Looking Towards The Future

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Linzey

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!

Online AUCTION Starts TONIGHT!

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Linzey

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:

A gift certificate for the <General Sutter Inn and/or <Bulls Head Public House
A Ski trip by Executive Coach, Inc.
A BOOST teeth whitening treatment at <SmileBuilderz

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!

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Linzey

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‚Äôs 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.

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

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Linzey

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.

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!

Spotlight: Dexter

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Linzey

PAD Dexter is an easy going and gentle natured 13 week old rescued mixed breed puppy. Dexter is in our puppy program, and will be matched around 1 year of age to an individual with a disability on our waiting list. Once matched we will fine tune his training to the specific needs of his partner. Right now in training PAD Dexter is socializing with dogs, people and environments in order to become the well adjusted adult dog, he needs to be, to be a service dog! He is growing fast, and at 12 weeks was already 24 lbs! When in public, PAD Dexter wears a service dog harness and walks on an Easy Walk Harness, and is his volunteer Puppy Trainers are working hard on training sessions to teach him to walk nicely on a collar as well! <Will you consider donating the cost of one of these very important items?

In Training Harness w/ Patches: $35.00

Easy Walk Harness: $25.00

Head Collar: $38.00

Spotlight: Beamer

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Linzey

PAD Beamer is a wonderful 16 week old rescued golden retriever puppy. He is in our owner training program, which means his partner, 17 year old Alexa Vath, is training him to become her very own Hearing Dog! Alexa is doing a wonderful job training and socializing her puppy, and we’re very proud of all of the work she’s done! She goes above and beyond the call of duty not only attending our classes for his assistance dog training but also puppy kindergarten at her local PetSmart! PAD Beamer is growing fast, and is in need of the next size up harness very soon. He also is learning to walk nicely on a loose leash, but at certain times uses an easy walk harness, and on other occasions, even a head collar. This allows Alexa to continue training him on the rules of the leash, while still manage him during public outings and socialization. <Will you consider donating the cost of one of these very important items?¬†

In Training Harness w/ Patches: $35.00

Easy Walk Harness: $25.00

Head Collar: $38.00

An Update On Biscotti

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Linzey

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 – his 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

Boris Continues Advancing

Posted on January 14, 2012 by Linzey

So, Boris and I are out painting the town red the other night. In rural south Alabama, that translates into a trip to Wal-Mart, a video and a stop at the Pizza Hut on the way home. I know, you’e jealous‚ can’t help it, can you? Anyway, it’s way past dark, we have unloaded at the Hut, and I have given Boris the command “find door”. As we are crossing the parking lot, he suddenly veers to the right and does the little half moon swag and then picks up his straight line toward the door. It’s one of those things that makes me go “hmmm” but I keep on going. When we leave the restaurant, we take the same path across the lot. Sure enough, about half-way across the lot, he suddenly veers left, does the half-moon jig and continues on. I have him stop and ask my husband to investigate. What he finds makes me smile. There is a small black plastic coffee cup lid in the middle of the parking lot, and that is the obstacle Boris is walking me around. To him, it must resemble a hole and my boy is going to keep me safe! Boris is trained to do “light” guide work ‚ that is, he has been taught to guide me around large obstacles, alert me to elevation changes and find things like doorways, specified rooms, buildings or people‚ but this is the first time I have seen him apply his training to a new scenario such as this. As we continue to work together, my trust and confidence in him will grow and our already strong bond will deepen. I am so grateful that God gives us “not the things we want, but always the things we need.” – Rachael Gibbs Taylor, PAD Boris’s owner, trainer, and partner

PAD Ambassador Biscotti

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Linzey

PAD’s Godiva’s Biscotti “Scotti” has been honorably donated to our training program in loving memory of Linda Lou Witmer by the family of Nicole Conner. PAD Biscotti has been selected for our Ambassador Dog program. As a PAD ambassador, Biscotti’s role is to attend events, educate the public about assistance dogs and the laws surrounding them, and also meet any new partners waiting for a program assistance dog and work with them while they learn better canine handling skills, how to use the help of an assistance dog, and even practice their canine grooming skills!

Breed: Labrador Retriever (chocolate)

Interests:

Working for treats
Getting snuggles from people and dogs
Chasing dog friends outside

Favorite Treats:

Wellness Just For Puppy Treats
Kibble
CHEESE!

Favorite Links:

PAD Dundee’s Placement

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Linzey

We are very proud of the hard work PAD Dundee is doing, and want to share this slideshow with everyone celebrating his life!

Phoenix Assistance Dogs

PADCENTRAL.ORG

Tag Archives: Rescued Dogs