John Moffat introduced our speaker, Alli Paul, accompanied by Dawn Traurig

Visiting Rotarian:  Alex Hulbert, Garberville, California who has been president of his Club there 3 times and has moved back to Bellingham.  

Members on Zoom:  John Pedlow & Jack Westford

CA on the route of the Sacramento Northern RR, where young boys would leave pennies and pebbles on the track for flattening. One particular day, there was a sound of breaking glass. Unbelievably, the train stopped and two burly train men charged out. The culprits evaded detection however. But many years later, a crewman from that railroad was a patient of Monty and memories of his childhood exploits flooded back to him.

John Moffat introduced Alli Paul and Dawn Traurig of SummitAssistance Dogs.

Alli talked about the evolution of Mobility Assistance Dogs. She noted the range of assistance dogs: Mobility, Therapy and Emotional Support. The mobility dogs are the most highly trained dogs. They perform vital functions for people with disabilities, as seeing eye dogs, hearing dogs, and mobility assistance dogs.

Alli shared images of the proposed new facilities for Summit. The first building, a canine condo, will be able to house upwards of 15 dogs and will make a dent in the waiting list they have for dogs. The center building will house administration and be the training facility. The third building will be a lodge, to house clients as they come to work with the dogs in their final training.

The dogs that Summit works with learn at least 50 cues, which have to be reinforced annually. Clients sometimes need additional assistance, and the dog must be trained for this new task as well. The dogs are trained to open doors, turn on switches, pull open drawers, push buttons, pick up dropped objects, etc. They can help with undressing the client. They can even help with balance and stability.

Alli then showed a video about Eric Rhea, a paraplegic, and his dog, Titus. Eric talked about the effect Titus has had on his life. Eric has been a paraplegic for 17 years after a snowboarding accident. He suffered depression and felt the need for independence. Titus has helped with both. He does a lot of things for Eric, mainly retrievable type tasks, but is also a fabulous social ice breaker. People like to approach the two of them because of Titus. Starting a conversation with a stranger is easy because it is about Titus, not the disability.

Summit gets their dogs from Assistance Dogs International Breeding Co-op. The co-op handles the dog for the first 8 weeks of life. Keeping the breeding more diverse is the intent. Puppy raiser families take the dogs then and socialize them from 8 weeks to 18 months. The next step in the program is to start training the dogs in a prison program for another 12-18 months. The dog is with the trainer virtually all the time, even in the cell. The prisoners train the dogs to perform the more routine tasks. For higher training, the dog goes out to a specialized trainer. The prison training is very beneficial for both the animal and the prisoner. Another short video explained this.

Advanced training involves, for example, learning how to pick credit cards off the floor without destroying the card. The dogs are trained how to be in public without becoming distracted, so they can perform their job.

Finally, the dog is matched with the client and they learn to work as a team. This takes a minimum of two weeks as the human learns how to take care of the dog, and the dog learns the same for the human. The dog learns the body language of the client and learns intelligent disobedience, which is not obeying commands that would be harmful for the client or the dog.

Some dogs wash out of the program. These become scent detection dogs for police departments, or facility dogs or even family pets. But all are well cared for throughout their life.

There were some good questions at the end of the presentation.