Rio

Rio entered the program on May 8, 2010.  He was bred by Robin Fairbanks of Fairbanks Labs in Annawan, Illinois. Rio is being raised by Kathryn Robers of Iowa City, Iowa. Kathryn just graduated from Iowa State University and will be starting her graduate work in Mental Health Counseling in June.  She also works at Lucky Paws, a dog day care in Iowa City where Rio will get lots of great socialization with other dogs.  Rio will get to go to work and school with Kathryn during puppy raising.

Many thanks to Caitlin Averkamp who submitted the name Rio in the puppy naming contest!  Watch out for the next naming contest in a couple of months!

Please donate to help sponsor this puppy’s training.

Go to our Dog Sponsor page to see all of our puppies in training!

May 8th was our May Puppy Raising Socialization Activity.  This event, held monthly, is a chance for our puppy raisers to get together and for our staff to meet with the puppy raisers and see the development of the puppies.  We go out to local events or visit a store.  Often we go out to eat afterwards and talk about the puppies, how they are doing.  The puppy raisers can ask any questions and discuss any concerns they may have about their puppy’s development.

This month we visited the Beaux Arts Fair in downtown Davenport.  As luck would have it, the wonderful weather we’d been having decided to leave and it was cold and windy that day, but at least it wasn’t raining!  We met at the River Music Museum on 2nd and Main street then walked around the fair viewing the wonderful local art work, jewelery, and other items on display and for sale.  Finally we got a sandwich from the local vendors, went back to the museum, got some hot chocolate and sat down in the cafe to visit and listen to the presentations about local authors.  As we visited, we talked about puppy issues, the training center, fund raising and anything else that came up!  Kathryn was especially excited and had many good questions as she was scheduled receive her new puppy after the activity.  A great time was had by all!

On Thursday, May 6th we were invited to participate in the Salute to Seniors, an introduction to everything the Quad-Cities has to offer the community’s older residents.  At this event we were able to talk to many of the seniors in the area about Companion and Service Dogs.  Companion dogs can provide extra love and companionship to seniors and studies show that people who have dogs live longer, healthier, happier lives.  Service and Skilled Companion dogs can assist seniors who have mobility, hearing or other impairments as they get older to help them continue to live more independently.  For more information about Service Dogs, please see our Service Dog page.  To find out about Companion Dogs, please visit our Companion Dog page.

We also spoke with many other organizations who were there about how a Facility Dog could benefit seniors who are in independent living centers, nursing homes, physical therapy and other facilities.  To find out about Facility Dogs, please visit our Facililty Dog page.

Merlyn attended also and greeted many people.  Everyone was amazed at how well behaved a 10 month old puppy could be. Here you can see him lying quietly under the table as a good service dog puppy should.

To find out how to sponsor a dog who may serve seniors or disabled individuals as well as facilities serving seniors, please visit our support page.

Our yard sale last weekend was a great success!  A great big thanks to Alma and Fred Bignall who hosted the yard sale at their home.  Plus , thanks to all the people who donated items for the sale, the volunteers that came and helped us with it and all the people who came and purchased items.

It was great to hear stories about our working dogs from people who came by the sale.  In the words of one of our puppy raisers: “I personally was touched by a shopper each day that had a story to tell about working with Tanner (my first pup).  On Friday it was a teenage girl who said her mom recently suffered a stroke and is going through rehab at Genesis In-Patient Rehab Center.  On Saturday it was a woman whose husband is going through rehab at Genesis following a spinal chord injury.”

We will do another sale later this year (date not yet set) so start collecting items as you clean out and ask friends and family to do the same.  If you have a great location and want to volunteer to host the next sale,  please let us know!

Check out these pictures from the yard sale:

During the yard sale, some of our puppies got a chance to just hang out and play in the yard.  Check out these great pictures of them.

We finally have a permanent location for our organization.  Until now we’ve been working out of homes and rented and loaned training facilities.  Thanks to one of our generous board members who has bought the house and will be donating use of it to Disability Assistance Dogs, we will now have a permanent location including an office, training area, and housing for up to four dogs in training.

The new facility is located at 6145 Fair Ave in Davenport.  This is a residential home in the Goose Creek area north of 53rd Street,  west of Brady Street, and south of I-80, providing easy access to everyone in the Quad-Cities and surrounding area.

We will have access to the house by the end April.  After that the real work begins!

First, we need to fence the backyard and put in kennels for the dogs in training.  The yard will also serve as our main training area during the summer.  In the winter we’ll use the garage.  All year round our trainer will also train in the house where she’ll also live in order to provide care for the dogs. We’ll put some shelving and storage in the garage for equipment.  There’s a shed in the backyard where we can store maintenance equipment, but it will eventually need to be replaced and set up to store some of our outdoor training equipment as well.  As you can imagine, we’ll need funds to do this.  We are seeking grant funds, but we also need your support!  You can help with this project by donating here.

With the outdoors taken care of, we’ll also need to set up the office.  There is a small 9′x11′ room next to the garage that we will use as an office.  We are currently developing a plan to remodel this room and add onto it by expanding into the garge either as a larger one room office, or a separate meeting room.  We will put a door in from the garage or from the outside of the house to allow access to the office space.   This office space will allow us to meet with people, hold our board and other meetings, and volunteers can help us with essential office work.  We will apply for grants for this project as well, but also need your support! 

With this new facility, we will be able to train and place more Professionally Trained Assistance and Service Dogs.  Our dogs will have a place to live while they are in training and we will have the equipment and facilities we need to provide them with the quality training needed to allow them to do their future jobs. In addition, we’ll be have a place to better serve those training their own dogs through the Supervised Training Program.  We will also have a place to work better with our puppy raisers and volunteers who do some of the most important work of preparing the puppies for their future roles!

Future plans may include adding on a larger indoor training area where we can also provide indoor kennels for the dogs, replacing the shed and other projects.

We are planning to have an Open House this fall.  Watch the calendar, but it’s tenatively planned for August 14th.  By then we hope to have a good part of the work done!

Check out these pictures of the new facility and imagine what it will be like as we develop it!

Please help support our new facility.  Donate here!

All funds donated will go directly to the remodeling and maintenance of our facility.

Our name the puppy contest is officially over as our two newest puppies are here and have their new names!

Denver

Denver came to us on January 27, 2010.  He was bred by Connie Thompson of Luverne, Minnesota.  Denver is being raised by Natalie Shank of Dewitt, Iowa. Natalie has already done a great job contacting local businesses to tell them what she is doing and some of them have stepped up to help support him!  Natalie also participates in FFA and Denver is part of her FFA project.

Many thanks to Lynn Hallowell who submitted the name Denver!

Please donate to help sponsor this puppy’s training.

Bentley

Bentley came to us on February 13, 2010.  He was bred by Rich Glenn of Olin, Iowa who has provided us with several dogs in the past.  Bentley is being raised by Rylee Henning of Muscatine , Iowa.  Rylee also participates in FFA and Bentley is part of her FFA project.

Many thanks to Lisa Mosier who submitted the name Bentley!

Please donate to help sponsor this puppy’s training.

Go to our Dog Sponsor page to see all of our puppies in training!

Saturday was our second Trivia Night Fundraiser.  We’d like to thank all the many people involved in helping make it the successful event it was.  Here are some pictures from the event:

If you missed this event, be sure to plan to be at our next one.  Watch the website for details, but it’s already on the calendar in March, so check the calendar!

On December 14th, 2009.  Facility Dog Team Kara Graft and Tanner where highlighted on WQAD Channel 8 News.