Our Working Assistance and

Therapy Dogs

When is a boy and a dog not just a boy and his dog? When the boy has autism, and his dog is certified as an autism therapy dog.

Marley, whose photo is also on our home page, lives with Beau and his family. Beau is on the autism spectrum, and his parents were jubilent when, only a few weeks after Marley's arrival, Beau put his arms around his puppy. The two are now inseparable.

Two our our puppies from Coco and Harvey's first litter have shown medical alerting abilities.

Megan is on the autism spectrum, and also has severe asthma attacks. She is shown here with Suki, who has shown that she can predict and alert to Megan's oncoming attacks. Suki has also been helpful in calming Megan down when she becomes overly emotional.

One of Suki's sisters, Stella, also spent some time with Megan and her family, before beginning her training as a hearing alert dog. Stella is in training at a Hawaii state hospital where she is also functioning as a facility dog.

Odi and his brother Oakley have both been certified as service dogs. A dog must be at least two years old before it can be formally certified. Both dogs are working with adults with major physical disabilities. If you'd like to see more about Oakley, you can watch a video of him and his owner on Hawaii Fi-Do's website. The video with Oakley is the third one of the videos at the bottom of that webpage.

All of Hawaii Fi-Do's dogs participate in a reading program with challenged children as part of their training. Susan has found that when the children read to the dogs, it has a wonderful effect on their confidence and skill levels. This is Oakley's brother, Odi, during his training.

Sam (on the left) is shown here with his little sister Star. Star is in service dog training with an Oahu family, and Sam has been trained as an autism therapy home companion. In October of 2006, Sam will be flying to the Caribbean to begin his new life with a little boy who has been waiting for him for almost a year. Susan will complete his training and certify him before they depart on his new adventure.

Ginger is shown here with Summer's daughter Hannah. As part of Ginger's public access training, she visited with Hannah in the shoe department at Macy's right before Christmas. It didn't take her long to learn how to get up on the tray of Hannah's wheelchair!

Ginger has been part of the joint experiment between Hawaii Fi-Do and Paradise Labradoodles, to see to what extent a service dog can be trained to act on behalf of an individual that cannot themselves control the dog.

The accepted wisdom in the service animal world has always been that the individual with the disability must be able to control the animal themselves. In practical terms, this has meant that few children with disabilities have ever received service dogs, and children like Hannah, with severe cognitive impairment, have no chance of ever having a service dog.

The work with Ginger and Hannah is continuing. While in the past, Hannah has shown no awareness of any of the family dogs, she has become intensely interested in Ginger, following her throughout the house. We are currently consulting with Hannah's orientation and mobility specialist from the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and Blind, along with her local occupational and physical therapists, to teach Hannah how to hold onto a harness for Ginger. Our hope is that eventually Hannah will allow Ginger to steer her away from objects in her path that Hannah, with her visual impairments, cannot see on her own.