Bella with Lynn Holzner
Marge Ellison
The Pet Companions Club of PebbleCreek is pleased to have as our speakers at our October 7 meeting Lynn Holzner, President and Director of Training for Leashes for Living Assistance Dog School and his wife, Terri. A 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in Tonopah, Arizona, the organization is dedicated to training service dogs to make a difference in the life of a disabled veteran, friend or family member with a disability. For someone wheelchair bound, a service dog trained to open/close doors, retrieve fallen objects, turn lights off/on, help get you dressed, etc., will provide an invaluable difference in that person’s quality of life. Service dogs are working dogs. Under the Americans With Disability Act (ADA), they must be allowed into businesses and organizations wherever the public has access.
Leashes for Living Assistance Dog School also trains therapy dogs who provide affection, entertainment and comfort to people in such places as hospitals, retirement homes, hospices, schools, etc. A visit from a therapy dog can provide a patient with an overall feeling of well-being and enhance recovery.
Leashes for Living Assistance Dog School began in Poway, California, in 1997 by founders Cyndy Clay and Paul White. In 2003 Terri entered the program with her seven week old puppy, Heidi, a standard poodle, completing the two year training program in eighteen months. Terri and Lynn both had traditional dog training experience, but little did they both realize the vast difference between traditional training and positive reinforcement training, or how great the latter worked. Lynn trained along with Terri and assisted other students during this period. Terri and Heidi graduated in March of 2005.
Maintaining the original concepts of the original California program of teaching persons with disabilities how to train their own service dog, Lynn and Terri went a step further by teaching individuals how to train their dog to be a well-mannered therapy team. Since the time they joined the Leashes for Living family and opened their Arizona based school, over twenty-seven service dog teams and thirteen therapy dog teams have passed through Leashes for Living doors.
All residents of PebbleCreek, whether club members or not, are invited to join us on Wednesday, October 7 at 3:00 p.m. in Room 100 of the Eagle’s Nest Activities Center for this very important and informative presentation. There is no charge.
As always, we will have a box available for donations of such pet related items as: crates, cages, pet beds, towels, blankets (no sheets or pillowcases please), pet food (check expiration date), pet toys, etc. Those items not used for our own PebbleCreek rescues will be donated to other area animal shelters.
Please address any questions to Jim or Marge Ellison at 623-935-6651.