Overview of Gateway To Canine Partnerships
Gateway To Canine Partnerships (GCP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the mission of developing programs to assist individuals who are physically challenged in gaining and maintaining greater independence, autonomy and security through the use of a trained assistance dog and to do so without adding an excessive financial burden to the individuals and their families.
Unlike many service dog programs, Gateway To Canine Partnerships uniquely partners with the person who is physically challenged in the training of their own dog. GCP takes great pride in having developed its service dog program based on sound skills and a scientific knowledge base with the following key guiding principles:
- Early partnership between the dog and person promotes the development of an emotional bond between the pair which will establish them as a better working team. This is also one of the most successful and cost effective ways to train a service dog.*
- The dogs utilized will be matched and/or evaluated by the skills and constitution needed for the work, not just by personal/agency preference or acquisition i.e. pre-owned, donated or policy of only using rescued dogs. Recycled, rescued and donated dogs must qualify as potential service dogs, not just qualify by circumstance
- Individuals/families accepted into the program must have the capacity to care and bond with a dog. Having a physical challenge that could be assisted by a dog is not the only criteria for acceptance. Individuals are evaluated on their "team" suitability as well as their ability to cover all the long and short term care responsibilities of the animal on an ongoing basis.
Each Canine Partnership (CP) will have unique abilities and goals. Each person's support system, abilities and needs will be assessed to determine the type of training program that will best assist the individual in reaching their desired goals.
Some participants 1) enter the program with their own dog to train, 2) are looking for help in choosing a dog to train or 3) want to receive a partially or fully trained dog. Our goal is to encourage participation in the training process while remaining flexible and aware of each participant's individual needs and abilities. Some Partnerships will strive to complete a formal assistance dog certification process. Others may choose to train their dog in only those skills they need and want. To meet these various needs there are primarily 4 levels of services:
Level 1: Gateway To Canine Partnerships finds and obtains a dog for a client (when possible matching to client preference). Gateway initiates obedience and some service dog skills, keeping the dog at the Gateway kennel. Dog progresses to "home visits" as quickly as possible to foster bonding.
Level 2: Client has dog. Dog and client are evaluated as potential candidates for Gateway Training Program. Training program will be developed according to abilities, needs and goals of team.
Level 3: Client has fully trained dog and wants certification as service dog. Gateway will provided evaluation, testing and certification
Level 4: Certified team attending classes/clinics to maintain education and re-certification.
To become certified the dog and its partner must pass a rigorous test, which demonstrates the strength of the bond between person and dog, the control of the dog in public, and the usefulness of the dog to its owner. Once they have passed the test, they can proudly display Gateway To Canine Partnership identification, which tells everyone that this is a well trained, working service dog. Canine Partners have the legal right to go into all public buildings and ride all public transportation.
Training usually lasts from one to two years. Each participant works in group and/or individual sessions with an instructor to reach a level of proficiency and skill that will enable the team to pass a certification test. The majority of GCP clients live in the Salt Lake County area so that they can easily attend lessons at the training facility.
