better.

God has also blessed us with Hugh and Angela McDonald of "Love My Canine" in Woodland Park, CO! We met them a year ago when Hugh did Zeus's CGC test. We called to set up a time to test Puma and asked about Scott and Chelsea observe or test if they were ready. The next day Hugh offered to test all of our wounded warrior and disabled veteran teams here in Colorado for just a tax receipt and no $ out of pocket to the soldier.  They also offered to allow us to post ads to invite some others to test at the same time and they will donate all of the money to Daffron Doghouse to help provide service dogs to Wounded Warriors. This is VER generous and we appreciate their support!!!

Big thank you's to everyone that is keeping us in your prayers! You are all keeping God busy as His blessings are continuing to flow!

WOW! What else can we say?

Since our last post God has been very busy! He has provided TWO external hard drives for our program. One 150G and the other is a terabyte drive! AMAZING! They came form the most unimaginable anonymous source. Well, God promised "beyond all that we could ask or imagine" and we take Him at His WORD!

So are you still not convinced this is GOD? Chuck got a call from DHS last Wed on the way home from the Hospital after an outpatient procedure on his neck, saying he had overpaid his child support and they were refunding nearly $5000 dollars from the tax refund they withheld this year. Now there is no question that this is GOD at work! The government doesn't give back money that easily and without us even knowing to request it... They just called out of the blue and offered a refund... LOL! Chuck was so touched that he actually remembered the call through the medications. He wondered who I was eating at Denny's with when he saw the receipt especially two meals and no kids meals... LOL because we were sitting in Denny's when he got the call!

We had a wonderful weekend in Breckenridge, CO at a military marriage retreat and chaplain Ike was great. We really did laugh our way to a better marriage! They gave us a date night with free child care too and it was a welcome blessing. On the way home we stopped in Denver to meet a beautiful german Shepherd "Sedona" with Front Range GSD Rescue. Chuck really had a bond with her but she was not the right match for our newest handler. We will continue assisting him in finding the perfect dog to train for service. Chuck is watching Sedona closely and hopes to train her himself to be placed with a female handler if she is still available when we leave CO.

We can't wait to see what God has in store for us this week!

I LOVE IT WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER!

We may not be the "A TEAM" but we are a TEAM!  A service team that is. Things are falling into place at a phenomenal rate. It is such a blessing to get in the flow and ride the current to where God wants you to be. We asked God to grow this ministry in ways that we could not imagine. We believe that where one door closes God will open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that we don't have room enough to receive. I think it was the movie "Facing the Giants" that we watched this week, where I was reminded to prepare to receive this blessing.

I have to confess we were blinded by physical circumstances and loosing our focus. With the doghouse renovations progressing slower than expected... and the army moving slower than expected... and finances leaning a lot farther towards the payables than the receivables... "our plans" for moving forward with the doghouse dream were slowing down.  That's when God showed us that He had a better plan for us, more than that which we could ask or imagine. HE birthed "His plan" of an owner training program. His plan was not dependent on a physical facility, it was not dependent on our physical location and it took no additional funding.  He had already provided all that we needed.

Once again, God showed off! I think He likes it when a plan comes together too! I don't mean to offend anyone, but around here God is real and we like to think He is free to show His sense of humor in our lives and "show off" sometimes...

HE set the need before us in the form of numerous people asking for our help in training their own dogs rather than waiting on a program dog. HE gave us the knowledge and skill to put this program together.  I can honestly say I can relate to that diligent scribe that must have spent hours at Johns feet putting the work of the Holy Spirit into written form. I have to give glory to God because I'm just doing the typing....  The ideas and words are coming from a much higher source. In all the pages of documents I've written in the last two weeks there have been minimal revisions. For those of you that know me, that in itself is a miracle. LOL!

In just two weeks, we have a business plan, by laws, an owner handbook, a detailed and comprehensive training program that far exceeds anything on the market, two in a series of seven training modules, and four people (as well as our own two daughters) waiting to start this program. I call that God at work! We are just trying to keep up with all he is doing.  I can't wait to see what He has in store once we get our 501C3 and can start with fundraising and grant submissions.  I believe he will bring the tangible facility together in a way that we have not even begun to imagine.  We are going to start preparing our fields to receive the rain! And by that I fully acknowledge the Reign of the Holy Spirit over ALL we do and dream...

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!! GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE!!! AND GREAT THINGS ARE STILL AHEAD!!!

We see a need! We will work on a plan!

It has come to our attention three times so far this week that there are wounded warriors and disabled veterans here (and everywhere) that already have well behaved dogs that could be "self trained" as their service dogs. The common theme is that "it's too expensive to get the dogs professionally trained and certified".  This does NOT have to be the case! ADA law protects the rights of disabled owners that do their own training. It is NOT necessary to pay a professional dog trainer to train your dog for service. Normally a fully trained service dog sells for up to $25,000. The average cost for having someone train your dog is $5,000 to $10,000.  I think it's a shame that these men and women are the reason that these trainers have the freedom to own and operate their businesses and set their prices as they do and yet they do not offer their services to wounded warriors free of charge... Well it's true... Freedom isn't free!

The wait for a professionally trained service dog through a service dog agency is one to two years on average.  If an owner sends their own adult dog or older puppy to live at a facility to be trained the wait is anywhere from 6 months to a year depending on the level of previous training the dog has had. It just seems to make more sense to leave the dog and handler team in tact and train them together. This allows continued bonding between the team and allows the handler to identify their true needs and have more input on the specific task training.

While I've spent a lot of time the last few weeks making contacts with other rescues and service dog agencies as well as getting some of our documentation together and working on our sites. I think I'm going to take a break and start working on the problem we are seeing in this circle of real people and address this need. I'm going to start working on an informational E-Book advising owners of their rights and responsibilities under ADA law. This will include an explanation of acceptable service dog standards for training and behaviors. Owners will have to agree to these in writing before we start helping them to train or certify their dog. I'm also going to develop a training plan and resources to help wounded warriors and disabled vets to get their own dogs trained and certified.  It's not as easy as it sounds and you can't just go order a vest and stick it on your dog and expect public access without confrontation.  If a dog's credibility is challenged it could mean having to prove their training and testing in a court of law. We will also advise owners on this process as well once their dogs are ready for certification.

We have offered our assistance to the people we have met here and will continue to do so in Missouri. I think at this point we have discussed this issue and have decided to offer training sessions to help owners learn to train their own dogs once we are settled in Missouri. Look for these sessions to start next spring. We will also assist owners in certifying their dogs for public access and service once they have passed the Canine Good Citizen test through AKC.  Since there are a number of reasonably priced basic obedience classes already out there we won't seek to duplicate those. But for owners that are serious enough to take the first steps then we will help them the rest of the way!

Look for a new program available on our website in the near future! And as with all of our services this will also be free of charge to the wounded warriors and disabled veterans! Later we will get our 501C3 in order and can take donations to cover the costs we incur such as travel expenses and training aids.

Service life is not "normal"...

I've never liked the word "normal" but we all have our own picture of what this term means to us. We all have our concept of a "normal life".  For the handler of a service dog, life is far from "normal".  I guess most handlers have come to terms with that prior to owning a service dog but with the addition of their new partner comes a whole new definition of "normal life".  From this point forward you are no longer responsible for only yourself, you have another life totally dependent on you.  To some this is a welcome blessing and to others it is a stark realization that is not met until later in their partnership. While in most cases your new canine partner opens up your world and makes it more accessible, they may also present new challenges.

This month we have come face to face with some of these challenges. While living in a hotel room for a month now during this transition with our two youngest human boys and our two furry boys we have shared very close quarters and 100% of our lives with our canine family. We have never left them unattended in the room as we could leave them in the yard at home.  This often requires a little extra planning.  They have been with one of us 24/7 at work, to the library, store,  and just like the human kids... they can't leave the bathroom door closed! And we can't just open their bathroom door and let them outside. At times it is inconvenient but the rewards are worth the efforts. And thanks to our adult daughter Sami that is keeping Amanda and her dog Alli, Amanda is learning many of these same lessons.  She has had to realize the full commitment she  made in owning her dog and accepting responsibility for her.

While we are welcomed to most business, we sometimes meet a different challenge on a personal level. Not all of our friends and family are as excited about our dreams and goals for our dogs as we are. While public access is a matter of ADA law, things can be more complicated on a personal level. Friends that have not experienced our furry family are sometimes unsure of how to handle their presence. Of course we always ask permission before taking our dogs to someone's home and are careful to respect their personal spaces. There are places that we know our dogs are not welcome regardless of their manners and training.  They still face stereo types and ignorant assumptions.  Some people allow us to bring our dogs but expect them to be put in a pen or crate or be left outside or in the car while we are visiting.  This causes extreme stress on the dog and completely disregards their place as a "service dog"! This is hardest for those that knew the handler prior to being pared with their canine partner.  It also seems that those in the closer relationships also prevent the biggest obstacles.

I'm actually very thankful for this time of learning we have had.  This will be something we are now sensitive to and can prepare our future handlers to face in their own lives.  "Normally"  24/7 service is an option in our lives and all of us can still function at some level without our canine partners.  It does however make us aware of the challenges our teams will face.  It is a shame that those that truly need their partners to access their worlds will find their biggest access challenges with those that should love and accept them the most.  With our dogs it seems even more difficult because we are targeting individuals who have unseen injuries such as TBI and PTSD as well as other mental disabilities.

I wonder if a family member would dare to tell someone not to bring their wheel chair onto their new carpet because of course it had been outside and they may track in dirt?... yet to the soldier with severe PTSD his dog may very well be the only reason he felt able to attend the family function after so many excuses to avoid the social interaction. Like wheels to the amputee his dog helps him to overcome the obstacles which face him. (More on that in another post!)

Cabin Fever!

It's been almost a month now back here in Colorado waiting on Chuck's Medical Board process. Life in a small hotel room with two young human boys and two large furry boys is a little trying at times. I've been working a few hours a week to help make ends meet and to keep my sanity. All of the boys are doing really well considering the circumstances. It will be good when this is all finally over and we can really start our new life back together in Missouri.