This organization means the world to me, and I fully understand the needs and concerns of others with physical disabilities and special needs. It took my mother and me ten years of hard work and dedication to open our program. Three weeks after the first planning meeting for Canine Assistants, my father was hit and killed by a drunk driver while he was walking on the sidewalk around a park. The California program had a very long waiting list and worked mainly with those on the West Coast, so my dad decided to start such a program in Georgia. My father, a physician in Atlanta, heard about an organization in California that trained service dogs to help people in wheelchairs. I knew I needed help, but I didn’t know what kind or how to get it. I believe that I may well have set a record for saying “please,” “thank you,” and most of all, “I’m so sorry to bother you!” I felt isolated and very much alone. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as a teenager, and I spent two years using a wheelchair. Upcoming, we’ll be featuring additional stories about the Canine Assistants crew, but if you want more insight into their innovative teaching tips check out their website.Welcome to the wonderful world of Canine Assistants! My name is Jennifer Arnold, and I am the Founder and Executive Director of Canine Assistants, a non-profit organization which teaches and provides service dogs for children and adults with physical disabilities or other special needs. They are great examples of educators who respect dogs for the intelligent and special beings they are. We’re proud to support Jennifer and the Canine Assistants staff and volunteers. Jennifer notes that it’s not just service dogs that can learn these remarkable things. But most importantly, the dogs learn to trust people and to trust themselves. They learn to recognize vocabulary words including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They learn to answer Yes and No questions. It’s far easier to live with a dog that understands what constitutes appropriate behavior in given circumstances than it is to live with a dog who must be constantly directed.Ĭanine Assistants’ dogs are taught using the Bond-Based Approach®, and they learn to do more than retrieve dropped objects, turn lights on and off, and open doors. We must teach our dogs to manage their own behavior, rather than merely training them to respond to our directives. By ensuring this attachment is a secure one, we can give dogs the confidence and guidance they need to flourish in the human world. We should work to ensure that our dogs are securely attached to us.ĭogs, like pre-verbal children, form strong attachments to their primary caregivers. By asking dogs to become part of our social group, we can easily influence their behavior and demeanor. Social animals naturally conform to the standards set by their social group. We should form a social relationship with our dogs.ĭogs, like people, are social animals. The 3 Primary Principles of the Bond-Based Approach ® 1. According to Jennifer, “dogs aren’t loved because they’re ideally behaved, they’re ideally behaved because they’re loved.” This premise became the foundation for an entirely new approach to working with dogs that Jennifer named Bond-Based Approach®. As the program began using more positive techniques, Jennifer saw the incredible influence a loving bond had on the dogs’ behaviors. While the organization began by using the force-based training techniques common in that day, Jennifer quickly came to believe that dogs needed, and deserved, a kinder approach. ![]() And in December 1991, Canine Assistants was incorporated. She and her mother worked tirelessly for the next 11 years to raise the funds to start the program. But Jennifer refused to allow the dream of Canine Assistants to die with him. Sadly, just two weeks after the first planning session for the organization that would later become Canine Assistants, Dr. It would give her a purpose, not in spite of her illness, but because of it. He thought this would provide Jennifer the help she needed and far more. He suggested to his daughter that they begin training service dogs themselves. Unfortunately, the only dogs being placed then were in California, far from Jennifer’s native Georgia. Knowing how much Jennifer loved dogs, he contacted the woman and asked if she might consider Jennifer as a candidate for a service dog. Arnold had recently read about a woman who was training dogs to help people who used wheelchairs. ![]() But Jennifer’s father, a physician in Atlanta, gave her the idea that became her lifeline-and ultimately her life’s work.ĭr. As a teenager newly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Jennifer Arnold was told she would likely use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
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