More Then Man’s Best Friend

Canine Companions, Medford, NY.

We all know the saying, "A dog is a man's best friend." I witnessed this in action, and well beyond a furry friend, but a dog being a life changing addition to their human. Canine Companions was founded in 1975 and have since provide thousands of service dogs to those with physical and mental disabilities, emotional support and veterans support. In addition to being matched with their humans, these highly trained dogs are used in counseling and therapy programs for child victims.

The dogs are specially breed and are given to a "puppy raiser" to train and prepare the dog for advanced training at one of the Canine Companion campuses in the US, one of which is in Medford, NY. Once the dog reaches age and skill, the Puppy Raiser delivers the dog to the campus for additional training and eventual match to their human.

Once a recipient of a canine companion is selected, they would come to the campus and get matched to their dog and spend the next two weeks learning the protocols and commands in gaining the trust and assistance of their canine companion. This training takes place on the campus and off-site locations, such as a library. The program ends with a graduation where the original Puppy Raiser comes to the campus, meets their dogs new human and "hands over the leash.."

The majority of dogs in the cohort documented are being used as support and companion dogs for children in various public service roles and the people documented are the handlers of the dogs for such roles.