Monday, August 26, 2019

A Service Dog Makes an Impact on an Entire School



Guest post by Christi Henry, one of SSD Eagle’s handlers in Lampeter-Strasburg School District

Eagle’s impact on our school community has exceeded our wildest expectations. We knew his impact would be positive for our students, but we just could not imagine how much positive influence his presence would have on our entire school building.

Eagle cannot wait to get to school in the morning, and from the moment he walks in the door, he brings smiles to all who see him. When staff members hear his tags jingle, they come out to say hello and give him some morning love. Our custodians always have something special in their pockets for him, and the office staff loves when he lays down in the sunny spot in the middle of the office. He brightens everyone’s day and has helped to connect us as a staff in new ways. 


Just before the students come in, Eagle dons his vest and prepares for work. He waits at the doors with a handler during arrival to greet the kids. Kids squeal with delight to see him in the morning. Our principal has found that students who are reluctant to come to school are eager to see Eagle. The principal will work with the students and parents and have Eagle at the doors to help them transition more smoothly from home to school.

Throughout the school day, Eagle has a busy schedule. He begins with a morning walk-through of the building with the principal, and he stops in each classroom to wish everyone a good day. He has learned to give the kids a fist bump with his nose. The kids LOVE to get a fist bump from Eagle.


One of Eagle’s favorite jobs is working with small groups of striving readers, inspiring and motivating them to work hard. He snuggles in to listen to them read. One student practices reading jokes all week and then meets with Eagle and a handler on Friday for joke time in the snuggle chair. This student works SO hard to be ready for joke time.  Many of his jokes are about dogs. What dog keeps the best time?  A watch dog!

Eagle also works with our students who need emotional support, reminding them that will-power and self-control are skills that everyone needs to practice. He demonstrates by not touching a kibble placed on his paw. He drools to show them that it is hard work.  His presence in the room is calming, and snuggle time is a huge reward.

Eagle visits with our students in the life skills class each day. Students work hard to earn a golden ticket to help care for Eagle’s needs. Students learn to gently brush Eagle and fill his water dish for him. A favorite among the kids is double-leash walking Eagle.  One student who uses a wheelchair for mobility was struggling with her motivation to practice with her walker. Walking ten feet was a huge struggle.  With Eagle by her side, she is now walking laps around the whole third grade wing!

Eagle works with small groups of students, including our speech and language, learning support, and guidance groups. His presence encourages not only hard work and perseverance, but also conversation and self-reflection. When Eagle is present, students are willing to try harder, open themselves up to new experiences, and discuss topics that may be hard to face. He attends meetings with families, meets with the principal and guidance counselor when they work 1-1 with students, and even attends parent-teacher conferences.


Eagle also works in classrooms with large groups of students. Everyone loves when he hops up into a chair to see what’s going on. He reinforces classes of students who have earned time with him for great behavior. He attends pizza parties and movie days, and he is always available to educate group of students about his work in our school.

He participates in large group activities and attends special events in the performing arts center with the whole school. Sometimes, he is the star of the show, coming on stage to demonstrate and inspire good behavior. He is an integral part of our school, and everyone looks forward to seeing him at all of our school and district-wide activities and events. He participates in open houses, family nights, and school board meetings. 

In our district, our dogs also work together. In crisis situations, all of our dogs come together to assist with grief counseling. They also participate in mental health education activities and support students in emotional crisis throughout the school district. The dogs are able to help students calm and settle in order to move forward in the school day.  

Our dogs also have time to be together socially. Eagle enjoys pulling up to Gabby’s building for Wednesday morning play-dates with Gabby and Maya.  They run, tumble, and play ball together. This summer, we welcomed Monarch to the team.

At the end of each day, Eagle gets out of his vest and shakes off his hard work. He loves to run down the hallways, chasing a ball or stuffed toy. He cracks everyone up with his slipping and sliding around the corners. 

Eagle’s presence and hard work in our school has brought us all tremendous joy. We are grateful to have the opportunity to share each day with him. He is truly loved and his impact on our community is immeasurable.

Help Susquehanna Service Dogs train more dogs like SSD Eagle. Donate to build a new training center for SSD.


Thursday, August 22, 2019

SSD Lucky Had How Many New Experiences?



Wait! Don’t read this blog post if you haven’t already read yesterday’s post about SSD Lucky and his new experiences.


If you already read yesterday’s post, thank you! How many different experiences did you count from our tale of Lucky’s weekend?

Here are the ones we counted:
  1. New house
  2. Sleeping in the guest room
  3. Crate located at the foot of the bed
  4. Can’t see his raiser from his crate
  5. Two other dogs in the house
  6. Sounds from other dogs at night
  7. Yard sale (This could probably fill up 12+ experiences alone!)
  8. Down-stays on different surfaces
  9. New children
  10. New adults
  11. Wooden deck
  12. Down the wooden open riser stairs
  13. Up the wooden open riser stairs
  14. New backyard

Look for the next post about SSD Lucky in the coming weeks! 

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Can You Count All of SSD Lucky's New Experiences?





Meet SSD Lucky! He’s two months old today, and we’re going to be following him throughout his training to become a service dog. He’s part of our Fortune Litter, born on May 21.

Lucky is being raised by Becky Dombrowsky, one of our long-time raisers. He’s the eighth dog she has raised. Do you know any of these dogs?
  • SSD Scotia, one of our former breeders
  • SSD Bridge, currently working as a balance dog
  • SSD Jade, one of our demonstration dogs
  • Raptor, a beloved pet
  • Larson, currently working as a detection dog with the United Nations
  • Lincoln, a beloved pet
  • SSD Larry, currently in advanced training

Lucky lives with Becky, her husband, Scotia, and four cats. (Yes, you can raise a puppy if you have other animals in your family!) On weekends, Larry returns from advanced training, adding another dog to the mix. Growing up with other animals is a wonderful experience for our puppies in training since we never know if their future partner will have pets.

But that’s a potential topic for the future. Today we’re going to talk about early puppy experiences.

The goal is to expose the puppies to 12 new things every day. These new things can be sights, sounds, smells, surfaces, places to potty, objects, and more. The key, though, is to make sure each experience is a positive one so the puppy builds up memories of lots of positive experiences they can draw on throughout the rest of their training.


Lucky had a busy weekend! How many different experiences can you count?

Over the weekend, Lucky went with Becky and her husband to her parents’ house for a neighborhood yard sale. They spent the night, staying in the guest room. Lucky slept in his crate, which is where he usually sleeps. However, unlike at home, Lucky’s crate was at the foot of the bed and he couldn’t see Becky. There were two other Labradors in the house, and Lucky could hear them move around the house at night, even though he couldn’t see them.


During the yard sale, Lucky practiced long down-stays, an important skill for service dogs to perfect in all environments. Since many new people stopped by the yard sale, he also worked on calm greetings with kids and adults of all ages. (Even though people aren’t supposed to pet service dogs, we still make sure our dogs learn how to properly greet people. We’ll talk about that in a future blog post.)

Perhaps Lucky’s biggest new experience happened in the backyard. Becky’s parents have a deck with wooden open riser stairs. Little Lucky calmly trotted down the stairs to the grass without a problem. Going back up was a different story. The backs of the stair were open and looked completely different. He wasn’t sure he could go back up. “From my point of view, it looked easy,” said Becky. “But from his view, it didn’t look safe or even possible to get back up on the deck.”


She let Lucky explore the stairs without any pressure to climb them, and as he got more comfortable, he walked up two steps! “We’ll continue to expose him to stairs like this as he gets older,” said Becky.


How many experiences did you count? Let us know in the comments. We’ll post the ones we counted tomorrow afternoon.  

All of these new experiences are helping to prepare Lucky to be a service dog. By law, he’ll be able to accompany his partner anywhere that’s open to the public, so he needs to be able to calmly handle and even enjoy being in many different environments.

Look for more posts about SSD Lucky in the future!

Help us build a new training center for our puppies like Lucky! Donate today: https://crowdrise.com/susquehanna-capital-campaign