I didn’t write about this one back when it happened three weeks ago because I didn’t want to, honestly. It’s a horrible story and I figured the service dog world would explode over it, plenty of others would say something, anyway, and I wouldn’t need to.

But while there has been a little discussion (most interestingly here and here), I haven’t really seen that happen, so I’m gonna add my little voice and mention it because this story simply cannot just vanish.

“Ky. boy, 6, dies after being attacked by dog”

“6 Year Old Killed By Service Dog That Attacked”

“UPDATE: Oak Grove, Ky. Boy Dies After Being Attacked by Dog”

“Dog That Killed Six-Year-Old Boy Euthanized”

Not sure why it hasn’t gotten much attention. I mean, think about it – when’s the last time you heard about an assistance dog killing somebody?

Normally it seems to be just the opposite – the worse the story is, the more you hear – especially if it’s even remotely got that sensationalist “crazed veteran with PTSD” angle the media loves to push. Based on my experience over the last few years, though, it seems to be exactly the opposite whenever it’s a service dog story associated with a veteran with post-traumatic stress, like nobody wants to say anything bad.

I assume there’s still an ongoing investigation (plus, as was noted, everybody involved is either in the military or a dependent), and that may account for much of the silence, but there are a bunch of real obvious questions that have to be answered here. Was it really a service dog? Or did the guy just call it a service dog? Was the dog trained at all? By who? To do exactly what? Who recommended that he get the dog? And so on…

Bottom line is this is another story that doesn’t just go away, like so many seem to do after the initial hoopla, with no follow-up. Whatever the truth is – if the media got it right, got it wrong, whatever – we have to know exactly what happened here for the big obvious reason – so it never happens again.

Definitely something to keep your eye on – I know I will be.

I got a kick outta this response from a trainer in the Toronto Sun yesterday – definitely pretty straight-up, but not obnoxious:

“Guide-dog trainer needs more guidance”

I got news for you – it’s not just in Canada, and there’s probably enough material there for five posts, but I’m only gonna address one key thing he mentions: breeds for use as service dogs:

“A certified pre-adult fine-boned 12″ breed known for physical frailty? Opening a dryer and then emptying it requires repeatedly jumping twice its body height. Even just hopping up and down from a wheelchair could in itself over time take its toll leading to considerable expense and heartache. That’s just the tip of the iceberg in what makes no sense in your unfortunate situation.”

People ask me all the time about using a specific breed as a service dog, normally simply because it’s a breed they really love or it’s a dog they already have. And while it’s absolutely true that there are no restrictions on breeds in the US – you can use whatever you want – there are very good reasons certain breeds are normally used as service dogs, particularly where physical tasks are involved, as he addresses in that response.

Classic example for me there was a Marine family who was interested in getting a service dog for a young wounded Marine in a wheelchair who they knew. Their first priority and what they were really set on (and where they started the conversation with me) was a bulldog, because, of course, that’s the Marine mascot and apparently the young guy really loved them.

Hey, I got nothing against bulldogs, I know a little about those Marine mascot dogs and how they’re chosen, and I think they’re very cool. But, c’mon – is that really the first thing to think about here?

I don’t know specifically what the young Marine’s needs were, but that’s really the first thing to look at with a service dog – what do you want it to do for you? And I’m guessing if he’s in a chair he has some fairly significant physical needs.

The other really big thing to keep in mind here is this. If you have your heart set on a specific breed, you can end up letting that drive the discussion about where you get a dog from, and you start ruling out places that you shouldn’t.

Canine Companions for Independence, for example, uses only Labrador and Golden Retrievers and crosses of the two that they breed themselves. If you’re hard over that you want a specific breed other than one of those, you just ruled out CCI as an option. Again, you can clearly do whatever you want, but do you really wanna rule out arguably the best place in the business and everything that goes with that for that reason?

I sure don’t think so, but it’s just like I say with everything else – do what you want, make your own decisions, but be very knowledgeable and clear about what you believe in, what you support, and all the ramifications of those decisions.

Just in case anybody had any doubts that there are still plenty of visible injuries happening – haven’t seen much press about this one at all.

“Amputation cases among troops hit post-9/11 high in 2011″

Just confirms what I and others have been saying for years, namely this…

There is still plenty of need among veterans with “traditional” physical injuries for service dogs, and you can bet that most of those troops will also deal with post-traumatic stress because of the nature of how they got their injuries.

And, contrary to popular opinion (not to mention the very specific statements of some crusaders to that effect), that population has not been “taken care of splendidly” when it comes to service dogs.

We simply have not reached most of these veterans. Most don’t know where to look or what to look for, and, even if they do, still operate with some major misconceptions, most notably these two classics: “My need isn’t severe enough for a dog.” and its partner “I don’t want to take somebody else’s dog.”

And not only are we already not getting to the existing group of veterans who are potential service dog candidates, their number continues to grow, in two ways.

First, the actual “hard” number of total injured continues to climb, this story being but one example because the potential need goes far beyond only amputees.

Second, a more “soft” number – those who are already injured who start to realize after several years just how much a service dog could do for them, That’s been the pattern with service dogs (and not just where veterans are concerned) for many years, and “those who know” – veterans who themselves are members of this group, have service dogs, and went through this very thing – are already predicting it here.

Put all that together, and it’s not hard to foresee a significant increase in demand for traditional service dog skills down the road a few years.

I said that long before this blog even existed and, if you look back through all my posts, you’ll see it’s been a recurring theme here for almost three years now, starting here.  Fact is, for all that’s gone on since then, nothing’s really changed, other than that need is even bigger.

Please just keep that – and these troops – in mind when you hear all that you hear about service dogs and veterans and where the need is.

I know I sure didn’t give them the respect they deserve initially, and that was largely because every time I heard them being brought up, it was as a means to an end, specifically in military hospitals, of educating patients about applying for service dogs. Now that’s certainly a great thing and very much a part of what they do, but they have a tremendous role to play all on their own, and there aren’t nearly enough of them out there.

That’s why I was so happy to see this great recent video with CCI Facility Dog Scully and his partner Elizabeth Penny – they are perhaps the best example I’ve seen of using the full range of a Facility Dog’s capabilities in a physical rehabilitation environment. Video is only 7 1/2 minutes, but if you don’t even have that much time, fast forward to 2:25 where Elizabeth explains and demonstrates what Scully does, and give me 5 minutes.

The video speaks for itself and says more than I ever could, but note the big things Elizabeth talks about having Scully help with:

• articulation of speech – e.g., after strokes, aphasia, or brain injuries with the associated difficulty speaking
• physical therapy – grooming, walking, feeding, teaching commands
• education – patients who might benefit from a service dog get hands-on training and actually work with him
• pure motivation – especially with pediatric patients, just to get them up and outta the bed (“Sometimes patients will say ‘I’ll come down for Scully, but I’m not coming down for therapy.’”)

You can see a whole list of rehabilitation goals Scully helps with at his WakeMed page:

• Improve memory
• Improve word retrieval
• Improve sequencing skills
• Improve socialization
• Increase auditory comprehension
• Increase verbal spontaneous speech
• Increase motivation for participation
• Increase attention
• Improve use of upper extremities
• Improve ability to interact with dog
• Improve use of gestures in language
• Improve articulation
• Improve sitting balance
• Improve gait training
• Decrease situational depression

(By the way, Scully, as you some of you may have wondered about, was named for Vin Scully, the legendary Dodgers broadcaster. Very cool story about how that happened – I don’t know that Vin himself even knows there is a dog named after him.)

There are several CCI Facility Dogs involved in military settings, most notably Tommy at the Naval Medical Center San Diego Comprehensive Combat Casualty Care Center (C5); and Ascot and Bhadra at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center. Based on numerous conversations I’ve had over the years, though, I’m firmly convinced that the vast majority of occupational therapists have no idea what a Facility Dog can do, and if they did, they’d be pounding on CCI’s door to get one.

Elizabeth said it best: “I don’t know if I could go without having a dog in rehab. The impact that it has made on my patients, and my coworkers… I just don’t know that I could go without one.”

Big congrats to my friend Major David Rozelle on his very recent pairing with Canine Companions for Independence Service Dog Domi.

Dave is currently the Army ROTC commander at the University of Colorado main campus in Boulder - saying he’s a very well known guy in the wounded warrior / competitive athlete world is an understatement. (Not to mention just being an all-around stand-up guy.)

“New CU Army ROTC commander served three tours in Iraq“

Among other things, Dave was the first amputee to return to Iraq as a commander, an experience that was the subject of his 2005 book, Back In Action:

He’s also a bigtime Challenged Athletes Foundation – Operation Rebound competitor to include being a Kona Ironman.

Lots more I could write here, but I think the first line in his CAF bio pretty much sums it up: “Major David Rozelle, a below-knee amputee, is an icon, resource, and inspirational figure for American soldiers injured in recent conflicts abroad.”

And yet another person I’m proud to call a friend – couldn’t have a better addition to the family.

Congrats again, Dave and Domi! (And, as an aside for you NHL fans, she was named after Tie Domi, but that’s a story for another time.)

If you’re not an old blues guy like me, you may not recognize that the subject line refers to a great old Albert Collins song.

I’m at one of those points again where I’m really taking a hard re-look at the focus and direction of this site and where things will go in the future.

The discussion goes on all the time in the blogging world about how when you’re shutting a blog down, or letting it go dormant, or just taking a break, or going in a different direction, should you tell everybody that or just say nothing about it at all?

I’ve been wrestling for some time with what I’m gonna do, and honestly still don’t know for sure. I don’t wanna spend a lotta time talking about things I really don’t wanna talk about, but I also don’t wanna just disappear without saying anything, either. So, if you come here and don’t see any activity for a long time and this post is still at the top, or the overall direction here has changed, you’ll have a good idea why.

Not that I’ve had much to say lately, anyway, and that’s because there hasn’t been a lot good to say. Oh, I’ve had some great things go on personally, most of which are directly related to service dogs, but I’m talking about the state of things in the service dog world in general.

(That, by the way, is exactly how it is lots of times, too. There’s always a lot of truly good stories that happen, but you may never read about those anywhere publicly, including here, and appropriately so, because they are very personal and very private. So what you often get instead is the schlocky, not-so-hot story masquerading as something wonderful.)

Most of that’s because, as I look around that world right now, I don’t see a lot to like, and, contrary to the prevailing opinion, I think things are headed firmly in the wrong direction and getting worse, not better. That’s primarily due to a combination of three things:

• The loosening (contrary to how it’s been portrayed as tightening things up) of the ADA when it comes to service dogs. Sure, it’s nice that the snakes and parrots are gone, but they aren’t the real problem – it’s dogs, and in that area, the range of what’s acceptable and potentially acceptable has been significantly opened up.

• The proliferation of new places training service dogs, particularly for veterans, and primarily concentrating on one area – post-traumatic stress.

• The public and media’s unwillingness or inability to look beyond the superficial and ask the hard questions instead of supporting something just because it feels good.

That last one is the one that’s hurting things more than anything else, and that’s because it drives all the other stuff. Not a day goes by where I don’t see a story that really bugs me, and it’s not the obviously bad ones, it’s the “good” ones. The ones where the angle is “Wow, how great is this!”, but I look at them and think “Are you kidding me?” Where stuff is staring you right in the face if you’ll only look, and you know what to look for.

Always reminds me of the old Billy Crystal as Fernando Lamas line “It is better to look good than to feel good.”, only with a little different twist: “It is better to feel good than to actually be good.”

The really sad part is much of it is doing irreparable damage to the service dog concept. And, even worse, it’s bad enough when the public or the media who don’t know any better do it, but when those who do know better (and will be happy to tell you that they do) – service dog handlers and service dog organizations (in some cases, ADI-accredited ones) – do it… disappointing is putting it mildly.

You don’t have to be a genius to see the problems coming – in fact, they’ve already started and we’re well down that road.

I’ve gone back and forth about whether to give you specific examples of what I’m talking about, but ultimately decided not to because, if I did, it would go against the very point I’m trying to make here. In spite of what I said a long time ago about “waving the BS flag”, I really don’t like being “that guy”. If all I’m gonna do is spend my time moaning about stuff here with no achievable objective in sight (other than just moaning), why bother? Even if you were making a dent in things, which I don’t believe I am, you’re still spending a lotta your time around people and subjects you don’t wanna be around. Not to mention dealing with being yelled at, called the names I’ve been called, told how I’m not this or not that, and even threatened – all things that have happened, although, thankfully, very rarely. And who wants to do that?

Trust me, though, the examples are out there, and some are very serious. But I’m just one little guy, and I don’t have the reach or following, nor is it my job to ask the questions that need to be asked. The media, the celebrity talk shows – and when it comes to veterans – DoD, VA, and Congress need to step up, do their jobs, and start asking some very pointed and tough questions, instead of posturing for and playing to the public, trying to look good and create the appearance they “support the troops” without necessarily actually doing it.

It’s not only their job, it’s their responsibility to ask those questions, but they haven’t been doing it up to now, and there’s no reason for me to believe they’re gonna start anytime soon.

Somebody else is gonna have to take that one on, though, because I’ve been saying the same thing for several years, and have had enough for now. There’s a fine line between persistence and obsession, and, ultimately, you have to spend time where you can have an impact, and, ideally, have a good time while you’re doing it. Neither one of those things is true for me where this stuff’s concerned.

Ultimately, though, it’s just like always – it’s everyone’s personal responsibility to do the hard looking. and ask the tough questions. There’s a lotta crap out there, and most of the time, it doesn’t have a big sign on it that says “Crap” – you gotta figure that out on your own.  And the people promoting that…”stuff” …aren’t gonna make it easy for you, either.

I’m not going anywhere, though. I’ll still be around, and very much involved and active with service dogs within the focused area that I want to be, just like I have been mostly behind the scenes for years. You just won’t necessarily see that reflected here.

All those wonderful stories you usually never hear about that I mentioned earlier are exactly why.

Very good TEDx Talk video here from Jonathan Kuniholm, a retired Marine OIF veteran who lost his right arm to an IED and is very involved with advanced prosthetics work. (Can’t say I know Jonathan well, although I did actually have the pleasure of talking to him on the phone last year.)

“TEDxChapelHill – Jonathan Kuniholm – “We have the technology, right?”"

Maybe a little longer at 16+ minutes and with more detail than you care for unless you have an interest in prosthetics, but still great, nonetheless, and, if nothing else, I want you to key on one thing  – what he says at 3:30 in. It applies to many things (including service dogs, especially where veterans are involved), and you need to keep it mind with any story you see now.

The whole point of his talk is how the public’s perception of prosthetics is that they are much farther along technologically than is actually the case, and that the reason for that perception is this:

“This is a reflection, I believe, of a media bias. It’s not the bias that many of you might think – a left or right political bias. It’s, in fact, an affection the media has on our behalf for really good stories and really bad stories.”

He then goes on to talk about his appearance on 60 Minutes with an advanced prosthetic, and how that was portrayed vs the reality of the situation:

“In fact, here I am on 60 Minutes demonstrating some skin surface EMG sensing technology, and a hand that was supposed to come out last year and hasn’t come out yet. And even after I was very careful… I spent probably half the day telling 60 Minutes that the real story here was about the economics of providing arms, and what we got was a minute and a half of gee-whiz, thought-controlled arms. That’s something that’s very distressing to me.”

And I know why it’s distressing to him, too. Because of that story, people looking for a prosthetic like that come to him, and he has to be the “bad guy” and tell them they aren’t available yet.

While my situation is certainly not the same as Jonathan’s, I definitely know what it’s like to be the “bad guy”, because I’ve had to tell a number of people that something they’ve been led to believe by the media about service dogs isn’t exactly accurate, and it’s not a lotta fun.

I’m convinced that that feelgood factor – the unwillingness of the media many times to go beyond the superficial and do the hard research required to tell an accurate story – is perhaps the number one problem we have with service dogs. And the only way I know to fight it is for you to do what they (and most of the public) won’t -  go beyond the superficial, look deeper, do the hard research, get the real story.

These are always great events and a real opportunity to connect with a lotta resources all in one place at one time that you will normally never see all together like that – CCI staff, graduates, service dogs, puppies in training, volunteers, wounded warriors, you name it.

Still a ways away, but not too early to start thinking about going, especially with it being centrally located in the US.

Here’s an image of the flyer; click on it for the even larger PDF version.

Four videos in honor of the holiday and those who’ve paid the price so we can all enjoy it. Three I’ve posted before, the last is a new one from Thursday.

All four are Canine Companions for Independence veteran graduates, I’m proud to say I know all of these men personally, and, in each case, their injuries were sustained in the line of duty.

In addition, today is Sam Cila’s Alive Day – he was injured in an IED attack on July 4, 2005.

“Calvin Smith and Chesney”

“Sam Cila and Gillian”

“Jason Morgan and Napal”

“Jay Huston and Timo”

“Roselle – A Sad Day”

Another legendary assistance dog passes away – Roselle, the Guide Dogs for the Blind guide dog who led her person Michael Hingson out of the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Michael’s book written with Susy Flory “Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero” is coming out in August.