The story of how we became a team.
Everyone who wants and has a
legal right to have a service dog should have the choice to get one.
The application and fundraising
process was long and hard, but absolutely worth it. The application process
took eight months, filling out a long paper application that included a lot of
personal and medical documentation, and two separate video interviews before I
found out I was selected. After we found out I was selected, the fundraising
began. Thankfully, we applied for and received a scholarship for half the cost
of my dog. That left us with $14,000 to raise. We applied in February 2017 and
were finally notified that I was selected in October 2017. We started
fundraising right away and reached our goal, with the help of our community,
family, friends, and classmates, in March 2018. Training camp is a two-week
camp where I received training on how to work with my dog, and how to continue
with training him in new tasks and to receive my dog. We stayed in a hotel for
our two weeks of camp. Each recipient was required to have a support person
with them at the camp. My support person was my mom. Camp started on June 15,
2018. The first day was learning some basic laws about service dogs and how
much access they have. We worked with one of the trained dogs on basic
commands. None of us had received our dogs the first day or knew any
information about them prior to camp. We
finally received our dogs near the end of day two of camp. Each recipient had a
different colored shirt they gave us to wear. Our shirt color matched the
bandana our dog was wearing when we were introduced. There were three different
colors: red, blue, and green. I wore green. My dog was the second dog that was
brought into the room by their puppy raisers. I had the biggest smile on my
face when I first met my service dog, Levi. From there started the training for
each recipients’ specific needs with our dogs. Our day started at 6:00 am to make sure we had enough time to get all
three of us ready. We had to be downstairs in the hotel lobby by 7:00 for
breakfast and to find out what our public outing was for that day. The training
consisted of a lot of public outings. We concentrated on controlling our dogs
and spotting possible obstacles and distractions. We also practiced commands
and how to handle those distractions with the scenarios and tests they gave us.
Life at
home with a service dog is very exciting, crazy, sometimes frustrating, but worth
the independence and security he gives. The first few months at home consisted
of a bonding exercise that the trainers called “leash up”. Leash up is where
Levi always had his collar and leash on, and I was always in control of the
leash. This made sure Levi understood that I am his person and that he needed
to listen to my voice. Getting Levi, the summer before my sophomore year I felt
like was a good thing. That way, I only had to worry about getting him used to
the building, since I had already been in high school for a year and knew the
layout myself. It has now been almost three years since I got Levi. Our bond is
strong. We are still navigating new situations because there’s a lot of things
that we both have not experienced and are learning together how to handle them.
One of them is doing almost everything remotely and Levi working without his
gear on. His gear is his service dog vest, collar, and leash. Those three
things together are what tells him he is on duty when we are not at home. I
have a disability that Levi helps me with by performing tasks. This means I
have a legal right to have a service dog. This was the best choice my family
and I have made for me. Having
Levi by my side and my increased independence every day was worth all the hard
work, fundraising and training that it took to get him.
We hope you enjoyed this story.
Bye for now from Kaelie and Levi
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