We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
Charley, a Goldendoodle service dog belonging to Kayla Bonar, takes a breather. In late April Charley, who was trained in San Diego, joined Kayla at her apartment at college in Pullman, Washington. Kayla suffers from epileptic seizures and Charley is trained to respond to summon help if needed.
This device is a "K9 enabled phone." If the service dog determines its handler is nonresponsive, the dog pushes the button with its nose, making three successive phone calls to alert help for the owner.
(l-r) Kayla Bonar and her new service dog, Charley, pose with Graham and Kyrié Bloem of San Diego. The Bloems trained Charley for nearly two years and just completed the transfer of Charley to Kayla as the new handler. In addition to operating Specialty Dog Training, the couple founded and operate Shelters to Soldiers, a non-profit organization that trains dogs from animal shelters to be therapy dogs for soldiers needing emotional therapy.
Reporter/grandfather's note: Many readers met our granddaughter, Kayla, who spent a couple of months living with us in the spring of 2015. Kayla has epilepsy and was recovering from a seizure while at college, that required her being flown from Pullman, Washington to Seattle for treatment. She was forced to withdraw from college for the semester while recuperating.
While with us she worked some for the school system as a sub and did some writing for the "Journal." (she's studying communications in college). Shortly before Kayla came to spend time with us, she began a campaign, "Bring Charley Home," to acquire a service dog. Many folks here in the area helped her with her fundraising. During May, 2015, a litter of golden doodles was born in San Diego. Charley, a female, was chosen by the trainer who would school the dog to handle tasks related to Kayla's needs.
This past April, nearly two years after Kayla started preparing for a service dog, Charley and Kayla became a working team. Kayla asked I share this story because she appreciated her time of healing in Chinook and all the kindnesses that people showed her. Here's a bit of how the story developed.
A primer about service dogs
The idea of "service" dogs is fairly recent. The Dog Guide School, established in the U.S. in 1929 to train guide dogs for blind people, was one of the first formal schools for service-type dogs. Not much changed until the 1960's when training programs for therapy dogs began. By the late 1980's some basic standards for training dogs to assist people had been developed.
I asked Graham Bloem to explain the difference between a service and a therapy dog. Graham and his wife Kyrié own and operate Specialty Dog Training in San Diego. The Bloems, and their staff, trained Charley as a service dog for Kayla. Graham wrote, "Therapy dogs are trained to give love and share themselves with others, while a service dog is specifically task-trained for one individual with a medical need."
Finding a qualified trainer to adequately train a service dog was not a simple task. My wife's youngest sister, who lives in Mesa, Arizona, has a lot of experience with dogs and agreed to help Kayla find a trainer. After talking to 15-20 different possible trainers, she said, "An experienced trainer, who was now retired, told me to first ask the trainer what they would charge to train a service dog. The retired trainer explained, "If the cost is too low you can be sure you will not get an adequately trained dog."
Kayla's history with epilepsy
After a series of unexplainable fainting spells, Kayla was diagnosed with epilepsy when she was eight years old. She's now 22 years old and a senior in college. Most of her seizures are of a type called "absence seizures." Rather than a violent reaction, like a 'grand mal' seizure, an absence seizure is more of a loss of ability to function. The effect is still the same with a loss of ability to act during the seizure and afterward, extreme fatigue and a loss of memory about the event. Epilepsy is not just one type of illness, the term describes a wide range of different causes and types of seizures.
Kayla's mom is convinced that after the very serious seizure at college, when no one found Kayla for several hours, Kayla realized she needed a 'safety net.' If she wanted to live independently, a service dog made a lot of sense. Until that severe seizure, she resisted the idea of a dog.
Charley's selection and training
Graham Bloem, the trainer, decided on a Goldendoodle (a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle) as an appropriate breed for Kayla. The trainer noted, "Kayla asked for a dog that shed less, was very affectionate, had the ability to do this difficult task and was nurturing but of medium size. We chose a female because they are, often times, more nurturing and that was a key need for Kayla." Goldendoodles met all the criteria Kayla suggested. They range in size from 30-45 pounds and have an expected life span of around 15 years.
Bloem described the nearly two years of training for Charley in three stages. First, "puppy raising involved house breaking, house manners, socialization, confidence building and basic puppy manners. 'Older puppy' involved continued socialization, imprinting, different levels of obedience training and introduction to service queues. The last stage of training is the 'adolescent' with advancing obedience training, public access training (going to stores, riding on buses and in vehicles, being comfortable in airports, etc.), solidifying advanced obedience in any and all environments and finalizing service-related tasks and queues."
One big challenge during the training was that Kayla was in school in eastern Washington state and Charley was being trained in San Diego. Kayla's family tried to make a trip to San Diego every six months to help with the bonding and socialization process between the service dog and Kayla.
Finally, in April, the Bloem's pronounced Charley ready to team with Kayla. Graham and Kyrié flew with Charley to Spokane, then drove to Pullman. Graham described this critical long weekend as the "transfer of training" stage. He explained that Charley had learned all the commands and had the skills to work with Kayla, they just needed some time to learn to work as a team. That entire weekend was scheduled with Charley and Kayla visiting the local mall, going to various locations on campus and bonding.
Graham explained, "The final outcome was to make sure Kayla had a clear understanding of all the commands that Charley knows, how to reinforce those commands long term and that the two could pass their Public Access Test and task test successfully." According to the Americans with Disabilities Act a service dog must be trained or be able to perform an essential lifesaving function that the dog's owner could not accomplish because of their disability. Charley and Kayla did successfully pass their tests.
How Charley has changed Kayla's life
Asked how she felt about finally having Charley, Kayla wrote, "Charley means the world to me and though the transition to getting her is still an adjustment and has daily challenges, the support she offers emotionally and physically has been incomparable." Kayla's mom added, "It gives me peace of mind knowing Kayla has a companion to look out for her."
One of many lifesaving skills that Charley has is to use a "K-9 enabled telephone." Should Kayla become incapacitated, Charley is trained to push a button with her nose to make an emergency call. This would be considered the "lifesaving skill an individual couldn't perform for themselves because of their disability (in Kayla's case, a debilitating seizure)." To keep the skill to use the phone sharp, the two practice what is called 'button work'-Kayla feigning unconsciousness and Charley pushing the button on the phone. The call goes to three outside phones and, if inadvertently activated, can be cancelled.
Maintaining the skills requires routine practice of the skills. Every day Kayla and Charley must do skills practice exercises to assure they both remember the commands, how to respond and what each is capable of doing. Trainer Bloem said, the biggest challenges now are "maintaining communication, utilizing the 'language' that Charley learned as opposed to straying from it, not accidentally rewarding bad habits and being consistent. Maintaining training is a lifetime commitment and while Charley is conditioned to behave and respond a certain way, this can be undone over time."
Since getting Charley Kayla said she's noticed a lot of people are curious about service dogs and what they do. From her viewpoint, Kayla added, "It's always polite to ask about the specific duties of a service dog rather than assume all therapy, emotional support and service dogs are the same."
One last point regarding Charley's name. Kayla picked the name before she ever got the dog, or even knew what gender it would be. Early on she told me, "I picked the name after the dog in John Steinbeck's 1960's travelogue entitled "Travels with Charley."" So, there you have it, Kayla and Charley have begun a lifetime of travels together. Thanks to everyone who helped them begin this journey.
