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This series explores disability in a comprehensive, honest, and age-appropriate way. This book explores service dogs and how they assist their handlers. Engaging inquiry-based sidebars encourage students to LOOK, THINK, MAKE A GUESS, ASK QUESTIONS, and CREATE. Books are authored by writers with disabilities and the series has been developed in partnership with Easterseals who is leading the way to full equity, inclusion, and access through life-changing disability and community services. Books include table of contents, glossary, index, author biography, and sidebars.

In The Golden Bridge, Patty Dobbs Gross explains how specially bred and trained dogs facilitate communication for children with autism and other developmental disabilities. This important work is a guide for parents, teachers, and therapists alike, and is written for all those who are dealing with the social, emotional, and educational issues related to raising children with such cognitive challenges. The Golden Bridge explores unique and complex issues inherent in living with autism, training an assistance dog to work with a child with autism or a developmental disability, and using an assistance dog to deal with a child's grief. Myths and labels about autism are explored, examined, and carefully redefined. While focusing on children with autism in The Golden Bridge, Dobbs Gross shares key insights applicable to anyone breeding, raising, training, and working with dogs to mitigate any type of disability at any age. This impressive volume also contains a list of resources for follow-up information, a section on books about autism, and a directory of assistance dog providers.

Deaf dogs are often destroyed, mistreated, or abandoned. Hogan's Hope is the tale of a legendary deaf canine hero who, after being rescued from neglect, prevailed as he learned over sixty-five signs in American Sign Language. Hogan's ability and tenacity provides the hope of life for many deaf dogs worldwide. His courage to overcome challenges and prejudice continues to give inspiration to anyone, human or pet, that accomplishment, success, and genuine love are truly possible. Connie Bombaci adopted Hogan as a deaf, malnourished puppy whose early abuse made him wary of new situations and locked him in a world of silence. Both of them educators, Connie and her husband decided that teaching Hogan sign language would be the cornerstone of communicating with him. Gradually he learned to trust them and became confident in relating to new people, other animals, and unknown circumstances. Little did his humans know that Hogan's story would lead to numerous requests for interviews, news stories, and public appearances. Through his lifetime of determination, Hogan's journey offers the promise that we all are capable of achieving an amazingly ?ordinary? life and a life away from isolation. His tale of valor reveals that dreams come true and offers insight into the world of true faith, unconditional love, and endless hope. Indeed, it is a story that needs to be told. Read and gain immeasurable hope!

Good Service Dogs are Both Born and Made! Watching a service dog and her handler working as a team in a busy public space is a thing of beauty. Not every dog has the temperament or genetic make-up to do service work, but with the proper reward-based training, many dogs can succeed in public areas. Succeeding in Public Access Work is the subject of Jennifer Cattet’s new book, which is especially important given some of the controversies surrounding poorly or un-trained service dogs being brought into public areas. Jennifer prepares you and your dog to meet the standards of the Public Access Test developed by Assistance Dogs International. While the book focuses on training, it also covers in detail a number of other important questions including: · How much time, effort and cost are involved in acquiring and training a service dog? · Can you train a shelter dog for service work and are there breeds of dogs you should avoid? · What are your rights and the laws relating to service dogs? · How do you deal with the public when working with your service dog?

After a devastating diagnosis at the age of 39, Maureen Maurer was given a second chance at life. Giving up her successful career as a CPA, she took a leap of faith to pursue her childhood dream: teaching dogs to help people with disabilities. She founded two nonprofit organizations, Assistance Dogs of Hawaii and Assistance Dogs Northwest, and unleashed the potential dogs have to help people with special needs. In Wonder Dogs, Maureen shares her story of discovering God's true purpose for her life and the amazing adventure that followed. She also tells the triumphant stories of her beloved dogs and their inspiring partners as they overcome incredible challenges to live life to the fullest. These heartwarming and uplifting accounts show what's possible when we focus on abilities rather than disabilities. Dog lovers everywhere will enjoy this fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at what goes into selecting and training assistance dogs. Anyone who loves stories about second chances and overcoming challenges will find in Wonder Dogs a whole pack of kindred spirits.

A resource on service dogs includes an overview of assistance dogs, and information on deciding to get a dog, team training, the access a service dog provides, veterinarians, routine home healthcare, illness and retirement of a service dog, coping with the death of dog, successor dogs, and puppy raisers.