By Ashley McLeod, staff writer
Dec 11, 2015, 16:03
COLONIAL HEIGHTS — The relationship between a human and their dog has long been described as one of the strongest bonds possible in life.
But for some people, having a dog beside them can be a lifeline to a more normal life.
They can assist their owners in daily tasks which may otherwise be a daily obstacle.
These types of dogs may be used for those with mental, physical or emotional disabilities to improve the quality of everyday life, to provide support and comfort in alleviating symptoms of medical problems.
The training a dog receives for this job is very important, and one Colonial Heights family is making sure to do their part in providing this much-needed assistance.
Susan and Tommy Coon are a part of Canine Companions for Independence, a nonprofit organization who for 40 years has provided trained assistance dogs to those with disabilities in order to improve their lives.
But if you ask Tommy, he’ll tell you it’s all his wife, Susan.
“She’s gifted with it. When it comes to training, she corrects me more than she corrects the dog,” Tommy said with a laugh. “So when it comes to training, this is all her.”
The Coons recently finished training a service dog, Honey, through Canine Companions for Independence, who was placed with Shaun Egry, a New York resident in need of a service animal. They are now in the middle of training with a second dog, Honey’s brother, Zinc.
The idea of becoming a trainer of service dogs came to Susan 23 years ago, after reading an article about being a puppy raiser. At the time, the couple had just married two years prior, and as with any newly married couple, finances were tight and the idea of raising and training a service dog was put on hold.
When Susan was pregnant with their second child, the idea came up again, but because of guidelines set forth with training, she was not able to.
“It said one of the stipulations was that your youngest child had to be 3 years old, so I put it on the back burner,” Susan said.
When her youngest child was approaching the three-year mark, life changed tremendously for the family. Her son began to have seizures and was shortly after diagnosed with Tuberous Sclerosis.
Susan became a home health care provider for her son Bryan, who on his best days was having a minimum of seven seizures a day. This went on for years, until finally in 2009 a doctor at MCV was able to find the right combination of medications to stop Bryan from having seizures.
“When he became seizure-free, she dedicated her life to being an advocate for the disabled,” Tommy said.
Susan made sure that Bryan was active in the community and his school. He has competed in the Special Olympics since the age of 8, while Susan is on the board for the Colonial Heights Special Olympics, and was a founding member of the board for ARC South of the James, an organization that helps those with disabilities be active members of the community.
While with ARC, Susan attended a resource fair, where she stumbled upon Canine Companions for Independence, bringing the idea of training service dogs back to her mind.
“I was petting this puppy and I thought, ‘this is something that I’ve always wanted to do,’ and the lady there said to me, ‘Well, what’s stopping you?’ And I thought for a minute, Bryan is seizure-free and our oldest son is in college, and there was nothing at all stopping me,” said Susan.
She went home told her husband, filled out the application, and the rest is history.
The training would begin for Susan when she welcomed an 8-week-old Labrador/Golden Retriever mix to her home, Honey.
The training began immediately and would last for a year and a half. During the training, Susan was required to teach about 30 different commands to the dog, a little more than your average dog training of sit, stay, and lie down. She was also required to take Honey to classes at least twice a month, where trainers helped with the training and were available for any questions Susan had about the training. Susan said since she had the time, she took Honey to at least four classes a month.
During the training, Susan was also required to write monthly reports to be sent to CCI, writing on Honey’s progress and what they had done together. Every month Susan would write that Honey was perfect.
“Everybody that we met would just fall in love with her,” Susan said.
One instance of Honey’s clear calling as a service dog occurred when Susan was at the post office.
All service dogs are easily identified by the capes they must wear in public. After Honey had outgrown what Susan called her “baby cape” and had received the next size, Susan went to the post office to send the smaller one back to CCI.
“I’m filling out the envelope and this lady that looked like she was just having the worst day asked if she could pet the dog. So I’m filling it out, and watching her, and you could just see whatever stress she had on her just went away. It was pretty amazing,” Susan said.
The Coons took Honey with them pretty much everywhere they went. She joined them when they participated in the Polar Plunge, traveled with them on vacations, attended church with them, and came along to trips to Target. Doing this made Honey become used to her surroundings and provide her with training to be able to not be spooked by groups of people or loud noises, and to be able to stay focused on her job of being a service dog.
The family also had other pets in the house with Honey. After discovering that Honey’s mother was having her last litter of puppies, Susan was able to acquire one of the two that came to the area division of CCI, Zinc, in January.
The two dogs, along with the Coons’ other canine companions, were together for one month before Honey’s training ended. During this time, the other non-service dogs began to pick up on the commands being taught to Honey and Zinc. And the whole time during the training, it just worked for Susan.
“People always say ‘How are your dogs so well behaved?’ And I tell them, ‘I don’t know. I just tell them what to do and they do it,’” Susan said.
Following the training with Susan, Honey was to go for advanced training at the Canine Companions Northeast Regional Headquarters in Medford, N.Y. Along with the 30 commands taught by Susan, Honey would be learning, even more, commands, as well as how to open and close doors, pick up dropped objects, and other actions that may be needed from her. The advanced training lasted for six months.
“It’s a lot like sending your kid off to college,” Tommy said.
Following the intense training comes graduation, which according to Susan only 30 percent of the dogs make it to. Susan was worried her first trained dog would not make it through, but because of her skills in training, Honey was one of 11 dogs in her class of 22 that made it to graduation.
Following a team training, Honey was matched with Shaun, who was handed Honey’s leash in a graduation ceremony that passed her service on to him. Both Susan and Tommy said that saying goodbye to Honey was hard, but knowing that she was going to help Shaun made it easier for them.
“Lots of tears are shed. But you know from the beginning that the dog is not your dog; you’re raising this puppy to go and help someone else,” Susan said.
Since that day, the Coons have actually been lucky enough to be contacted by Shaun’s mother and still keep in contact with them. The two families have met together, sent birthday presents, and shared pictures of Honey with each other.
“Honey is a very special dog and we hope to have many wonderful years with her. I can’t thank the Coon family enough,” said Lisa Egry.
Now Susan has been concentrated on training Zinc, who will be turned in in May to begin his advanced training. Zinc, who is now a year old, recently traveled to Nashville with the Coon family for Bryan’s 21st birthday. The family visited the Grand Ole Opry, the Jack Daniels Distillery, and the famous Coyote Ugly Saloon, all with Zinc by their side.
Training for CCI is very important to the Coon family, and they plan to receive another puppy to train in the future. The couple said that having raised a child with disabilities, they know the importance of organizations like CCI, and the difference a dog can make in someone’s life. Being able to keep a dog for the training process, and then being able to let her go to a new family is hard, but worth the tears.
“Having raised a person with disabilities who could have benefitted from a dog, we know how low it gets,” Tommy said. “It’s not easy, but knowing the dog could help somebody that is in worse shape than our family was, it’s well worth it.”
While most service dog organizations charge between $12,000 and $20,000 a dog, CCI is a nonprofit that matches the dogs to their companions at no cost to them. According to Susan, at the end of the training, the CCI dogs are worth about $50,000.
CCI was established in 1975, and as of May 2014 has provided 4,400 service dogs to those who need them. For more information on CCI, visit www.cci.org.
