Dear Friends,
For people who are disabled, every day's journey is steeper than what most of us have to climb. At Gateway To Canine Partnerships, we help people living with disabilities acquire greater self-reliance and increase their quality of life by carefully matching a canine companion to people in need and training them side by side as human-canine teams. We believe in the bond.
Anne Curran, a licensed clinical social worker and member of a Gateway human-canine team, shares, "Service dogs that are bonded to their person do so much more than medical alerts. They save us in so many more ways than just trained emergency responses. They accept us and our glitches when many around us don't. They love us when we have difficulty loving ourselves."
Gateway receives referrals from agencies such as The Epilepsy Foundation, The Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Utah State Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and others. We focus on training a dog in the specific skills needed to help a client get through the day. Such skills help them with day-to-day tasks and may be life-saving. Many of our service dogs are acquired from animal shelters and pet rescue organizations, because they prove to possess both a keen ability to grasp instruction and a sensitivity to those in need of their assistance. All of our dogs in training are examined and, if needed, treated by licensed veterinarians to ensure optimum health. They also receive all state-required vaccinations.
A human-canine team evaluation and certification requires an average of 52 hours of consistent, individual training. During training, volunteers assist each client on regularly scheduled field trips, like riding TRAX, going to a restaurant or the grocery store places to which many of our clients have been unable to travel alone but can now visit whenever they please because of the partnership of a well-trained service dog!
Please, won't you consider joining our many supporters by funding the training of these compassionate helpmates? We are dedicated to guiding our people on a pathway to independence. Every day a new story begins. Your donation can change a life—even two lives—for the better!
Gratefully yours,
Linda Robinson
Executive Director
