EAGLE SCOUT PROJECT: NEW TRAINING EQUIPMENT
This Spring our Bay Area site was lucky enough to receive a donation of new training equipment from Jared, a local Boy Scout, for his Eagle Scout project. In line with the overarching goals for an Eagle Scout project, Jared has worked hard to prepare, plan, fundraise, and create the training items.
Jared meticulously planned and completed his project, ultimately implementing a new platform, portable light switches, a portable cabinet tug, weave poles, agility jumps, and a standing light board at our Bay Area site.
Boy Scout, Jared, showing Program Instructor, Megan, the new training equipment
The new platform helps with training our dogs to “jump on” a platform, which is a helpful Service Dog command for clients with limited mobility. This command is often used in situations such as grooming to help get the Service Dog onto the grooming table. The portable light switches and cabinet tug are useful in teaching Service Dogs-In-Training to operate light switches and cabinets no matter where they are. They are also used in Canine-Assisted Warrior Therapy® sessions by Warriors working on training Service Dogs. He even created portable light boards with different light switches to help the dogs learn to operate a variety of kinds of light switches!
He worked meticulously to learn the electrical components necessary to create the ding that accompanies the light switch being turned on. This ding is an essential part of training the commands “light” as it tells the dog that they successfully turned on the light.
Jared showing the features of the new standing light board
The jumps and weave poles are helpful in a variety of ways for our Service Dogs-in-training. Succeeding in agility courses helps Service Dogs-in-training to build their confidence, work on their coordination, and to overall help them to bond with their handler through a fun experience.
Jared with Ambassador Dog, Schatzie, after dropping of the project
“This new training equipment has already positively impacted Warriors during our sessions. We did agility training during a session a few weeks ago. Working on agility with the dogs was a fun breakup to a potentially stressful day that helped to promote bonding with the Service Dogs-in-training. It has also been amazing to be able to bring the portable light switches to Canine-Assisted Warrior Therapy® to allow Warriors to work on “light” with our dogs. Thank you to Jared for making an impact on our Warriors!
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We are happy to say that Jared met this goal of creating a lasting impact through making new training equipment that will be used in our Service Dog training program for years to come, helping to prepare countless Service Dogs for placement. We would like to extend our appreciation and endless gratitude to Jared, his family, his donors for the project, and everyone who helped him in this project.
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