Graduation Day for 7 newly trained Service Dogs
It was an exciting day for seven hardworking pups and their fourteen handlers –Â today was graduation day. Service Dogs Alabama has provided medical and psychiatric assistance dogs for people with disabilities since the organization started in 2010.
Dogs are also trained in intervention and behavior disruption for schools, courtrooms, and State Departments. The dogs and their handlers have been training all week at the Guice Slawson Training Complex. The training sessions teach handlers how to use the dogs and the “Follow the Lead” curriculum in their schools.
The dogs and handlers have been working on campus at LAMP high school this week. LAMP received a Facility Intervention Dog named Blaze from SDA last year. Reeltown high school in Tallapoosa county also received a facility dog named Epic who will start Monday.
The seven newly certified Intervention Dogs were bred at SDA and have been in training for almost three years. After today’s graduation, they’ll go work in schools throughout the state. Today also marks the re-certification for some of the dogs who were placed within the last 3 years.
Caroline Sease is the Director of Outreach for Service Dogs Alabama, and she says, “We could not place the seven dogs that we are placing at schools today if it were not for very generous donors. Each one of our dogs cost us $40,000 from start to finish; from the breeding of that dog through all the veterinary care and the three years of training, and we rely on donations.”
This Training Facility is the only organization in the state of Alabama with this accreditation, and they must re-certify the dogs annually. For more information, go to servicedogsalabama.org
