Disability Rights United States Project #5848

Canine Companions Assistance Dog Team Sponsorship

by Canine Companions for Independence

Project Report | Nov 9, 2017
New Program at Canine Companions

By Bob Bunger | National Director of Development Services

2017 is quickly coming to a close, and the year has been another good one for Canine Companions for Independence. For the third consecutive year, over 300 assistance dogs have been placed free of charge with adults, children and veterans with disabilities. In our 42 year history, over 5,500 assistance dogs have been placed. Today, we have over 2,200 active graduate teams. Despite placing over 300 assistance dogs, we still have over 400 people on our waiting list for an assistance dog.

Canine Companions is also pleased to announce that we will begin placing dogs with veterans with PTSD in 2018 at our national headquarters in Santa Rosa, California. This will be a small, controlled local pilot. We are presently raising funds to build a new training building that will be used for this program.

Canine Companions has been part of a multi-year study with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) which involved training and placing dogs with veterans with PTSD. The VA study is designed to measure the benefits veterans with PTSD experience when placed with a service dog versus an emotional support dog. Once the data has been collected from all participating veterans in 2019, the results will be published worldwide in scientific journals.

Serving veterans is not new to Canine Companions, as we have placed more than 250 assistance dogs through our Veterans Initiative.

The continued support we receive makes programs like our PTSD program and Veterans Initiative possible.

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