Another Amigos de Animales Happy Ending - Service Dog

[Jzmackenzie]

Sandra Ward, founder of Amigos de Animales, eased our heart-renching grief when an accident took our boy poodle, Ponchito, from this life. Sandra guided us another "little guy" by sending us a poem that was written in the voice of a beloved pet who had died. That pet asked that the love continue to be given, but to another homeless dog. Then Sandra, found an animal shelter near us that had a homeless poodle, Paquito.

November 7th, my husband, Don, and I took Paquito (barely 2 years old) to Handi-Dogs of Tucson, Arizona, USA - a service dog facility I used about 10 years ago to train another dog. Handi-Dogs is making a big effort to join the "Wounded Warrior" program to match war veterans and homeless dogs. Therefore, the manager, Glenda, set aside about 90 minutes for the three of us as Don is a Vietnam Veteran. Glenda was originally a counselor of people. Therefore, her training with animals was based on positive reinforcement, not punishment.

She has read Paquito's training logs that I kept since the day he came to his "forever home" in our lives. Also, we brought her up to date on hours of him along side us while minding his "best manners" when we have been in airplanes, visiting various Veteran's Service Center clinics, eating in local restaurants, visiting public events, and going in and out of numerous stores.

In her presence, he was willing to show his mastery of commands, including "stay" while I walked away from him and returned. He ignored dogs barking in another room and people gathered outside our conference room with other dogs. He assumed a relaxed position on a rug that he was instructed to use in an "off leash" mode for about 30 minutes.

She made us feel so good that he was typically "invisible" in public due to his learned behavior that we had been positively reinforcing. We were thrilled to learn that the way we have been training Paquito is right in line with her philosophy and methods of service dog training.

She questioned what he did to ease emotional stress or hard of hearing issues in either of us. She then laid out "next step" learning programs to advance to diabetes alerts, and enhance/refine his hearing alerting methods. She praised our commitment to the necessary time, and consistency of methods (8 to 10 times a day for 2 to 15 minutes) required to fine-tune and keep already learned lessons fresh in the dog's mind.

Tucson is indeed fortunate to have such a professional program. Don, Paquito, and I are fortunate that Glenda agreed to a one-on-one session with us. We are all equally grateful that Sandra started Amigos de Animales to assist us in having a happy ending in our lives after what had been a family disaster.

Please be supportive of Amigos de Animales; their work is priceless in so many ways.

[tjrosa]

What a wonderful testament to Sandra and Amigos (and of course the woman in Tuscon as well). Sandra has such a huge heart for the animals here and has helped us many times know what our options are when we find abused or lost dogs here in the village of Santa Rosa. Thanks Sandra for all that you do! Rosa y Paco