Here are Amazing Success Stories.

Roman Palleschi

This is Roman, in 2006 Roman was paired with his future service dog Hunter at the age of 6 years old. Hunter has helped Roman cope with so many things in his life.

Roman was adopted as a baby and has bipolar disorder, and was born on the autism spectrum. He was prone to have outbursts and bolting away from his mom.

In comes Hunter to the rescue, Hunter was able to calm Roman down to the point that Roman's outbursts decreased. He also helped with the bolting too. If Roman tried to run off, Hunter who was tethered to Roman would sit and Roman wouldn't be able to run off.

You think this would be enough for a young boy to handle. But Roman also had another fight he had to face. At the age of 8 years, old Roman was diagnosed with Leukemia. Through his recovery, Hunter has stayed at Roman's side through it all. He was there through the Chemotherapy treatments and slept with him every night. The most important thing was that Hunter was able to break the isolation that all of these disorders can cause.

Work Cited:

"You Make Dreams a Reality." ECAD, Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities XII (Winter 2016): 16. Print.

Phil Bauer

This is Phil, he is an Iraq war veteran. When he was in Iraq his helicopter got shot down in the sky and crashed. 15 out of 30 cavalrymen and women survived and Phil was one of them. In the crash, he lost his right leg, suffered severe burn wounds, has Traumatic Brain Injury, and it caused damage to the stomach and Jaw. But the toughest battle he had to face was the PTSD.

Phil battled with night terrors that would keep him up for days. He also had flashbacks reliving the crash multiple times a day. He also had a hard time leaving his room because of his fear of crowds would paralyze him. Because of this, he started to become angry and agitated.

In comes Service Dog Reese. He is a big goofy golden retriever and he helps Philip in a lot of ways. One of these is that when Philip needs his prosthetic leg. Reese can bring it to him by answering to the commands: Look, get it, bring it, give. and Reese will walk on over grab the leg, drag it and bring it to Phil. The second helpful thing he does for Phil is that he will remind Phil to take his medication by nudging him at the time he is supposed to take it at. But the most important thing that he does for Phil, is to help manage his PTSD.

So how does Reese help manage Phil's PTSD? When there both walking in public, Reese will circle around Phil to keep people from bumping into him. Also when Phil starts going into a flashback he will nudge and lick his hand to snap him back into reality. and if he gets too nervous he will lead Phil to the closest exit. If Phil starts to get angry or agitated, Reese will pull out his goofy side and do something silly like chasing his tail or roll over on his back in the middle of a mall. This will turn Phil's anger into happiness and will also give him an excuse to leave a situation that is bothering him.

Since getting Reese Phil's medication level's have declined and his mental health has improved drastically. If you meet Phil in public, you wouldn't know he has not just fought the war in Iraq, but also his own war mentally which he is concurring ever day with his best friend Reese.

Work Cited:

"You Make Dreams a Reality." ECAD, Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities XII (Summer 2016): 10. Print.

Hello Everyone, my name is Avery Rosa. I am 23 and am a college student at Sacred Heart University. I have an extremely rare neurological disorder called Central Congenital Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS). How rare is this disorder? There are only 3,000 people around the world with this disorder. This disorder doesn’t allow me to breathe at all when I fall asleep or pass out. When I was an infant I had to get, a surgery done called a tracheostomy which is where they create an incision in your throat and insert a tube. This tube is called a Trach and when I’m going to go to sleep a breathing machine called a ventilator is attached to it to help me breathe at a regular rate during the night. But if the breathing machine falls off during the night while I’m sleeping It can be fatal to me. This isn’t all I have, though, I also have a dangerous heart condition. This Heart condition is accompanied with my disorder and this is because of a duplication in a certain gene that is the leading cause of my disorder, called Phox2B gene. This heart condition called Bradycardia causes pauses in the heartbeat so the heart actually beats at a slower rate than it normally should. This abnormally slow rate caused me to pass out in randomly without warning, with my disorder passing out randomly is not a good combination. To correct this at the age of 15 I had to get another serious surgery done by getting a Cardiac Pacemaker put in. This corrects the pauses by giving a shock to my heart every time the pauses start up. Surprisingly it doesn’t hurt, sometimes I don’t even notice the pacemaker shocking me. The problem with pacemakers is that they don’t last that long and they don’t have rechargeable batteries. So, every 8 years for the rest of my life I have to get surgery to get the battery changed in my pacemaker. My first battery change was in September, which was right in the begging of the school year.

Having extremely dangerous disorder comes with a lot of limitations and these especially affect my independence. I have a day nurse while I’m at school to make sure everything’s ok, and during the night I have a night nurse to make sure everything is all set with my ventilator. What does this mean, I have no time to be by myself, 24/7 someone is watching me constantly. This, in turn, has caused me to have an Anxiety disorder. With a condition where you have a tube sticking out of your neck and a lady fallowing you around everywhere you go, you get stared at, and I hate when that happens too me. It has made me become subconscious about myself and I would start getting panic attacks in certain situations. One of these is presentations, which in high school and college you have to do a lot of them.

In comes my Service Dog Co-Jack. He is my life saver and he has changed me for the better. He does a lot of things for me. Most importantly he wakes me up when the Ventilator alarms go off during the night and pull on a rope with a ball at the end of it until I wake up and give him a treat. If I nod off during the day or at school he will nudge me with his snout or lick me until I wake up and give him a treat. He is also is a great anxiety reliever too by doing Deep Pressure Therapy. If I'm having a panic attack or am anxious and am standing up, such as during a presentation, he will go in front of me and lean on my legs snapping me back into reality, If I'm sitting down on a chair like in class, He will put two paws on my lap and press on me. If I'm on the floor with him he will literally sit on top of me my lap and put all his weight on top of me.

Life is brighter with Co-Jack by my side, I can present without feeling like I'm going to pass out, I can sleep without worrying if I'm going to wake up the next morning, I have more independence, and I have more confidence in myself and don't worry about what other people think about me. I am not the Avery I knew when I was 21. I am changed for the better, Thank You Co-Jack I couldn't ask for a more amazing Service Dog than you.

Avery Rosa

Lindsey O' Connell

This is Lindsey who is a 19-year's old college student that has PTSD. When she first started college her symptoms were severe and she needed to find a way to cope. She tried countless ways to stop the symptoms she was having by using therapy, art, and medication. But nothing was working for her.

Then she started to look for alternative ways to help relieve her symptoms. And she came across the idea of using service dogs to help clients with their PTSD symptoms. But she was surprised to find that no one would take her because she wasn't a war veteran. Then she came across ECAD.

Linsey became more calm and relaxed when her service dog Beamer came into her life. He can sense when she starts to have Panic attacks and nudges her to break her out of the panic attack. He will also do deep pressure therapy where the service dog will put his whole body pressure on his owner to calm her down.

Lindsey has accomplished so much and with Beamer, she will shine like a star.

Work Cited:

"Meet Your Recent Graduates." ECAD, Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities XII (Summer 2016): 6. Print.

Willie Conlan

This is Willie Conlan who is 9 years old, and His Mom Tara Conlan. Willie and his mom completed their team training and participated in the Canine Magic Program that helps provide service dogs for children with Autism.

Willie loves to play in any way that gives him sensory input such as running,jumping,climbing and his most favorite swimming. But his love for action has to lead him to sometimes bolt in dangerous situations such as trying to run in the street. Now that he's older it's harder for his parents to catch up to him.

In comes Service Dog Charger. Charger will help with Willie's anxiety, sensory needs, and stop him from bolting. Charger will be able to stop the bolting since they will be tethered together.

They make the perfect Canine Magic service dog team.

Work Cited

"Meet Your Recent Graduates." ECAD, Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities XII (Summer 2016): 6. Print.