Our Support for Moldova and Ukraine

      Our Support for Moldova and Ukraine

09
Aug
2024

International Assistance Dog Week 2024

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International Assistance Dog Week 2024

August 4-10 marks International Assistance Dog Week, a time to highlight the incredible impact assistance dogs have in people’s lives. “Having [SSD Coriander] in my life made it possible for me to keep working,” said Ramon Selove, currently partnered with his second assistance dog. “I was on the verge of retiring on disability, but with her, I was able to finish another twelve years of work until I got to normal retirement age.”

Assistance dogs like the ones trained by Susquehanna Service Dogs give people with disability the confidence to do things they never thought were possible.

SSD Higgins“Before I got Foxtrot, I was in a wheelchair,” said Cindy, talking about her assistance dog, SSD Foxtrot. “I could not use my left leg at all. I had to rely on family, friends to take me everywhere, to do everything. It’s terrible losing your independence when you’re used to doing things yourself. I am now up walking after eight years in a wheelchair. I’m walking because of Foxtrot.”

“When I was 32, I went to bed one evening fully hearing and woke up profoundly deaf in my right ear,” said Ann Poorbaugh. “Curie is a hearing dog trained to alert me to eight specific sounds. She also provides some partial balance support. I used to be a competitive and professional figure skater, and now I can’t walk a straight line. So it was, as you can imagine, quite a change when I suddenly went deaf. And Curie really gave me back a lot of confidence. She’s just been amazing and life-changing.”

Watch more videos about how assistance dogs have changed people’s lives.

SSD Verna, SSD Foxtrot, and SSD Curie all began their training in the same way. Volunteer whelping families hosted a litter of puppies and introduced them to a variety of objects and sounds to interact with. At nine weeks, the puppies joined volunteer puppy raisers, who taught them good house manners, took them to puppy classes and taught them foundational cues, and introduced them to a variety of environments in public.

Around 18 months, the dogs entered Advanced Training, where Susquehanna Service Dogs’ professional trainers continued the dogs’ training, teaching them more advanced behaviors and tasks, which are individually trained based on their partners’ lives.

Susquehanna Service Dogs is looking for volunteers to be part of this life-changing process. Learn more about SSD’s volunteer opportunities on the website.