Tag Archives: News

Dine at Isaac’s For PAD!

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If you’re local to Lancaster, dine with us on Wednesday, March 11th from 5pm – 9pm at Isaacs (4 Crosswinds Drive, Lititz, behind Pizza Hut!) and 25% of your bill to be donated to our program!  Take out and gift cards purchased during that time also count!  Don’t forget your voucher though – only diners with our voucher count!

LPN Stephanie Merrell sees first hand how assistance dogs benefit her patients:

Service dogs have played a vital role in creating independence in many of my patients. People without disabilities often take for granted small things, like being able to pick up something they’ve dropped. Without a service dogs assistance, this can be an insurmountable task for someone with a disability. Not only do they provide comfort and companionship, but they help instill confidence that their owner can achieve both large and small daily living tasks.

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To download and print, right mouse click and go to file, print!  The fliers are double sided and 2 per page, so invite a friend – please!

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What will your donation go towards within PAD?  PAD is 100% volunteer based, meaning your donation goes directly towards our dogs in training and not a salary!  Some of our costs are:

  • $150 one year of flea and tick prevention medication for one service dog in training
  • $120 one year of heartworm prevention medication for one service dog in training
  • $275 to spay or neuter and microchip one service dog in training
  • $250 for hip and elbow x-ray evaluations for one service dog in training
  • $30 for one service dog in training harness (including patches)
  • and many, many more!

Last time we raised almost $400 at Isaacs!  Let’s try to raise $500 this year!

Fundraising for PAD Gunner!

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We are raising the funds to purchase one particular health guaranteed puppy to raise as our first potential stud dog, who will be the future of service dogs helping the disabled in our community. This 5 week old puppy, PAD Gunner, comes from generations of champion dogs ranging from obedience titles, show titles, and hunting titles.  Bred by <Creekside Kennels in North Carolina.

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Each of these areas are uniquely important for an assistance dog stud. Champion obedience titles show a desire to learn and obey commands, while champion hunting titles show natural desire to retrieve and have a gentle mouth. Equally importantly, the champion show titles show solid physical stature which is crucial for pulling a wheelchair and mobility work. In addition, this puppy has multiple generations of health tests dogs in his background and comes with a solid “hip contract” meaning they guarantee his hips to be free of Degenerative Joint Disease.

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In order to continue meeting the needs of individuals living with a broad range of disabilities, we are working towards starting a small breeding program. This small breeding program will provide our program with puppies of suitable health and temperament in order for us to continue with our mission – to locate, raise and train dogs to provide greater independence to individuals living with a broad range of disabilities as well as to mentor and teach individuals that are training an assistance dog either for themselves or for a loved one. To read more about our program, and what sets us apart from other assistance dog programs please go to our <website.

Our fundraising goal covers:

Puppy cost
Flight for pick up and delivery
Veterinary costs for 2 years
Basic Training Gear
Quality dog food for 2 years
Hip, Elbow and Health Clearances at 2

To contribute, please go to our <FundRazr page! Or email us at info [at] padcentral.org for alternative ways to contribute, more information, or with questions!

Looking Towards The Future

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After years of focusing solely on rescue and shelter puppies/dogs, we have decided to begin working with very small, highly devoted breeders to grow our program.  We don’t take breeding lightly, and will continue to always work closely with the community to bring in suitable puppies and dogs from our local shelters, rescues and as in the past, even test dogs within families that are in need of placing them.  Unfortunately, the dogs within the community that are suitable for assistance dog work are hard to come by and our waiting list for assistance dogs is growing by the month.  So in order to meet the needs of our local individuals with disabilities we have made this choice to begin working with breeders.  We do not have any specific breeding plans currently, but wanted to share the news with you as you are sure to see some changes in the future!

PAD Davy

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PAD Davy is an incredible  7 month old Labradoodle puppy, who was donated by the wonderful breeder Bad Company Labradoodles.  For those of you that know PAD Charming Charlie, the same breeder graciously donated him, too!  After volunteer trainers Alicia Gautille and Laura Stumpf tested his litter, he was chosen and began training in PAD’s small puppy program.  PAD Davy Jones’ Locker (named after the pirate because he was donated on National Talk Like a Pirate Day)  is learning the necessary skills to become a solid working dog.  Around 1 year he will meet any potential partners on our waiting list, and be preliminarily matched with the most suited partner.  Once matched he will be trained for the specific needs which could be: pulling a manual wheelchair, alerting to sounds, retrieving out of reach items and more!

Breed: Labradoodle
Interests:
  • Snuggling
  • Making eye contact with his big brown eyes
  • Playing with PAD Kingsley
Favorite Treats:
  • Freeze Dried Chicken
  • Two Pups Pastries (carob anything)
  • Salomi
Favorite Links:

Online AUCTION Starts TONIGHT!

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Our incredible Online ONLY Auction begins at midnight tonight! For the complete information and rules go <here!

On our <Facebook fanpage we’ve announced one of the larger items each day, leading up to today!  Incase you missed the announcements, the items are:

These are just 3 of more than 60 items to benefit our dogs in training, like <PAD Dexter!The auction begins on our <Facebook fanpage tonight at MIDNIGHT!

 

24 Online Auction!

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We will be hosting our first ever Online Auction to benefit our training program! The auction will run for 24 hours, beginning at 12:00am Thursday, November 15th and ending promptly at 12:00am Friday, November 16th.

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The auction will be a Facebook photo album on our fanpage (www.facebook.com/padcentral). Each auction item will have an individual photo. To bid on the item you will post your bid as a comment on the photo of the item you wish to bid on.

There will be a minimum bid set for each item, posted as the first bid/comment under each item.At 12:00am, Friday November 16th a moderator will comment on each item CLOSING it and stating who the winner is.

ADDITIONAL NEWS!!

The highest 50 winning bidders (on 50 individual items) will also receive:

-1 gift certificate for $50 off of any new session booked with Beth Cardwell Photography

-1 gift certificate for $25 off of Nannies At Your Service

PAYMENTS
All items must be paid in full within 24 hours. We will accept PayPal, the only exception is for locally delivered payments in cash or check (local payment still must be paid within 24 hours). $4.00 shipping fee added to the total bid for each item, unless otherwise stated in specific item description.

SHIPPING
All orders will be shipped USPS priority mail, unless otherwise specified on the specific item. Shipping confirmations will be sent. We reserve 5 business days to mail each item. (remember, we are a small program and will do our best to mail them on Friday!)

If you have any questions regarding the auction or the rules regarding the auction please private message or email us [email protected]

AUCTION RULES:

We will have 2 to 3 moderators for the auction to help manage all posts and bids. We encourage everyone that plans to bid to send us (Phoenix Assistance Dogs) a private message or email with your Full Name, Address, and Phone Number to help expedite shipping.

Do not bid if you do not have the finances to back up your bid.

All items will have a $4.00 shipping fee (to be added to the highest bid). No exceptions unless otherwise stated in the item descriptions.

Whole dollar bids ideal but not required.

No bids outside of the USA please.

Bids must be paid in full within 24 hours or preceding bidder will be announced as winner.

Bids to be paid by PayPal, unless locally delivered in cash or check (local payment still must be paid within 24 hours).

Moderators will use Facebook’s timestamp to determine which bid is the winner. Moderates have final say, no exceptions.

Auction will run for 24 hours, and begins at 12:00am Thursday, November 15th and ends promptly at 12:00am Friday, November 16th.

PAYMENTS
All items must be paid in full within 24 hours. We will accept PayPal, the only exception is for locally delivered payments in cash or check (local payment still must be paid within 24 hours). $4.00 shipping fee added to the total bid for each item, unless otherwise stated in specific item description.

SHIPPING
All orders will be shipped USPS priority mail, unless otherwise specified on the specific item. Shipping confirmations will be sent. We reserve 5 business days to mail each item. (remember, we are a small program and will do our best to mail them on Friday!)

If you have any questions regarding the auction or the rules regarding the auction please private message or email us [email protected]

Assistance Dogs and Preparedness for Emergencies

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The possibility of Hurricane Sandy hitting our area has caused us to discuss emergency evacuations and over all safety.

Assistance Dogs are permitted to enter any shelter, but we still encourage our teams to be fully prepared by also knowing where pets are permitted if they need to evacuate and the local shelter does not understand the law regarding assistance dogs. If teams are denied access, they can call the National Red Cross 24 hour access number, 1-866-GET INFO.

A service dog is defined under the American’s With Disabilities Act as a guide dog, signal dog, or any other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. Assistance Dogs represent a specific group, different from pets or other animals such as therapy dogs.

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The Red Cross specifically allows an individual with a disability the use of an assistance dog in its disaster or evacuation shelters; or we will make special arrangements to accommodate the individual, together with the assistance dog, within the facility or in another appropriate facility. In all such circumstances, the care and supervision of the service animal is the responsibility of the individual, and not that of Red Cross.

We recommend that partners put no less than one week of dog food in their fully fueled vehicle ahead of time, and packing the following:

  • An extra collar with proper ID
  • An extra leash
  • Two dog bowls
  • Clean up supplies (poop bags, etc)
  • Copies of their dogs;
    • county license
    • veterinary records
    • assistance dog public access letter provided by PAD
  • A current photo of their dog
We encourage our teams to put all of these items into a “to go bag” which is then put somewhere that they can easily access if the emergency level changes without notice. Near this bag should also be their assistance dog’s public harness or vest.  If your dog has a harness with packs, we encourage you to pack a safe weight amount of your dogs necessities in their packs, saving space and helping you manage your things.
Even though assistance dogs are highly trained and taught to handle stress, emergency evacuations can be an extreme situation for them.  It can be beneficial to have a chew toy, power treats and even a clicker packed for these situations. 
We hope that everyone takes time to plan for an evacuation, especially so for those with disabilities and assistance dogs.  Stay safe and be prepared!

An Update On Biscotti

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A message from the director and co director:

We want to address the current issue with PAD Biscotti, as we’re sure if most of you haven’t heard yet, you will soon. Although it is extremely rare for PAD to ask for a dog to be returned from a team, due to concerns about Biscotti’s well being and continued training, we picked him up today. We’ve had many conversations to attempt resolve numerous safety issues over the past 5 weeks. Due to the fact that we were unable to get adequate cooperation, we finally had to intervene to ensure the dog’s health and safety. PAD Biscotti will be seen by our veterinarians, and when cleared for work we will re-evaluate his ability to continue in training. We hope that you all understand how devastating this is for everyone involved, especially Biscotti.

Sincerely,

Linzey Zoccola and Cory Grimm

Biscotti has been on medical leave since returning to PAD.  During this leave, we’ve been giving him a lot of wonderful time to be a puppy, including food toys, snuggles in bed and long walks.  His volunteer Puppy Trainers are going a great job at this important break.

Biscotti is learning to walk on a Gentle Leader, while still working on loose leash lessons on his collar, this will allow his trainers to handle him safely.  Gentle Leaders are wonderful tools, and we will use them also with partners that need additional safety measures taken with their dogs.

<This weekend they took Biscotti on a long walk around a beautiful cemetery across the street from his Puppy Trainers home.  He is learning quickly that the Gentle Leader is not a bad thing, and we are so proud of their work!  Though Biscotti has returned to us with significant behavioral set backs surrounding fear, his trainers are working through them and we hope he will continue to make great progress and soon be back to the confident and social Labrador we know he is.

On Tuesday, Biscotti will undergo surgery to have a growth removed from his lip. So today, he had two very important visitors over for a play date Рhis littermates Rogue and Squeak!  Rogue and Squeak are not in training to be service dogs, but are wonderful loved pets.   The litter will be 8 months old on the 9th of May, and it was great to catch up while they romped in the 3/4 acre of fenced in grass at PAD.

We will be posting updates as he recovers, his health improves and we evaluation him for continued assistance dog training

Tabs for PAD

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Tabs for PAD, a fundraising initiative to benefit Phoenix Assistance Dogs of Central PA, is a way for you to turn your aluminum trash into treasure. The Ephrata Recycling Center has collaborated with PAD to make a considerable dollar donation in exchange for aluminum. By collecting simply the tabs off of your cans or the entire can, then turning them over to PAD, PAD can yield donations towards the training and placement of service dogs for individuals living with disabilities.

At PAD, we run solely on a volunteer basis and 100% of our costs are covered by donations. It is estimated to cost approximately $15,000 to locate, raise and train one service dog. Each of our service dogs is placed nearly free of charge to the individual with a disability, as we only ask for a donation to be made when they receive their dog – of any amount they can afford. <Read more about the services we provide, or <about our dogs.

PAD is currently welcoming anyone within Lancaster County to participate in this fundraising effort. Individuals, clubs, groups and offices are encouraged to participate together to collect as many tabs or aluminum items as possible. Collections can either be dropped off at PAD (in Lititz, PA) or a pick up can be scheduled.

Please <contact us for more information!