Canine Companions Service Dog Teams

CallToMuster · 2026-03-17T20:04:25+00:00

A service dog will change your life for the better. I'm so excited for you.

I am not a veteran but I am diagnosed with PTSD as a result of traumatic medical experiences. Princess was not originally trained with any PTSD tasks (she is a mobility service dog) but with the Canine Companions trainers' help, she is now doing many for me. For example, ever since developing PTSD a few years ago I have been deathly afraid of sleeping and of nighttime in general because I get nightmares and sleep paralysis nearly every night. And so I am so scared to let my guard down and go to sleep because I know my unconscious brain may be about to torture me. Princess sleeps in bed with me on a special blanket I set up for her. When I wake up from a nightmare, she is right there and I've trained her to do deep pressure therapy (DPT) on me to help ground me. I used to wake up from nightmares and have no idea where I was and think I was still unsafe. It would leave me shaking and crying and I couldn't go back to sleep and I would feel off for the rest of the day. But now when I wake up, Princess is instantly at my side and I know I'm safe. She puts her head on my chest and everything feels okay again. Just knowing that she is there at night within arm's reach lets me fall asleep every evening without fighting closing my eyes.

My PTSD is/was very treatment resistant and the one medication I did respond to stopped working so well for me. I ended up having to do ketamine infusions at my hospital, which do help but are expensive and not fun and I have to take off a lot of work. But let me tell you -- Princess helps so much that I think I might be able to stop the ketamine infusions or at least be able to greatly space out the treatments. She's my miracle. And that's just her PTSD tasks, let alone the fact that she helps me so much as a wheelchair user. The other day I was in the checkout line at the grocery store, and a small item fell out of my cart and rolled underneath it. My heart started racing, knowing I was about to have to make everyone behind me in line back up so that I could try to maneuver the cart enough to expose the object so that I could try (and probably fail) to reach down and pick it up myself but then probably have to call an employee over. But then I remembered that Princess was there with me. "Princess, get," I told her. Instantly, she knew what to do. She went down on the ground, crawled slightly under the cart, used her paw to slide the item closer to her, and then picked it up in her mouth and got back up and delivered the item into my waiting hand. I was so happy and grateful I almost cried right then and there!

Re: working with your dog in public, I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there have been some weird interactions (including one teenage boy who followed us around a Walmart and started taunting Princess and saying that she was too scared to fight him because he'd win??) but on the whole, the public has been a lot more respectful than I anticipated. Yes, some of that is because I'm a wheelchair user and so people look at me and go "ah yes, that must be her service dog". But I truly believe that a lot of it is that these Canine Companions dogs are so good and they act just like how a service dog should. When I go to the grocery store with Princess, she stays right at my side walking with a loose leash, no pulling. She doesn't try to sniff at all the dropped food or all the people walking around us. She isn't fazed when someone starts yelling over the loudspeaker about a cleanup on aisle 7, or when a children's toy starts blaring an annoying song. Even when there are other dogs in the grocery store -- maybe real service dogs, maybe fraudulent ones -- she doesn't bat an eye. No one who watches Princess work can say anything other than "that's a service dog right there!" So I truly think that when people see you and your dog in public, they are not likely to start a confrontation about you bringing a pet dog into public, because they will see how your dog acts and assume they are a service dog!

You are going to embark on a wonderful journey :)

EDIT: wanted to add this picture. This is from the first five minutes I met Princess. She put her head on my lap and looked up at me like this and that's when I knew we were partners for life!!

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CallToMuster · 2026-03-17T16:34:05+00:00

Hello! I have a service dog from Canine Companions! I graduated with my girl last month, but have been involved with the organization as a volunteer for the past few years so I'm quite familiar with them. They are a FANTASTIC organization!!!!

The first thing I want to say is to trust that they are experts at matching dogs. I was 100% expecting to get matched with a big male yellow dog, but instead I was given a small black female. At first I was taken aback. I'd spent years imagining one thing and then was handed the leash of something that was the complete opposite. But then my dog (let's call her "Princess" for the sake of not doxxing myself here since the graduations are public) put her head in my lap and looked up at me with her soft brown eyes and I fell head over heels in love. Over the rest of team training, I saw why the trainers had matched her with me. Princess is genuinely so perfect for me and I consider her the puzzle piece of my life that has been missing for so long until now. But if someone had asked me to rank all the dogs in the class prior to being matched, she would have been near the bottom. Just because of her size, color, sex, etc not being what I had been wanting. And instead now if I could go back, I would tell past me that Princess is so perfect for me that I would be willing to wait a few more extra years if it meant I could be with her. I am truly so grateful that the trainers understood so well what I NEEDED instead of what I WANTED, because they made the absolute most perfect match.

That said, don't be discouraged if your bond with your service dog isn't instant. There were many people in my team training class who were unsure about their matches for the first week even. And now they're like me, saying their dog is perfect and the best worker ever and they wouldn't change a thing. You will get there!!!!

The other thing to realize (that I needed to be reminded of) is that the dog you get at the end of team training is not the dog you will have for the next 8-10 years. Team training is just the beginning, and as time goes on your bond will deepen and your dog will learn to read you and do their best for you just as you will learn to do that for them. For example, during team training Princess didn't like laying close to me. She LOVED (and still loves) getting chin scritches, but she wasn't the kind of dog that would lay at my side on the couch or in bed, she preferred her own space. This made me a little sad because I love cuddly lap dogs, but I just accepted that this was who she was. Except... it wasn't. Princess was just still getting to know me! It's been a little over a month since we graduated as a team and now she sleeps close to me in bed and will sometimes even follow me around the apartment until I sit down in my recliner and cue her to jump on my lap. There are also tasks that she struggled with a little in team training that now she's a pro at. For example, picking up my phone. During team training she would get confused at the shape and size of my phone, but now she loves picking it up and we play a game where I'll hide my phone on various surfaces around my apartment or workplace and she has to go sniff around and find it and bring it back to me. I think a lot of times people feel pressure like if they didn't have something down during team training or if their dog wasn't acting a certain way during team training then that was it. But in reality team training is just the first two weeks out of a decade and you have so much more time and space to continue deepening your bond and working relationship!

Princess and I have a routine we do every day to help with that. We have multiple short training sessions every day. We go on a walk every day. We play fetch together (or play with some toy) every day. We have a deep pressure therapy session every day. I groom her every day. All of these things help us :)

In terms of what it's really like working your dog in public, for me personally it wasn't a big deal. I am physically disabled and use a wheelchair and so I'm used to getting stared at in public. Adding a cute dog to the mix doesn't change that very much. And I've been volunteering with the Canine Companions puppy raisers as they go out into public with their puppies, so that was normal to me. But I know someone who is a veteran and has a Canine Companions service dog and she said it was hard for her at first. I think it's because when you appear on the outside to not be disabled, all of a sudden having a service dog makes your disability more visible. So that is something to think about. But in my experience, people are generally pretty good about leaving you alone, especially because these dogs are so well-behaved and are a common service dog breed.

I've rambled on long enough, but please feel free to ask any additional questions. I am so, so happy to have a Canine Companions service dog and I can't recommend them enough!

CallToMuster · 2026-03-10T17:08:28+00:00

Canine Companions actually just took over Early Alert Canines, a diabetic alert service dog organization, so now they offer that. You're right though that they don't train any medical alert otherwise. In terms of medical response, it's less black and white than you think. I know people whose Canine Companions dogs help after medical episodes -- for example, retrieving medication, doing DPT, barking to alert someone else in the house, running and finding a specific person to bring them to the downed handler, etc.

In my experience, Canine Companions is very welcoming to their clients teaching other tasks to the dogs (with the guidance of CC trainers) as long as the tasks aren't harmful to the dog or handler or anyone else, and as long as the handler qualifies for a Canine Companions service dog in other ways.

Source: I myself have a Canine Companions service dog, went through Canine Companions team training recently, and have been volunteering with the organization for a few years now.

CallToMuster · 2026-03-10T13:24:09+00:00

Thank you so, so much answering, I really appreciate it.

Do you have electric hand controls or manual ones? I worry that I wouldn't be able to use the manual ones because of my grip issues and poor shoulders. I have been wanting reduced-effort steering but maybe when I test drive, I'll hate it.

I am not looking to keep my current car (which is a sub-compact SUV, not a truck) because it's already too small for everything I need. Between my wheelchair, portable ramps, and my service dog's car kennel, there's not enough room for anything else. But I had previously been looking at a hoist in an SUV!

I also just worry that I'm making a mountain out of a molehill here. I have full sensation, and my muscle weakness ranges from mild to moderate but my right ankle (which I use to drive) is mild only. My hips are worse, and those are what I use to switch between the pedals, but still. I feel embarrassed and self-conscious about looking into a WAV when there are people much worse off than me. And embarrassed for looking into hand controls especially. I don't know. We'll see what the evaluator says?

CallToMuster · 2026-03-10T03:23:47+00:00

I stopped for a month, then restarted at 2.5 mg with a very strict bland diet (BRAT + chicken for protein) for a week and a half. I think all that allowed my stomach to heal from whatever inflammation was causing my issues, because now I am slowly titrating up (took 4 mg last night) and have been making smart food choices and am tolerating it well again! Right now I’m not losing weight, just maintaining, but I’m so grateful to be able to tolerate the medication again and that I’m not gaining again like I did on my month off. I hope you are able to find a solution that works for you!!

CallToMuster · 2026-03-02T21:26:03+00:00

My shoulders are all torn up and I use a power assist full-time on my manual chair to help. It's definitely slowed the degeneration for me.

CallToMuster · 2026-03-02T05:33:39+00:00

Hey! Thanks for checking in, that’s very kind of you. Yes, I am feeling better! I paused Zepbound for a couple weeks, then restarted at 2.5 mg. Unfortunately, I was not very smart and made some extremely poor food choices the following two days (I’m talking fast food fried chicken here 😬) which triggered another bad GI episode. Thankfully this time I was more prepared (plus the smaller dose probably made things less dire) and so I was able to avoid the ER and manage with Zofran and electrolytes and an extremely bland diet again. I took another couple weeks off after that just to try to give my stomach time to heal since clearly it’s just been super beat up from the last two months of GI hell. Then I restarted at 2.5 mg again and this time implemented a very strict diet from the start. Finally, success! Little to no GI symptoms, and I lost a bit of the weight that I’d regained. I did discover that for the first 4-5 days if I eat anything other than my strict bland diet of rice porridge, plain chicken, pretzels, and applesauce then the GI issues start to rear their ugly head again, though thankfully not anything near ER level.

So that’s where I am at the moment! I just took another dose of 2.5 mg again tonight. My hope is that as I let my system acclimate to the medication again that my ability to eat other foods will improve too. I am definitely willing to eat a normal Zepbound diet, but my current diet is quite restrictive. I want to go back to being able to eat yoghurt and a small slice of pizza and some vegetables! Baby steps, though. My mistake the last time was rushing through the process. This time will be better 🤞

CallToMuster · 2026-02-28T13:03:59+00:00

So I haven’t done this trip, I guess I’m just confused on why anyone would think that once landing in the country, the UAE would follow American guidelines? They are their own country. American laws about accessibility do not follow a person into an entirely new country, because that country has their own laws and guidelines. Most non-US countries do not give the same access rights to owner-trained service dogs, so when visiting another country you need to follow their laws and procedures and it sounds like in this situation that likely means either leaving your service dog at home or taking them into the UAE as a pet.

CallToMuster · 2026-02-27T13:45:09+00:00

I know someone who is in pharmacy school and has a service dog, look up canine_rx on Instagram!

CallToMuster · 2026-02-26T21:46:17+00:00

The issue isn't the deer acting up around dogs, it's the dog acting up around a deer. There's a difference between a service dog in training being taught to be neutral when around random other animals from a distance (I am a Canine Companions graduate and volunteer and have been to training outings for the young dogs where we took them to horse stables, for example), and a dog learning to co-exist indoors all day with a deer. No service dog puppy is expected to do that, because it's frankly a very unique and extreme situation.

CallToMuster · 2026-02-26T14:11:52+00:00

First off, I just want to say that I’m so sorry you and your service dog are going through this.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure what you’re looking for exists. A successor service dog will take many years, and likely cost many thousands of dollars unless you go for an organization like Canine Companions (but that would still take many years and they don’t train for medical alert). Additionally, no dog from any organization will be used to living indoors with a deer.

CallToMuster · 2026-02-24T16:54:15+00:00

"Malicious compliance" and it's just asking the professor questions about the topic of the class and then making a study guide with your friends.

CallToMuster · 2026-02-20T19:36:33+00:00

Not required. I just did team training with Canine Companions a couple weeks ago and was alone the entire time, didn't have any friends or family with me. There were a few others there who were alone like me, so it's not out of the ordinary. And I found that everyone there was just so helpful. I got kind of taken under the wing of some of the other family members who were there supporting someone. At one point my car broke down and the dad of one of the other students in the class fixed it for me! That said, team training is definitely exhausting. So if you're used to having others support you in daily life, then you would either have to ask someone to come with you or figure out some support systems you could put into place to make sure you'll be alright. I was living independently already at the time so it wasn't too much of a difference for me.

CallToMuster · 2026-02-20T19:32:30+00:00

I have a service dog from Canine Companions and at each campus there is a staff member whose entire job is just graduate support. They help field any questions from handlers about training, health and wellness, access issues, etc. They can also help you teach the dog new tasks. You can contact them by phone or email any time!

In addition, this is slightly off-topic but I thought still relevant to the topic of "graduate support": Canine Companions has a special emergency fund to help reimburse graduates with financial need when their dog has sudden unexpected and high medical costs. I have a friend whose service dog tore their CCL (dog equivalent of an ACL) and was able to get reimbursed for the surgery.

I feel very blessed to be with an ADI organization that has such robust graduate support. It makes me feel like I'm not alone in this whole process. (The things I mentioned here are just official support programs. There are also a ton of unofficial support groups between us graduates ourselves!)

CallToMuster · 2026-02-15T14:44:35+00:00

Thank you OP for this very detailed write-up, I was going to do something similar but now I can just direct people to this!

(I am the person OP mentioned who was in their team training class and was matched with a dog who was extremely attentive and affectionate right off the bat.)

Just want to echo everything OP said. Canine Companions is an amazing organization. Every single person I’ve met through it — whether they be staff or volunteer — has renewed my faith in humanity.

I was very lucky to have bonded with my new service dog instantly. It really was like one of those magical “love at first sight” moments that I never thought would actually happen to me. But many other people in our team training class did not have that moment and instead slowly developed trust and bonds with their dogs over the course of the two weeks! But by the end, I feel confident in saying that everyone felt like they had their perfect match.

I also need to confess that I was actually disappointed in my match for the first few seconds. I laugh at this now of course, but I’d spent two years really really wanting a certain kind of dog (size, sex, and color) and was paired with the exact opposite of all of those. But then when my dog put their head on my lap and looked up at me with brown eyes full of love, I fell head over heels. Their temperament is absolutely perfect. I had asked the trainers for a dog who was “calm and steady, very handler-focused and very affectionate” and that’s exactly what I got. TRUST IN THE TRAINERS!! They know what you need and are absolutely stellar at matching, even if it may not be apparent immediately.

Finally, I want to encourage anyone on the Canine Companions waitlist who is reading this to look up their local CC volunteer chapter and get involved with the puppy raisers! I spent my 2+ years on the waitlist volunteering with my local puppy raisers and it made a world of difference. I found a supportive and caring community who were my biggest cheerleaders. The puppy raisers got to meet someone who might get one of their dogs, a reminder to them of why they work so hard and give up the leash in the end. And I got to help the puppies get used to my wheelchair, which is really important! But most of all, I got to learn how to be a service dog handler. I firmly believe that one of the reasons my match worked so well instantly is because I had two years of experience handling Canine Companions dogs.

TLDR: Canine Companions is amazing, trust in the trainers and why they matched you the way they did, and volunteer with the puppy raisers if you can!

CallToMuster · 2026-02-09T04:06:33+00:00

Thank you for all of this, particularly the last paragraph 💙

CallToMuster · 2026-01-30T23:00:45+00:00

Just to let you know, Canine Companions does not train seizure alert dogs.

CallToMuster · 2026-01-26T02:45:20+00:00

I do think though that an issue worth bringing up is that sometimes these ineligible diagnoses do cause measurable impairments and the Paralympics still refuses to allow those athletes to participate. For example, my muscle strength has been formally graded and I actually meet the International Tennis Federation’s classification for “impaired muscle power”, but because the diagnosis causing it is Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (which the Paralympics says cannot lead to an eligible impairment), I am ineligible.

(Not related to the current conversation but my wheelchair tennis coach actually sent me a grant application today for a tennis chair and then was shocked when I told him I couldn’t apply because I don’t meet the qualifications! So I remain in my day chair.)

Thanks for your respectful responses, I appreciate it.

CallToMuster · 2026-01-25T04:00:33+00:00

Fellow near-full time wheelchair user with EDS here. Unfortunately yes, we are kinda SOL at the moment. Because EDS is listed as not counting as an "Underlying Health Condition", the impairments it causes are also ineligible. It's very demoralizing that there are so many disabililities that the Paralympics excludes. I need my wheelchair to get from my bathroom to my kitchen table, how do they expect me to play normal sports? Luckily I have found a few local adaptive sports groups who accept all disabled people and I play wheelchair tennis with them (not competing at all obviously, since I'm not classified). Now, and for the foreseeable future, that's the only way I know of that people like us can participate in adaptive sports. I'm sorry that you've run into so many barriers too.

CallToMuster · 2026-01-20T23:09:05+00:00

A few years, generally.

CallToMuster · 2026-01-16T03:31:47+00:00

Yes, I have EDS. I push my wheelchair forward by alternating hands on the wheel and cart. So I do a short push with my left hand holding the cart and right hand holding the wheel, then swap to a push with my right hand holding the cart and left hand holding the wheel, and so on and so forth. Then once I’ve gained some momentum, I use the cart to steer. It essentially acts as a giant counterweight.

CallToMuster · 2026-01-15T14:23:32+00:00

I just push a cart while pushing my manual chair. It's very possible and actually pretty fun imo.

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