ICAN Give Back

I have been connected with ICAN in a variety of ways- first as a furlougher, then as an assistant trainer, then as a staff member and finally as a client. I started volunteering with ICAN when I was 18 and my experiences have definitely shaped me personally and professionally.  Training a service dog takes so many people helping in so many ways and every dog that graduates is a product of a lot of people who gave their time, energy, money and emotion.

Since I live in Texas now it is hard to stay connected with ICAN as much as I would like. Morey and I still have a lot of friends with ICAN and whenever we come back home for a visit I like to try to connect and see if there is an opportunity for me to see familiar ICAN faces and meet new ones.

This summer while I was home I was fortunate to have two opportunities to share my experiences as a service dog partner. ICAN is training a new class of furlough volunteers (folks who take the dogs out of the prison to practice their skills in real world settings) and I was invited to give them some perspective on how the work they are doing will help the dogs work with their future clients. I had Morey demonstrate some of the tasks he does for me and emphasized the importance of the "boring" skills, like walking on a loose leash, "leave it", "stay" and "come". I also answered questions about the matching process, the follow up, and the retirement process. It was great to see the new volunteers so eager to learn and hopefully hearing about my experiences helped them realize how valuable they are to a service dog's success!

Team Training (the time when new clients learn to work with their new dogs) also took place while I was home so I got to speak to these new clients about public access and going out and about with their new service dog. Taking a dog out in public can be intimidating at first and I hope I was able to give the clients some idea about what to expect and how to respond when people ask to pet their dog (or when they don't ask and do it anyway!), what to say if they are questioned about their dog and how to set themselves and their dog up for success.

Life with a service dog is an incredible journey! I am thankful to have the opportunity to share my experiences with Morey and help give people a better understanding of what it is like to live and work with such a special creature!