We are still waiting for the Insurance to make any decision regarding our claim. So we don’t really know what we are doing, where we are going, or when we’ll be there. But yet another possibility has arisen.
Canines With a Cause (CWAC) is a group that works with the VA here in the SLC area to match veterans with service dogs. One of the Dr’s I meet with suggested I check them out because he “can’t recommend a service dog to you highly enough.” He thinks it would do wonders for the PTSD/anxiety/depression that I face. So I sent in an application and went to one of their orientation meetings.
The program has a goal to save three lives. The first is the dogs. They regularly visit all of the shelters and look for dogs to rescue. They have an animal behaviorist who evaluates each animal for behavioral issues. They say she has to say “no” much more often than she gets to say “yes” about a dog.
After finding animals that they believe can be trained appropriately, they move onto saving the second life, a female inmate at the Utah State Prison. They work with the Dept. of Corrections to place the each dog with an inmate who can then start working with the dog and its training toward the AKC Canine Good Citizenship award (AKC CGC). (I’ve worked at the prison and am positive this is a desirable program for the inmates to participate in!)
The animals kept at the prison are transported to the CWAC meetings to work with Veteran’s, the third life saved by the dogs. They hope to find a good match between veteran and the dog. When they find good matches the dog is adopted and becomes the Veteran’s.
The CWAC Course has 3 separate stages. The first one is basically a course training the veteran how to become a service dog trainer. It is a 1x a week course for 8 weeks where the Veteran works with the dogs from the prison and learns how to train them and has time to bond with them. If a veteran already has a dog they want trained they are welcome to do that too.
After this time, they hope that the Veteran has a well matched animal. If not they can still continue on to the next level. The second level is with the Veteran and his service animal and working with them as a matched pair to pass the same AKC Canine Good Citizenship award the dog has already been working toward. This usually takes several months, but there is no time table. You stay here for as long as it takes.
Once passing the AKC CGC test you move on to the third and final level; training to pass the Assistance Dog International service dog test. This again is for as long as it takes to complete, usually several months. But when complete you have a fully trained and recognized service animal.
So I’m thinking of doing this. They say they expect a Veteran/Dog pair to take 18-24 months to complete. One of the issues is that I don’t know if we will be here that long, or if we WANT to be here that long. No matter what decision is made by the insurance, we could choose to stay here for as long as we want. But we also want to either head back to MO or to move onto our boating adventure.
This is something I could start and receive the training and quit at any time. If we go back to the farm then I would LOVE to have a trained service dog to keep with me all the time. But is it worth staying here for another 2 years to do? I don’t know.
And if we end up on a boat, it will already be crowded with 10 of us, so I don’t know if a dog would be welcome or not. Might be fun to have around, might be a complete nuisance.
So for now I’m registered for the next class in a few months. I’ll go through it for as long as we’re here. We might make the decision to finish it and stay here until I’m done. I might stop and move onto a Catamaran in the Caribbean. (Capt. Jax ?) We’ll keep you informed.
I’d love to hear any of your thoughts!