Service Dog Program

Greater independence, joy, fulfillment, confidence, security, and love are provided by CPL service dogs. Our service dog program is designed to help individuals who have a wide range of disabilities. CPL trains service dogs to assist individuals who have mobility impairments and balance disorders, difficulty using their hands/arms, health related fatigue issues, and people with seizure disorders.

People who have disabilities such as those listed below may benefit from a CPL service dog. If your disability is not listed, however you meet the criteria above and are interested in becoming more independent, you should consider applying for a CPL service dog.

Service dogs bring freedom to their partners 24 hours per day - 365 days per year. A person partnered with a service dog has full public access rights as granted by federal law (The Americans With Disabilities Act), which allows them to take their dog into all public facilities. CPL service dogs are never separated from their human partners!

The Canine Partners For Life service dog program spends two years preparing each dog for its working life. Service dogs must be physically sound, temperamentally stable, happy working partners. Great care is taken to select only the most appropriate dogs for this level of work.

1. The First Year

During the first year puppies are placed in volunteer puppy homes. This may be a community volunteer or a volunteer inmate in our Prison Puppy Raising Program (PPRP). Puppy raising volunteers usually receive their puppy when it is seven to nine weeks old. The puppy will live, work, and play with this volunteer until it reaches the age of 12-16 months.

During this year puppies are brought to puppy classes twice a month. Here they learn basic obedience skills, socialization skills, and have a fun time playing with the other pups. Puppy raisers learn the commands and techniques needed to raise and train a happy and confident puppy. Puppy raisers also socialize their pups in public daily, exposing them to environments such as restaurants, malls, city streets, and public transportation. Volunteers and prison staff help to socialize the pups in the PPRP, outside the prison walls.

During the first year, all puppies are evaluated for physical, behavioral, and temperamental soundness. They are spayed/neutered and have a PennHip evaluation done to determine physical potential.



At the end of the first year, those pups who show the most promising characteristics are entered into the service dog program. Pups who are not suitable for the rigorous demands of service dog life will usually enter our home companion dog program or our residential companion dog program. Those dogs who display physical or behavioral characteristics not suitable for any of the CPL programs enter our released dog program to be adopted by loving homes or to find alternate work environments (rescue/search work, police work, etc.).

2. The Second Year

All dogs chosen for the service dog program will spend their second year (similar to going away to college), living in the CPL Canine Housing Building. This building, located on the CPL campus in Cochranville, Pennsylvania, is a state of the art facility designed to create an environment conducive to learning and evaluation.

During the second year, each dog is assigned to a particular trainer's roster. This trainer is responsible, working cooperatively with the rest of the dog staff, for completing each dog's training and preparation to enter service work.

During their second year each dog spends time daily in advanced service and obedience training, socialization activities (trips into public), playtime (a favorite), and grooming/care. During the day, each dog will be handled by its trainer, kennel staff, and the volunteers who come to play/exercise them. Volunteers also help with grooming and massage. During the second half of the second year each dog will be custom trained to meet the specific needs of the person who has been chosen to be its partner.



By the end of the second year dogs in the service dog program will be trained to perform tasks such as:

• Providing balance/stability to someone who has difficulty walking
• Retrieving dropped objects (down to a dime on a concrete floor!)
• Operating light switches/elevator buttons/door openers
• Opening and closing doors
• Paying cashiers
• Rolling someone over in bed to prevent bed sores
• Alerting someone to an impending seizure (5 minutes to 1 hour in advance)
• Carrying items such as: the groceries in from the car, a test to a teacher, a lunchbox into school, a briefcase into work, etc.
• Assisting with transfers (wheelchair to bed/chair, floor to stand, wheelchair into car, etc.)
• Tugging items (laundry basket to the laundry room, an empty wheelchair/cane/crutch to the owner, etc.)
• Helping people who walk negotiate stairs/curbs/hills etc.

Some service dogs will even be trained to assist individuals with multiple disabilities. For example, someone who requires the assistance of a service dog but is also blind, may have their dog also trained to provide guide work or someone with a hearing impairment may also have their dog trained to provide hearing dog tasks.

3. Team Training

While each dog has been going through its training, the potential human partners (ages 12 yrs and up) have completed an application, participated in interviews with the CPL staff, and have attended training sessions to become familiar with CPL and service dog partnership. If the human partner is accepted into the program, a dog is then custom trained to meet their unique needs.

When the dogs and the humans are both ready, they begin their partnership with a three week team training session. These sessions are held several times a year and usually have 8-14 new teams. The teams work every day (even weekends) learning to work together and care for one another. A typical day includes journal sharing, lectures (four health care classes, three legal rights classes, partnership classes, industry classes, etc), obedience training, service skill training, and field trips (restaurants, malls, movies, zoos, public transportation, large cities, etc.).

At the end of team training each team participates in a two-part skills test (created by Assistance Dogs International and CPL) in a public facility. This certification test indicates the team's mastery level and readiness for independent partnership.

4. Graduation

Completion of team training is definitely a cause for celebration! On average 200 friends, family members, and supporters are invited to a moving ceremony to celebrate the teams' accomplishments, share their goals, and to usher them into a new and exciting world filled with opportunities and independence.

5. Follow Up

Lifetime support and follow up ensure the success of CPL teams. It is imperative that the teams continue to meet their goals and that they always work in a manner which promotes the safety of the graduate, service dog, and general public.

CPL teams are "re-certified" one year after graduation and every two years following (if scores are acceptable). Graduates who are 18 years and under will re-certify annually until the age of 18. Every six months each team is required to complete a written follow up report which evaluates their progress and work.

Included with this report are copies of all veterinary records, rabies licenses, and state/local licenses. Phone or email contact is made with all graduates daily for the first week, weekly for the first month, monthly for the first six months, and then twice a year thereafter. Counseling is available at all times and trainers will visit teams who need more extensive follow up.