Thirteen service dogs officially became working partners for adults, children and veterans with disabilities at a graduation ceremony this week at Canine Companions’ Southeast Regional Training Center in Orlando. Among the new teams was national disability advocate Mia Ives-Rublee, who was paired with a dog named Timber, trained to retrieve dropped objects, pull her wheelchair and push crosswalk buttons for her.
The Orlando ceremony was covered by FOX 35 Orlando, whose reporter Amanda McKenzie attended graduation day. Ives-Rublee told the station that Canine Companions and its donors and puppy raisers gave her “such a joyful gift.” Before the ceremony, she and Timber spent two weeks together in a training dorm, a mandatory stretch known as Team Training that pairs recipients with their dogs and teaches them to manage commands, public outings and long-term care, according to Shepherd Center.
Ives-Rublee is not just any recipient. She serves as Senior Director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, and in December 2021 President Joe Biden appointed her to the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. She also founded the Women’s March Disability Caucus and organized accessibility operations for the 2017 Women’s March on Washington.
From Puppy Raiser to Graduation Day, With Heartbreak in Between
Canine Companions began training 33 dogs for this cohort, but the organization reports that roughly half of dogs ultimately make it all the way to graduation, per the station’s report. One of the dogs that did, a service dog named Julian, was delivered to begin his training by longtime volunteer and puppy raiser Bill Gordon, who has helped raise 14 puppies over the years…