Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilites

Breeding, veterinary and canine volunteer programs: the reproductive management, whelping, raising and education of purpose-bred service Dogs over the past twenty eight years, has allowed ecad to titrate a proven formula for the successful health, wellness, training and placement of these Dogs to help people living with disabilities. Ecad uses golden and labrador retrievers as well as a cross of the two breeds to produce the desired reliable placements. Volunteer breeder-caretakers care for Dogs active in our breeding program. Nursery team families welcome an 8 to 10-week old puppy into their homes for 6 - 7 months with the option of additional stay. Continued on schedule o. The families will begin to teach the puppy basic commands (sit, come, down, stay, etc. ), household manners, and the pups get to explore new and different things. Our home handler volunteers pick up where our nursery team homes leave off. These volunteers bring an older dog into their home every weekend and assist in teaching home manners, giving the Dogs a break from "school", socializing them with dog friendly activities and new people, and continuing their education. These volunteers are required to participate in home handler training before being eligible to bring a service dog in training home for the weekend. These weekend classes are held regularly and must be completed before being permitted to take a dog into their home. Additionally, home handlers can take advanced training sessions and take a pat (public access test) to be able to safely bring their weekend canine charge out into public spaces for more intense and advanced training. Our over 125 youth and adult volunteers and staff provide each dog approximately 1,275 hours of structured education. By the end of their first year of education, each dog has learned up to 60 different commands that can be combined to perform even more tasks of daily living designed to help a person living with disabilities.

Public relations, marketing and development: serving nationally, acting locally, public information and local presence ecad takes a proactive stance in raising awareness of Assistance Dogs and challenges faced by people with disabilities. Our efforts have produced many articles in national and regional newspapers, magazines and newsletters. Ecad has worked with national and regional web, radio, and television broadcasts to bring awareness of our program to the masses. Ecad distributes a national newsletter, electronic messages and direct mail packages that educate the general public and provide program updates. Furthermore, ecad maintains and regularly updates accounts with facebook, twitter, linkedin and youtube. Continued on schedule o.all of these efforts are supported by ecad staff and are dependent on the support of more than 125 volunteers, individually, in small groups, and in organized chapters, conduct presentations for community groups, raising awareness of people with disabilities and how Assistance Dogs help them lead more independent lives. Ecad's website (www.ecad1.org) provides full access to information about all aspects of our programs and services.

Canine education and client services: ecad's canine educators spend eighteen to twenty-four months teaching the service Dogs in training to master more than eighty commands. As an Assistance Dogs international accredited organization, each ecad service dog receives five-times the required number of required canine education prior to placement. This level of training, coupled with our staff's knowledge of each individual dog'Dogs's strengths, temperament and qualities - enables us to meet the needs people living with complex disabilities that other organizations are unable to service. Continued on schedule o.through our diverse client focused programs, ecad trains multiple types of Assistance Dogs to best serve our clients: service Dogs assist adults and children with physical disabilities by performing daily tasks such as picking up dropped items; and facility Dogs: works with a trained and licensed professional who directly serves clients in healthcare, education and judicial settings. The matching of clients and Canines takes place during team training, an intensive two-week training course where clients learn the skills to use their new Assistance Dogs. Clients also learn techniques to expand the range of commands to meet their particular needs in addition, each client must demonstrate the ability to provide for the dog'Dogs's care and well-being before graduating with an ecad Assistance dog since its inception in 1995, ecad has graduated more than 450 Assistance Dogs nationwide.

Candidate, client and graduate services: ecad maintains a waiting list of persons desiring placement with an Assistance dog. All candidates are interviewed prior to being accepted into an ecad program or attending a team training session, so that they are informed on all that is involved with obtaining a service or facility dog. And to how much their life will change, both in the workplace and at home. Initial interviews are extensive, lasting up to two hours. Ecad surveys candidates' medical professionals, family, extended support group to ensure the needs of the team can be met. Ecad graduate services program provides support to each graduate team as they begin their journey on their new life together after graduation, tracking all the teams through follow-up visits and graduate after actions reporting. The main purpose of graduate follow up visits is to maintain as well as enhance the effectiveness of graduate team well-being. Follow-up activities include creating an awareness of vital services available to graduates that include safety issues, public access recertification, equipment needs assessment, access to legal issues and information about program updates tasks performed by instructors at follow-up visitation include 1) ascertaining that the placement is still working, 2) correction of any problems that may exist, 3) ensuring that the dog is healthy, 4) ensuring equipment being used is effective, 5) making certain that the dog is doing the commands initially taught, and that they are still needed, and 6) beginning the process of teaching new commands. In 2023, ecad staff performed 390 hours follow-up care over 71 client placements.