News about FOXFIRE-GOLDENS who are working Assistance/Service, Therapy, and Search & Rescue Dogs.

 

Jennifer Vaughn and Hugh Allsworth of Vallejo California on their family trip to Niagara Falls with Jennifers therapy dog Tim (Foxfire’s Timinator, CGC)

Lance CGC is a brother to Foxfire's One Fine Day (Lola), Foxfire Starchaser Finebydesign (Phoebe), & Tamerlan's Fine-L-Answer (Regis)

Lance was featured in the AKC Barking Bulletin, A PetPartners, Inc. Publication Q3-2007 . The following is an excerpt from the article.

Some people with dementia will communicate more readily with animals than with humans this has been observed firsthand by one of the readers of the AKC Barking Bulletin , Evelyn, in Oakland, California. She is an occupational therapy instructor for a graduate occupational therapy program at Samuel Merritt College. One of Evelyn’s student groups developed a pet therapy program, using her seven-month-old Golden Retriever puppy, Lance, as a model to pilot their project in an assisted living facility. The student group, Evelyn, and Lance visited the assisted living facility floor several times. Lance was greeted, petted, and admired by residents and staff alike for his calmness and beauty.

“One day, while Lance was making his rounds in the skilled nursing facility on the Dementia Floor, a patient began petting Lance,” Evelyn said. “He suddenly engaged us in a lengthy conversation about how he used to raise Labradors, their specific characteristics, breeding issues, and his love of dogs. When we left, the nurse's aid came up to us to tell us that this man had not spoken a word to anyone for over three months! She was overjoyed with his responsiveness, as we all were.” This was true therapeutic power in action.

“Lance has now graduated from a certification program and he is now a certified pet therapy dog,” Evelyn says. “He passed the American Kennel Club's ‘Canine Good Citizen’ (AKC-CGC) test with flying colors and we now visit a local assisted living center for the elderly and a middle school classroom for children with autism spectrum disorders every month. At 21 months now, Lance is calm and patient throughout these sessions, no matter how long we stay. He loves the attention and the people love to give it to him.”

Jennifer Vaughn and Hugh Allsworth of Vallejo California are training, and using assistance dogs. Jennifer is the owner of Sage (Foxfire’s Just One Look) who is a Certified Therapy Dog and of Tim (Foxfire’s Timinator, CGC) also a Certified Therapy Dog with Paws for Healing, Inc. Jennifer uses Tim as her own personal Assistance Dog as well as a visitor to hospitals and re-hab center and other medical facilities. Tim and Sage give loving time to people in need and aid in reaching out to shut-ins who need that special touch only a caring and huge hearted dog can give. Tim travels with Jennifer and helps her with her wheel chair and assists her with whatever her needs are. Hugh is training another Foxfire dog at this time. Aldo (Foxfire Masters Over the Limit, CGC) is one of our premier stud dogs at Foxfire and is not only pointed in the show ring; he is working on his Agility titles and Obedience at this time. Aldo is another Multi-faceted dog for Foxfire.

Kelly Takemoto and Dawn Durand are the owners of Hanna a certified California Search and Rescue dog. Many lives are saved by the fantastic work done by these teams of dog and owners available at times of crisis. Dogs like Hanna, Shadow and many of our other Working Dogs help us to realize the multi-purpose of a sound and healthy Golden Retriever bred to be capable to perform in all fields were there is a need.

Suede (Foxfire’s Suede) is a certified Reading Education Assistance dog as well as Therapy dog and is helpful for anyone who needs this special animal to aid in learning or getting well. Suede typifies love with his big heart and patient ways. His owner’s the Stegmans of Napa are the force behind Suede’s success. The Stegmans and Paws for Healing, Inc. work paw in had to train these special dogs for special needs.