(Community Matters 190) Customized Service Dogs to Fit Any Need

A dog that can change a life doesn’t happen by accident and it definitely doesn’t happen overnight. Anne Barea, Chair of the Board at Paws With A Cause and a certified dog trainer, explains how a tiny puppy grows into a custom-trained assistance dog for someone living with any disability. 

Episode Resources
Paws With a Cause Website

ABOUT COMMUNITY MATTERS
Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays at 8:00 AM on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.

Community Matters is sponsored by Lakeview Ford Lincoln and produced by Livemic Communications.

Transcript

How To Find The Show

Richard Piet 0:02

Community Matters, that's our show here on Saturdays at 95.3. The ticket. Uh anytime, battlecreekpodcast.com and on your device. Look for us where you get podcasts. It is Community Matters Calhoun County. Those are the words you search for. A lot of Community Matters podcasts out there. So when you go to your podcast directory, that's a global search. So you got to narrow it down a bit. Community Matters Calhoun County. Follow us there, and then you'll get a little alert when new episodes come around.

Why Paws With A Cause

Richard Piet 0:35

This is a fun one. You know, we we like to do our wiggly tail updates with the Humane Society uh around a month or so apart. And other organizations are out there, folks, that are focused on pets, in particular animals for pause with a cause. Have you heard about that? Pause with a cause essentially trains and puts into service service dogs. And they're out there. I happened to see one the other day, a Pause with a Cause pet. And it inspired this conversation with Anne Barea, who is the chair of the board of directors. We're going to tell you what they do and also tell you how you can support Paws with a Cause coming up. Hello, Ann. Hello. Good to see you. Nice to see you. So Pause with a Cause. I think I sort of framed it quickly there, but uh make any corrections necessary and uh talk about what the overall goal is.

Anne Barea 1:30

So Pause is a nonprofit organization that trains assistance dogs for people with disabilities. And I can go on the different disabilities maybe in a few minutes, but also train facility dogs, and we can describe what that is as well. But I think what's very unique about POS is that each dog is custom trained for the client. And probably the greatest thing is that they are provided to these clients for free.

Richard Piet 2:00

That's a good price, but yeah, amazing after not only uh identifying the animal, but then the process to train them and all that still free to the person who needs them.

Anne Barea 2:13

Right. They estimate they spend probably about $60,000 on each dog before they are placed and throughout the life of the dog because they do stay in contact with the client throughout the life of their partnership.

Richard Piet 2:27

Oh man, it's not just uh here's your pet, goodbye, here's your service

The Full Training Pipeline

Richard Piet 2:32

dog. No, yeah, it bears uh mentioning probably early on here, Anne is a certified dog trainer, so you're involved in the process of training them, right?

Anne Barea 2:43

Yeah, yeah. I am fortunate that I am a volunteer foster puppy raiser for the organization, which means I get the dog when they're eight to 10 weeks old. I get to keep them until they're about 14 months old, and I'm doing basic obedience, what anyone would probably teach their puppy that they want a puppy that is polite in public, but also an expectation that I socialize them as much as I am comfortable with out in public so that they can learn to be appropriate around people. The next phase in the training, we call it puppy college. They actually go to a prison in Michigan. We have seven prisons in Michigan. The trainers are prisoners that are, it is their job. They are a dog trainer, they are with the dog 24-7. It is more of a dorm type facility. So they are in the room with the person and they're working really. It's a time to let the dog grow up a little bit. And then they come back to pause. And that is when pause trainers will look at each dog individually. They have a string of clients they are trying to match with a dog. They will look at that dog, assess the dog, and hopefully make some matches. Each trainer may have five to 10 dogs that they are training. And that, depending on how many tasks the dog needs to learn, will take anywhere from six months to even 12 or more months. They will be at pause with a service dog trainer. From there, once the dog has learned all the tasks that they need to do, something very unique, I think, about PAWS is the dog is then transferred to that person's home. And PAWS provides a trainer. We call them field representatives, that comes to their home and teaches them how to command the dog to do the tasks that it's been trained. This again could take another six to eight months, but they have a trainer that is training in their home, in their circumstances, helping them with any troubleshooting. And then at the very end is the big celebration that they are now a certified team. So it's a long process. Um, the dog's gonna be two to three years old usually. Wow.

Richard Piet 5:08

This is uh obviously a long run-up. Yes, and I presume that anywhere in that process, it may not be clear to whom that dog is going to go. And also, someone might come along in the middle of this training process and uh then it is discovered okay, X dog is ready for this person. This is a good match.

Anne Barea 5:32

Yeah, they they do try to keep the same dog in the process with the person. Um, what I think happens more often is the person who has a disability might progress. So let's say when they applied, they had a walker, but by the time the dog is coming to them, they're in a wheelchair. And so then there's going to be some different tasks that maybe that person now needs that they didn't need originally. But the nice thing again, pause doesn't have a cookie cutter approach. They are going to custom train.

What These Dogs Are Trained To Do

Richard Piet 6:07

You've started to allude to it. Let's talk about what kinds of things that these dogs are trained for. And I would imagine some dogs, as you've pointed out, have a certain training regimen they need, others might have others. What is the global focus here when it comes to what dogs are being trained for what?

Anne Barea 6:30

Pause does a large variety of types of disabilities that they support. So first would be a service dog for a person with really any disability. Could be walking, could be in a wheelchair, like I said. They do service dogs for children with autism. They do hearing dogs, so alert when there's different sounds that they need to react to. They do seizure response dogs. So this is a dog their person has a seizure. They alert someone in the house that the person's having a seizure. They often will go get their medicine bag, a bottle of water, but lay with the person, stay with the person until someone comes. Paws just started two more new types of dogs, and they're medical alert dogs. So that would be a diabetes alert dog, which you've I've heard a lot about in the news lately, and also uh POTS alert dogs. So they have a wide breadth of types of disabilities that they can support, and each of those people need a different type of support. So that's why, like sometimes a higher energy dog uh might be better in a job that you know they're not laying around a lot, maybe with a kid, like I was mentioning.

Richard Piet 7:46

You've got a personality match that you have to consider.

Anne Barea 7:50

It's like personality size, their demeanor is so important, right? Most of the dogs are, you know, definitely bred for a temperament, a service dog temperament, but they don't all end up that way. So I'd say around 50% become an assistance dog. So that service dog fits under that. Hearing dogs are assistance dog, leader dogs are assistance dogs. It's all an umbrella. Pause has started training facility dogs, which are the dogs that are not service dog protected by ADA. So they don't have access rights like a service dog, but they're in the schools. So for example, I have a puppy, he was pretty high energy, and he ended up, he uh supports a elementary school in Three Rivers. They might become a dog that we work with a veterans organization in Michigan. So the dog may be supporting a veteran as a social support animal, you know, not doing tasks for the person, but being there for them and giving them comfort. And then last, some dogs uh we have a partnership with a detection agency. And for example, the dogs, this is crazy. They're electronic storage detection dogs. So they are finding phones, computers, SIM cards, anything that stores data, and they are helping officers to find human traffickers and child pornographers. So, you know, wow, and of course, we don't train that, but we partner with an organization that does. So that high energy, they want a super high energy dog. One of my dogs went to that. One of my dogs has that job. I call them mine, they're not really mine. But I know where he went and I know what he's doing, he's changing the world. But he just didn't have the personality to be a service assistance dog or with someone in a wheelchair, for example. That would have you know, it's like your kids, you know.

Richard Piet 9:52

But this underscores the great versatility and intelligence of dogs. Look at that. What a range of capabilities, and you get to uh you get to help foster that. I say foster because you know, that's the word you we use, but I mean foster that. You get to develop that special talent that they have to do these jobs.

The Need For Foster Puppy Raisers

Anne Barea 10:19

So, how do you not get attached yourself, and so pause does our bottleneck, I would say, to serving everyone who wants a service dog assistance, dog, facility dog, is that we don't have enough foster puppy razors. And the number one reason I hear is I can't get the dog up after 12 months. How can you do that? So the way I look at it, uh, my husband and I, one part is we never have to put a dog to sleep. After our last dog died, we just were like, we can't do this again.

Richard Piet 10:53

Takes a lot out of you. Yep.

Anne Barea 10:54

It does. But more importantly, we knew that there's someone out there that needs the dog more than us. And I'll admit, I've I'm raising my eighth puppy right now. Turning in my first puppy was much harder than turning in my seventh puppy a couple months ago. And the reason for that is that I have heard from almost every person that has one of the puppies I raised. And of all those things I told you about, I mean, I have a couple that are service dogs. I have one that's a facility dog, I have one that's an electronic storage detection dog, and I have one that's with a veteran in Michigan. And so I know that someone needs them more than me. For me personally, I now look at it as I'm sending my kid to college. And what's wonderful about pause is they do give us updates throughout all the milestones. So I get an update from the prisoner on what they love about the puppy that they're with. We get an update that they've been matched with somebody, and then we get an update when they become a certified team and we can celebrate with that person. I usually send them a book with pictures, and I often bribe them with they can get more pictures if they contact me. And maybe that's why I am fortunate enough that I have talked to several of the people that have the dogs, and it's changed their life.

Richard Piet 12:18

What's a good characteristic for someone like you to be a foster family?

Anne Barea 12:25

You absolutely do not have to be a professional trainer.

Richard Piet 12:28

Okay.

Anne Barea 12:29

Pause provides you with everything you need, including written curriculum, videos, and then twice a month they ask that you go to a training session, either in your area or up at their headquarters in Wayland. For two 45-minute sessions, and it's really just training you on the there's really not a lot. It's like I said, what you would treat your, you know, train your puppy to do, sit down. Loosely schwalking is always the hardest, not jumping on people. I hear that all the time with my other training that I do, just making them good citizens in public, but most of all, love them. Just love them.

Richard Piet 13:08

All right. So if that appeals to you, helping to get a puppy on track to be an animal that helps a person in this way, you can do that with Paws with a Cause in West Michigan. We'll put a link, by the way, to uh the pause website in the show notes for this episode so you can look through, click through, and uh consider the idea. So there's enough dogs to satisfy the need, and what's the ratio here?

Anne Barea 13:37

It's unfortunate, like I said, you know, that we don't have enough puppy razors. That is our bottleneck. So we pretty can are only right now able to support about 50% of the applications that we receive each year.

Richard Piet 13:51

Only half.

Anne Barea 13:52

Wow. Yeah. We have an application process and period. It's the first three months of the year, so we're currently closed for applications, but we're going through all those applications and deciding which ones we will be able to fulfill. And then people are potentially put on a waiting list, but we don't want the waiting list to be too

Ways To Help And Local Events

Anne Barea 14:12

long.

Richard Piet 14:12

So you anticipated the other side of this question, which is someone might be listening who's saying I might be a candidate to have uh an assistance dog. What do I do? So when that application period is open, they need to hop on that.

Anne Barea 14:28

Yes. And I would say in the meantime, get on the pawswithheuse.org website and see all the different ways these dogs are changing people's lives.

Richard Piet 14:38

Yeah, that's incredible. Well, we may have inspired some folks to the mission of Pause with a cause. How can they help?

Anne Barea 14:45

Well, there's all kinds of ways to help. We do have a very extensive volunteer program where, again, if you go on the website, there's you can look at ways to volunteer. It could be going on campus and playing with puppies, it could be walking dogs. Of course, we definitely can use donations. We happen to, I manage a golf outing in Battle Creek every year. This golf outing is focused on just raising money so we can reach more people. Um, like I said, it can be as much as $60,000 just to raise one dog. I wish I could raise that much in a golf outing that hasn't happened yet. But we are going to have a golf outing this summer. It's our fourth. It will be on July 11th at Binder Park Golf Course. I'm also really excited to announce that we have an event sponsor this year that's Battle Creek Local, the Voyager Dog Food Company, which was established here in Battle Creek with a very now well-known vet in the area. They're going to be our event sponsor this year. And we just so much appreciate their support. It's such a perfect link between Pause of the Cause and especially Dog Food Company. So we would love if any golfers wanted to come out. There will be dogs on the course. That's kind of a highlight. People will meet clients with their dogs, they'll meet volunteers with their foster puppies, staff. It's just a really fun time. But we also do have a mixer the night prior. It's like a social hour. It's from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Moonraker. We're also thankful for their support. They donate their room, their banquet room downstairs. And 10% of all drink sales go back to pause. And that's open to anybody. It doesn't have to be the golfers. It's for people that maybe aren't golfers that want to learn more about pause. Again, clients will be their foster puppy raisers and they can't answer all the questions and see some cute dogs and learn more.

Canine Training Institute And Closing

Richard Piet 16:51

Anne and uh some of her fellow experts at the Humane Society of South Central Michigan undertake and carry out something called the CTI, the Canine Training Institute. Now, if you've been with us on Community Matters regularly, you've heard Jessica from the Humane Society talk about CTI on various occasions. Anne is one of the trainers that help make that work. So now you've listened to Anne about what she does with Pause with a cause, you can enroll your puppy dog into the Canine Training Institute in Battle Creek, which is relatively inexpensive and have some training done yourself. Yes. This is pretty cool.

Anne Barea 17:31

And how does that work? There's such a great synergy with what I train my own foster puppies from paws and what we train in terms of basic obedience. I've said it a few times. It's not the really detailed high-level training. It is basic obedience. And so as I retired and I was looking for something to do, I had already started doing some shadowing of the canine training institute, very interested in dog training. And then I started raising puppies. And then it was like, well, gosh, maybe I can become a professional dog trainer. Not a requirement at all for pause, like I said. But me and several trainers, we do a six-week session, six 45-minute classes. We can tailor it very much to the dog and the person. They're small classes, one or two dogs, and it's only $65 for that six-week session. And that is donated back to the Humane Society for the Dogs and Cats.

Richard Piet 18:29

$65 six weeks. That's pretty good. Yeah. All right. So if your pet needs some basic obedience, this might be a terrific option. All right. So the golf outing for Pause of the Cause in Battle Creek, Binder Park Golf Club, which is on the 11th of July. So uh if you want to participate in that, uh, click through from uh our show notes at battlecreekpodcast.com and see all about it on the pause website. I imagine you can be an individual, you can put a team together, the usual stuff.

Anne Barea 19:02

Yeah, it like I said, it's fun. We do have a best dress team contest. So you don't have to be a great old golfer, you just got to look good out there and have fun.

Richard Piet 19:10

And we presume it's uh best ball scramble kind of deal. Is that true?

Anne Barea 19:14

Yeah, it's a four-person scramble. Shotguns start at 8 a.m.

Richard Piet 19:18

Okay, those are always good for those of us that uh may not be the longest drive, but we can putt or something like that, you know, that uh helps out. Anne Barea, Paws With a Cause. Best of luck and thank you.