PFY Supports Our Troops!
The Dog Knowledge Service Dog Foundation – Charlotte, NC
The Dog Knowledge Service Dog Foundation is a non-profit established to assist in obtaining dogs suitable for service dog training, training those dogs as well as training an individual’s companion dog to perform a variety of services such as diabetic alert dog, peanut detection dog, PTSD dog, etc.
The training required to train a mobility assistance dog differs greatly from many of the other service dog tasks. Mobility assistance dogs become a disabled individual’s hands and feet and require much of the same ardent training required by seeing eye dogs as they are typically confined to working with an individual who is wheel chair bound. They pick up items that are dropped; they open and close cabinets and doors; they turn on lights; they stand rigid and become a brace in the event of a fall; they sound an alert in the event of an emergency. But whatever the service requirements of a service dog are, that dog must exhibit calmness, non-aggressive, stable temperament in any and all situations. For that reason, many times we unfortunately are not able to train the family pet dog to suddenly learn to detect peanuts for a child born with peanut allergies. For all the work that is required to train a service, you can well imagine our frustration when we see so called “phony service dogs.” Dogs that have absolutely no obedience, questionable temperament and in some cases dog or human aggression toward strangers.
In an effort to bring legitimacy and safety to this unregulated industry that treads on civil liberties The Dog Knowledge Service Dog Foundation has adopted certain standards that we require to certify a service dog.
www.thedogknowledgeservicedogfoundation.org
Eric & Greer
At the 2017 Waltrip Brother Charity Championship Dinner Doctors Richard & Steve Mynatt introduced Eric to his new service dog Greer that had been trained by The Dog Knowledge to help Eric with his symptoms.
This all started back in 2016 when Doctors Richard & Steve announced that PFY would be sponsoring another service dog this coming year by selecting a service pup that was going to be trained throughout the next year. Greer was selected out of a group of three puppies that started their training in Charlotte that took over 8 months of perfecting to get him ready for the October 2017 Champions Dinner. When Darrell Waltrip and Debbie Lange stood on stage and brought Eric up to meet Greer it was all smiles and tears of joy. The bond between service dog Greer and Eric had begun!
Eric & Greer both had to go through weeks of training to get them ready to go home and work together to manage a daily routine that kept Greer in top shape for helping Eric manage his condition. They also maintain monthly meetings with trainers at The Dog Knowledge to keep Greer and Eric up to date with his skills. They are inseparable and have a bond that will last for years to come as Greer works to maintain a positive attitude or Eric moving forward.
