Puppy Love for Dean and the Disabled

by Leonard Shapiro

If you happen to run into Joan Symansky on a back street in Middleburg walking her adorable five-month old puppy, a gorgeous Golden Retriever/Labrador mixnamed Dean, try to resist the urge to stop, pet or even go all goo goo over her dreamboat dog. At least for now.

Dean doesn’t bite, scratch or slobber. But like any elite athlete preparing for a major competition, he’s actually in serious training with Joan, and her husband Steve. Dean is trying to learn basic commands and acclimate to new surroundings and situations on his way toward becoming a valuable service dog for a child or an adult with a disability, physical or emotional.

Joan, a retired attorney, and Steve, an economist, are “puppy raisers,’ volunteers for Canine Companions, based in Santa Rosa, California. They’ve agreed to take on the expense, including routine medical costs, and basic training for a puppy they received when Dean was eight weeks old. For the next 16 months, Dean will live at their farm near Middleburg, receive training at home, on town streets and twice a month in obedience classes.

And then comes the really hard part.

Joan and Steve will have to give Dean up, perhaps forever. After leaving Middleburg, he’ll be returned to one of six regional headquarters (in Dean’s case, Medford, Long Island). He’ll then begin another six months of advanced training with the organization’s instructors where they’ll learn over 40 commands pertinent to a person with disabilities.

The trainers also will provide a detailed evaluation for each dog. Based on its different strengths, a person on the waiting list is then invited to attend two weeks of Team Training, and eventually they’ll be matched with a meticulously trained assistance dog. Overall, start to finish, each dog represents about a $50,000 investment.

Joan Symansky first learned about the program from Dr. Kent Allen, whose son, Forrest Allen, suffered a severe brain injury several years ago in a skiing accident and has benefited greatly from having a service dog.

“I was always interested in dog training,” Joan said. “I became aware of the program reading Forrest’s blog, and I did some research. This program is so well-organized and they offer a ton of support.”

Those twice-a-month obedience classes are held at the Middleburg American Legion Hall and run by professional trainer Genevieve Carter. Eight puppies fromthe Middleburg area currently are in training.

“Right now we’re doing basic stuff with Dean,” Joan said. “As the dog gets older, there are more meaningful things to do. The biggest thing they want puppy raisers to do is socialize the dog—go out in public, into a store, a restaurant, an office. You need to get them used to traffic, noise, people passing by.”

It’s been so far, so very good with Dean.

“He is remarkably calm for his age,” Joan said. “He’s a quick study and he’s also very motivated by food. I’m lucky as a first-time raiser. I’ve got a dog who is cooperative and such a good puppy. You also have to give a lot of credit to the breeder. They keep the dog for the first eight weeks. We picked Dean up on Long Island in a crate and then had a five-hour drive down here. Right from the start, he was very easy to deal with.”

Dealing with giving Dean back some time next year is going to be difficult. It always is, but raisers know what’s coming, and how much the dogs are needed elsewhere.

“I’m sure it’s going to be sad,” Joan said. “But you start out understanding it’s not going to be your dog. You also know he’s going to have a huge impact on someone’s life. That makes it easier.”

So, too, does the final, formal transfer to the dog’s new owner. Raisers are invited to what is always an emotional “graduation” ceremony, when the dogs have completed their final training and are presented to the person who will benefit from their remarkable skills.

Some dogs do wash out for various reasons. If so, raisers have the option of getting them back. But the Symanskys believe it probably would be a mistake to even think about such things. Instead, they find great satisfaction in watching Dean develop every day they have him.

“I’m really enjoying this,” Joan said. “I love seeing the light bulb go on in his brain. It’s fun. It’s a lot of work and a lot of responsibility. But you know how much these dogs mean to the people who get them. And that’s what makes it so worthwhile.”