News

Hi, Can Do Canines family. I want to thank those of you who were able to join us on Monday night for our most recent Virtual Conversation. For those of you not in attendance, I’ve linked to the recorded conversation below. Since many of you have schedules that won’t allow you to watch it, I’d love to give you a quick update. There is much to celebrate here at Can Do Canines. We’re forming wonderful new relationships with organizations like Best Buy, Affinity Plus, the Minnesota Twins, and many others. The Woofaroo was the most successful we’ve ever had. Our …

2021 was another wild ride around the sun! We are so grateful to each of you for being on this journey with Can Do Canines. We could not do what we do so well without our amazing community of volunteers. To have you with us, despite life’s challenges, is a gift shared far beyond Can Do Canines staff! Together, we certified 41 new teams. The lives of our teams, their families and their communities have been made brighter and better because of you! Together, we began raising and training 104 new puppies. These puppies will someday be ready to help …

Hearing Assist Dogs The Myth: These dogs run to every sound to check it out! The Facts: Our HADs are actually not particularly environmental. A dog that likes to bark at noises or fixates on sound sources is not destined for hearing assist work. Similar to a successful DAD, hearing assist dogs are incredibly focused on their handler and a desire to interact with their handler often. They hold a high work ethic, which is required for a “24/7” career. HADs are motivated to please their person much more than they are motivated to satisfy their own curiosity by checking …

Autism Assist Dogs The Myth: These dogs are lazy and not a good fit for any other career. Obsessed with kids! The Facts: This might be the most misunderstood of all the careers. An AAD must be the most bombproof of dogs when compared to their cohorts. Their temperament must be not only one that withstands the emotional extremes of their human, but one that appropriately engages with them and adjusts their responses to fit the moment. While yes, an AAD must love children, it is so much more than that. They need to be gentle and understanding of small …

You often hear us discuss food as a primary reinforcer for our program dogs. Dogs will also show us that things we don’t intend to be reinforcers actually are- like leaves, smells, other dogs- and that these things can even trump food. When thinking about rewards and reinforcement, it’s important to note what dogs actually like and desire so we can use it to our advantage. We can use those things as both reinforcement (on our terms) and also to help make our desired reinforcers more valuable. We call this value transfer. For example, if a dog prefers to play …

Everyone howled and gave two paws up for the Dogs at a Glance pilot last month. Please enjoy this as a regular monthly feature. This listing includes all active program dogs and their general location, including the dogs in training with a client. If a dog is in “Final Training,” we have also noted their current career focus if known. Please remember that our program is fluid- dogs move and plans change daily! While this list will not replace the personal and detailed dog updates that can be provided to any volunteer upon email request, we hope this will satisfy …

In honor of the creepiest month of the year, we would like to highlight a very real and very scary horror: things that dogs eat. Volunteers and staff alike often laugh over the non-discerning tastes of program dogs. Dead things, including dried leaves, mulch, squashed worms, and animal parts all top the list of dog delicacies. What won’t they eat?? Quite honestly, the answer is nothing. There is nothing our dogs will not eat. And that is truly terrifying! The Scary Truth about Foreign Bodies Foreign body ingestion is the clinical term for a dog consuming something outside of their …

We know many of you may wonder from time to time where a dog you have fostered may be currently within our program. In an effort to ensure that our volunteers have better, ongoing access to information regarding the dogs in our program, we are piloting a new option: Dogs at a Glance. This listing includes all active program dogs and their general location, including the dogs in training or certified with a client. If a dog is in “Final Training,” we have also noted their current career focus if known. Please remember that our program is fluid- dogs move …

Before I was a Can Do client, I was a Can Do volunteer. And before I was a Can Do volunteer I was a card-carrying  “crazy dog person” who had driven down Hwy. 169 all her life, always wondering about that oddly curved brick building with the smiling dog sign. Obsessed with dogs before I could reliably hold a leash, my life stages have been bookmarked by a series of rescue dogs that each changed my life in their own way. But of course the biggest change in my life with dogs was being matched with my first Seizure Assistance …