As Rico relaxes on the floor, he is greeted with cuddles, scratches behind the ear and many hugs from the enthusiastic students in Tierney Barker’s Grade 2/3 class at Harwood elementary school.
Rico, Prancer, Webber and Ravi are all assistance dogs in training with Pacific Assistance Dogs Society (PADS) and having them visit schools is just another way of making sure they are socialized and comfortable in any situation.
“Rico is extremely strong so we are hoping he is matched with someone who needs that kind of strength, he can do so many things,” said his puppy-raiser, Paul Lindquist, as he gives the dog the signal to open a door. “Rico goes everywhere with me, including the pool, and he will sit on the pool deck and wait for me.”
Brian Smith has been working with PADS dogs for a number of years, taking his four-month-old black Labrador Webber everywhere with him.
“I love it, it is so rewarding,” he said. “Our puppies are not pets, we are with them 24/7 and the object of their training is that they are not afraid of our world.
“The PADS puppy-raising program is very popular in Vancouver, where there are lots of dogs in the school system, because they bring an element of calm. Often, principals will raise a dog, which is great because then the principal is no longer seen as scary by kids.”
Smith said not all puppies make the cut. He has had 11 dogs and more than half don’t make it for a multitude of reasons.
“The animal tells us they don’t want to do this and some get released for medical reasons,” he said.
There are currently nine dogs in the Okanagan, with the goal of having 15 dogs, all staying in B.C.
“So we need six more puppy-raisers in the Okanagan,” said Smith
The owners of the Starlight Drive-in in Enderby, Lindquist and Smith have the ideal business for socializing their dogs. Anyone who enjoys a summertime visit to the drive-in will be familiar with the pups wearing the bright yellow PADS cape they wandering the grounds or going for a ride in the golf cart.
“I love talking about PADS and tell people not to be afraid to ask questions when they see us — we are approachable, we love talking about what we do, anytime you see a dog in a cape, feel free to talk to us.”
The mission of PADS is to breed, raise and train and support certified assistance dogs. Volunteers are integral to the program, raising the pups until they are ready to go into training as a service dog. As a registered charity, PADS relies entirely on donations, grants and fundraising to support its work. Dogs cost as much as $35,000 to raise, train, place and support through the entire duration of the dog’s working life.
Puppies enter training at eight weeks, and live with puppy-raisers who are volunteers that take puppies everywhere with them for a year, including work and school, shopping, the movies and doctor’s appointments, so they are prepared for their working life. The better the dog is socialized from a young age, the better chance they have at success as a working assistance dog.
At any given time, PADS has between 80 to 110 puppies in training. With a waiting list of one to three years for clients to be matched with a dog, PADS has a goal of training and placing 30 dogs annually.
Service dogs are used by people with a variety of disabilities, from providing balance and physical support, to working as social therapy dogs in seniors homes — some have even been trained to flush the toilet.
Majesta Malcolm is raising five-month-old Ravi, her first PADS pup, and she said it’s been a positive experience for the whole family, especially her eight-year-old son, Mason, whose class at Harwood enjoyed the recent visit from the dogs.
“The only way we are going to create awareness is by bringing the dogs to things like this, to the classroom,” she said. “We’ve had lots of comments from people who wonder about raising a puppy and then having to give it up, but Mason understands why we are doing this and what raising these puppies is about.
“These are things I want him to learn and the one thing I want him to have is empathy and this is teaching him that.”
Malcolm and her family, which includes her husband and three sons, said a visit to Starlight this summer inspired their adventure in puppy training.
“Within a few seconds we saw Brian with the two black Lab puppies, and we had time to kill before the movie and started talking to Brian,” she said. “I went home and my husband and I talked about it and explained to Mason what the program is about and we decided this would be an amazing lesson for my son —always trying to have a kind heart and to look out for the under dog and to watch out for people with disabilities, so this just fell into some of the lessons that we’ve been trying to teach Mason.”
Black Lab Ravi joined the family two months ago and it’s been a fun learning curve ever since.
“Ravi fits in well with our family, and the stuff I’ve learned and being with the dogs and being with the people who do what they do, it’s pretty amazing,” said Malcolm. “There are so many different fields these dogs go for — they can do anything from hearing-impaired to physical impairment.”
They are also used in cases such as help children who have experienced trauma or if they have to testify in court.
“So there is just a really broad spectrum of how these dogs can fit into so many different things,” she said. “One of the big things that people don’t understand, when they see a puppy in a cape, they think we are making them work, but they love having a purpose — when you send a dog to get their toy, from day one, they love what they do and when they come home and when we take those capes off, we roll around with our dogs, we cuddle with them and they are members of the family. Our PADS dogs are luckier than most dogs.
“Ravi comes everywhere with us, from movies, to the pool to restaurants. For the most part, I think people understand what we are doing but I think the only way is through education, the more people know about PADS, the better they can support it and accept it.”
When Ravi leaves the Malcolm family, he will go to Vancouver for his advanced training and then if all goes well and he graduates, he is placed with a companion.
“Once he’s retired he’s released from the PADS program and is adopted,” said Malcolm, adding that retired service dogs are often adopted by a close family member or friend, which allows the clients the opportunity to stay in touch with the dog.
“If we could get enough dogs in the Okanagan, Brian and I have talked and we would love to do advanced training here to be part of that process, the ideal would be to get about 20 dogs up here, and really being part of the whole process,” said Malcolm. “Brian is getting phone calls from the coast and they have three puppies ready to go, so we need to find more puppy-raisers.”
She said raising Ravi has been nothing but a positive experience. The family recently swapped puppies for a week, with Ravi going to stay with another family and the Malcolms welcoming Avery. It’s an ideal way for pups to get used to different people and situations.
“It gave me a glimpse into how Mason will be when Ravi leaves. We talk often about it and Mason really gets it right now — it will be different when the day comes when we say goodbye to Ravi, but he understands that someone will get Ravi.
“We’re part of that great production, and Mason is really enjoying it. When Ravi is in cape, we don’t play, and it’s important for Ravi be able to listen to whoever is on the end of his leash, because these dogs could well be paired with a child.
“It’s good for Ravi and it’s good for Mason. I love seeing the end picture, when I go to PADS and read some of these stories.”
Malcolm said there are many different ways for people to help PADS. Volunteers are needed to raise puppies, and sponsorship is needed, which can range from $1,500 for a puppy’s first year to a $25 care package which goes towards such things as toys and treats for the pups.
“There are people who desperately need these dogs and they can’t get them,” she said. “When I look at Ravi and what he’s going to become and when I read the stories of people who are blessed to have a companion dog, I wish there were so many more dogs out there and I wish that people could make an application and we could say ‘here’s your companion dog,’ to help people do all the thing that we take for granted.
“We need sponsorship and we need puppy-raisers, people who can commit two years. And there are opportunities if you don’t want to be a puppy-raiser — you can be a puppy-sitter, but the most important is puppy-raisers; we need people to have these dogs in their home, to do the initial training because without them there is no program.”
For more information on PADS, please see pads.ca