canine assistants.

Polar and Billy. Credit: The Ma Family. In this three-article series, Paw Nation shadows Billy Ma as he attends the Canine Assistants Training Camp, meets his new service dog and learns how the dog can help him by turning on lights, pulling his wheelchair and, becomes his best friend. (Part one is about the first days at the training camp, part two is about when Billy and Polar find each other and part three, here, is about their early days at home.) On a Friday morning in late July, Polar heads to his new home. The sandy retriever leaves the comfort of the Canine Assistants service dog training facility outside Atlanta, where he has lived all his life, and flys to Columbus, Ohio, ...

Billy Ma and Polar, David C. Scott for Canine Assistants In this special series, Paw Nation shadows Billy Ma as he attends the Canine Assistants Training Camp, meets his new service dog and learns how the dog can help him by turning on lights, pulling his wheelchair and, hopefully, becoming his best friend. To read part one click here. MILTON, GA. - It's the second day of camp. A dozen dogs are lined up in cages in the Canine Assistants classroom, waiting to get matched with the children they'll go home with at the end of two weeks. If all goes well, the dogs will love and protect these children for the rest of their lives. Ever since the dogs were 3-day-old puppies being carried around ...

David C. Scott for Canine Assistants In this and upcoming articles, Paw Nation shadows Billy Ma as he attends the Canine Assistants Training Camp to meet his new service dog and learn how the dog can help him by turning on lights, pulling his wheelchair and, hopefully, becoming his best friend. MILTON, GA. - On a sweltering morning in July, the service dogs are pacing in their cages while the lucky dozen children who have made it off the assistance dog waiting list make their way to the first day of training camp. Some with wheelchairs or walkers, others leaning on their parents, the kids have traveled from as far as California to the Canine Assistants headquarters north of Atlanta. One ...

Meghan Hopkins Name: Meghan Hopkins Age: 33 Job: After-care coordinator for Canine Assistants First things first: What is Canine Assistants? We train service dogs, free of charge, for people with disabilities or who have seizures. They can open and close doors, turn lights on and off, pull wheelchairs and detect seizures. We rely on donations to train the dogs and provide them to the recipients, who come from all over the country. The recipients come for a two-week training camp. The first day, we introduce them to four or five dogs we've chosen for them, and then that day, they choose the one they'll be working with. At that point, the dogs are trained, so it's really about training the ...