All in a dane’s work; Charlottesville-based group trains animals to help humans

By Bryan McKenzie

| 978-7271

Valerie Kirkman traded her cane for a Dane.

The Albemarle County resident, who is living with multiple sclerosis, leans on her specially trained Great Dane when negotiating sidewalks, stairways, curbs and the brick walkway of the Downtown Mall.

“When I walk, I walk like I’ve had a six-pack before breakfast. I stagger and can’t walk a straight line very well and the thought of stepping down off a curb scares the death out of me,” Kirkman said. “When I carried a cane, I would carry it on the left side because that was my weak side, but if I started to lose balance on the right, I had nothing to lean on.”

That’s no longer the case.

“I don’t have a handle to hang onto anymore, I have this 160-pound animal that’s leaning against me and walking with me down the stairs,” she said. “I know I’m not going any where.”

Kirkman’s Arrow came from a Massachusetts-based dog breeder who trains Great Danes to provide balance for their human counterparts. She met the trainer through Service Dogs of Virginia, a Charlottesville-based organization that trains dogs to help out their human counterparts. Now she serves on the local organization’s board of directors.

The nonprofit agency has a dozen dogs in training now and has another 15 on the street helping people.

“We teach the dogs to learn and they really love learning,” said Peggy Law, the top dog at Service Dogs of Virginia. “Dogs must be able to retrieve because, if you’re in a wheelchair, it’s hard to pick up the cell phone you just dropped. They have to be able to stay calm in stressful situations and disappear in restaurants so that they’re out of the way.”

Dogs are trained for special tasks. There are hearing dogs. There are seeing-eye dogs. There are dogs that help prevent autistic children from sprinting away from parents and dogs that sense when a human buddy’s blood sugar fluctuates.

“For some people, it can come on quickly and it can be dangerous. Dogs, for some reason, can sense or smell the drop,” Law said. “We teach the dogs basic tasks like turning lights, opening doors and such, and then more specific tasks.”

The Army has its Green Berets, the Navy has its SEALs and the canine world has service dogs. Not all dogs are up to the tasks.

“We teach the dogs how to learn and how to settle themselves in distracting environments, but it can be difficult to go from one mode to another, from being amped-up and doing your job to chilling in your crate,” Law said. “It’s like trying to do your math homework with 25 televisions on and still stay on track.”

Some dogs have freaked out at the automatic doors in grocery stores. Some have found crowds and flashing lights upsetting and many have issues dealing with other dogs.

“Some times I think a dog’s going to make it and just needs more time and sometimes you realize that it’s not going to be a good use of resources to continue,” Law said. “That doesn’t mean it’s not a great dog, it just means that it may not have all it takes to be reliable 100 percent of the time.”

Some of those that don’t make the cut become pets. Others have found success as therapy dogs.

“Most of the dogs we choose I choose as puppies and I’m always refining what I look for in a dog,” Law said.

Once dogs are chosen, the training begins. At the same time, the agency is compiling a list of people who need a dog, going through interviews and home visits to determine if the client is a good match for a dog.

Then the client and dogs are introduced.

“Sometimes a dog will chose a person when they meet and that’s always great,” Law said. “We need it to be a good match or it’s just not going to work for either the dog or the client.”

Trainers at the agency are always looking for new tasks for which to train the dogs. When Kirkman’s balance issue arose, the trainers decided to train dogs to meet the need locally and purchased a couple of Great Dane puppies.

Kirkman said the big dogs make walking with a disability a much more pleasant experience.

“When you walk with a cane, people see the cane and then they look to see what why you’re using a cane and guess at your disability and then turn their eyes away and don’t make eye contact,” she said. “With my dog, people usually stop and say ‘that’s a big dog.’ Then they ask how much it ways and how much it eats and its name and, sometimes, it might get around to me.”

Instead of stares and shuns, Kirkman said she sees smiles when she and Arrow take a hike.

“It brings joy to people to see such a large dog and very few people have shown fear,” she said. “It also makes a big difference to have a dog help you on the stairs, a dog that’s trained to take them step by step by step.”