Maureen sat in awe at her first service dog graduation. As students lined up with their trained companions, eagerly awaiting taking their pups home and integrating them into their everyday lives, she knew she wanted to be a part of that mission.
So when she moved to Texas, she founded IDEA Service Dogs, a nonprofit originally run out of her Keller home. It has since grown into a 12-member volunteer team with the mission of giving their students more independence with the assistance of man’s best friend.
It may sound cute to pair puppies with their new homes and teach them how to lend a helping hand, but Maureen knows it takes hard work and commitment to train these animals.
I PRETTY MUCH BECAME … disabled over night. I was on a business trip, and we think I caught something there. I woke up with this swelling everywhere. I ended up having to leave my career. So I volunteered with a women’s organization in Santa Fe, a high-end resale shop. From that shop, the organization donated about $200,000 to local charities, and my job was to decide whom to give the money to. The first year, one of the charities we selected was a service training school. They invited me to come to a graduation ceremony, and I couldn’t stop crying. I have always been an animal lover and just to see the gratitude of the people receiving those dogs and the kind of things those dogs are able to do for them, it stopped me in my tracks.
MY FIRST SERVICE DOG … was Mercy who I got in 2001. She was a golden retriever. My current service dog is Sophie, and I got her 2011 – also a golden retriever. I will be getting a golden puppy next summer to begin training her while Sophie is still young and healthy enough to help in the puppy’s training.
WE TRAIN SERVICE DOGS … primarily for adults with mobility disabilities, seizure disorders and medical alert. Our students have a variety of disabilities such as M.S., stroke disease, POTS, arthritis and skeletal disorders. But we are also training the owner. We teach our students how to fish versus giving them the fish. We train the disabled person to train their own dog. Our success is based on the diligence and commitment of the person.
NOT EVERY DOG … is cut out to be a service dog. The dog has to be social non-intimidating and smart. The dog needs to be of sufficient size for mobility reasons. We tend to gravitate toward golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers and standard poodles. But we’ve trained everything from retired racing greyhounds to German shepherds to boxers. It’s not the breed. It’s the temperament of the dog.
WE TRAIN … the behavior first by using positive methods such as using clickers to mark the behavior we want and then treating the dog with a small, soft treat. We reward the behaviors we want and prevent/ignore/distract away from the behaviors we do not want. We add the “cue” once the dog understands the desired behavior 80 percent of the time. All dogs learn how to retrieve a dropped or thrown object, how to find an object, how to brace and most dogs learn complex retrieval, opening or pawing things open like a door and retrieval of a person for assistance. Our program takes between 15 and 24 months.
WE ALSO SPEND … a lot of time in the beginning not only understanding the methods to teach their dogs but also the Americans with Disability Acts for when they are accosted out in the world. It’s a huge life change to be out in the world with a dog.
ONE OF THE THINGS … that always gets me is when I see people walking their dogs and they are pulling on them as the dog walks in front. It’s so dangerous for the dog because if they have a leash on a collar, they are pulling on their thyroid. Leash and harness use and how to walk a dog properly is something I wish every dog owner knew how to do. And it’s not hard to do. It keeps the dog safe.
THESE DOGS … make our students’ lives easier. We provide increased independence for their disabled owners with highly trained dogs that assist them with specific tasks or work. The dogs get a pretty wonderful job too. They get to go about anywhere with their person, are constantly praised and adored, get to travel and have some fun too! When they need to retire, they stay with their family as a pet and can help train the successor service dog.