POWER
SURGES I N depth
MAY 2017
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GOOD DOGS
PHOTO: SUZIE HARTZ
POWER-Boise’s Jeff Kimpson and family raise puppies for a cause By Kate Wutz
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hat makes an assistance dog in training different from other puppies? At first glance, it’s how quiet they are. “They’re lying on the floor of the conference room,” POWER-Boise Facilities Process Engineer Jeff Kimpson says during a phone interview for this article. His word is going to have to be good enough, since absolutely no canine-related sounds are coming over the line, despite the fact that there are two puppies in the room. Regina, aged 15 months, is a sweet black Labrador retriever with enormous paws and a soft nose, whom the Facilities Process team members have grown used to seeing camped out on her bed under Kimpson’s desk. She comes into the office several times a week, kitted out in her official cape, so she can practice being quiet when she’s not needed by her eventual person. “Her task is to lie down under the desk, out of sight, out of mind, until Jeff asks her to do something,” says Denise Kimpson, Jeff’s wife and the pups’ primary trainer. Yoana, the couple’s four-month-old yellow Lab puppy in training, isn’t quite ready for that yet. For now, she only makes occasional visits to the office, though she already knows what’s expected of her when she gets there. As Jeff and Denise conduct the interview, she chews on a bone and then falls asleep, sprawled on a bed dragged into the conference room for that purpose.
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A family affair. POWER-Boise’s Jeff Kimpson, right, helps raise service dog puppies with his wife, Denise (left). Their daughter, Jennifer (center) inspired the couple when she needed a community service project several years ago and Denise helped her co-raise their first puppy.
HOW TO HELP Canine Companions for Independence is looking for puppy raisers in all regions of the country. Training centers are located in Santa Rosa, California; Oceanside, California; Orlando, Florida; Medford, New York; Delaware, Ohio; and Irving, Texas. Field directors and designated trainers and support are also available across the country. For more information, contact Denise Kimpson at dakimpson@gmail.com or Canine Companions for Independence at www.cci.org. PHOTO: KATE WUTZ
Sit. Stay. Regina, pictured above, is allowed to come to the office, but she knows her job is to be quiet and nap under the desk unless Jeff issues a command.
The couple began raising assistance dog puppies nearly four years No matter what their eventual task is, all of the dogs have literally ago, when their daughter, Jennifer, needed a community service been born for this kind of work. project. After researching various service dog organizations, they chose to raise a puppy for Canine Companions for Independence, A breed of their own a nonprofit organization based in Santa Rosa, Calif., with a sup- The differences in puppies destined to be assistance dogs are eviport group in Boise. After two months of attending classes and dent from the moment you meet one, the Kimpsons say. Canine going through the application process, Denise and Jennifer were Companions for Independence breeds all of their own dogs, selectassigned Lenora, their first puppy. ing for temperament and health. And that, Denise says, accounts for the dramatic difference. Dogs who serve “These puppies are W hat exactly is an like no puppies you’ve assistance dog? According ever dealt with before,” to the ADA, it’s a dog says Denise. “When you that has been trained to pick one up from the perform a specific physical airport, these are the task for a person. calmest eight- to tenMost of us are familiar week-old puppies you with Seeing Eye Dogs, or dogs who serve as guides for people have ever seen in your life.” with limited or no vision. Canine Companions for Independence They have to be, of course, because they’re raised to help peofocuses on four categories of assistance dogs: Service dogs, skilled ple with physical, cognitive and developmental disabilities or other companions, hearing dogs and facility dogs. special needs. Service dogs often perform the broadest range of tasks for a “Imagine being able to receive a PhD, but not being able to open person with physical disabilities, everyday tasks such as pushing a door,” the organization’s brochure states. “The assistance dogs we elevator buttons, flipping light switches and even pulling manual breed, raise and train aren’t just the ears, hands and legs of their wheelchairs. Skilled companion dogs are similar in the range of human partners…they open up new opportunities.” tasks they can perform, but they are partnered with children or with The range of tasks required of them might include something adults who have cognitive or developmental disabilities that make as simple as picking up dropped keys for someone in a wheelchair, it impossible for them to be solely responsible for the dog’s care. or it might be a more complex blend of companionship, soothing Hearing dogs are trained to alert their hearing-impaired part- and emotional support for a child with Down Syndrome or autism. ners to noises they might not otherwise notice, such as doorbells, Certain dogs may even be asked to provide feelings of calm and alarm clocks and smoke alarms. Facility dogs typically are part- security for people in nursing homes or for children navigating the nered with a person who works at an organization such as a hospital, family court system. rehab center or family court. Each facility dog knows more than “They’re bred for that,” Denise says. “It’s in their blood.” 40 commands designed to help them assist clients with special needs. “And they get along with anybody and anything,” Jeff adds.
The couple began raising assistance dog puppies nearly four years ago, when their daughter, Jennifer, needed a community service project.
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At attention. Regina, left, and Yoana are bred to be mellow but focused and alert when given a command. Regina is approximately 15 months and will likely be sent for professional training in May. Yoana is only four months old and will stay with the Kimpson family for at PHOTO: KATE WUTZ
A great responsibility
But that doesn’t make the job easy. Much is demanded of the dogs and perhaps even more from the puppy raisers. Puppy raisers are willing volunteers who, in addition to paying for the dog’s care and keeping, must make several promises before being given a puppy: to train it, to socialize it and ultimately to give it back. The training is easy, says Denise, who showed and field-trained golden retrievers before she had children. The dogs learn a series of 30 basic commands, including sit, stay, heel, roll over and more utilitarian terms such as “under,” which instructs the dog to hide out of the way under a desk or chair. In addition, puppy raisers take their animals to obedience classes to prepare them for the six to nine months of intensive training they’ll experience before they are matched with a recipient. The dogs are trained to crate up at night, to relieve themselves on command—“the dog needs to learn to hold it until the person can take them out,” Denise explains—and to follow a routine. “It’s all fun, food and redirecting their behavior instead of correcting it. We want them to enjoy working,” Denise says. Socialization is similarly important, though deceptively simple —expose the dog to as many positive experiences with people as possible, and teach them to be calm and focused in crowds and public spaces. That’s why Regina comes to work with Jeff, so she can learn to be focused on her person even when others are walking
by his cube. Of course, because she’s only in training, she can enjoy snuggles from coworkers. “She likes coming to the office,” Jeff says. “She thinks everyone here walks on water.” Denise says the dogs go almost everywhere she and Jeff do, so long as it’s appropriate for the dog at that point in their training. For example, though Yoana is too young to go to the movies yet, the older Regina often goes with the Kimpsons to the theater. “The movies can be really loud, and they’re long, and it can be frightening,” she says, and any negative experience can create anxieties for the dog that would make it unfit for service. “But Regina is used to noise. We take her and she falls asleep on the floor.” Someone else’s dog
“It’s all fun, food and redirecting their behavior instead of correcting it. We want them to enjoy working,” Denise says.
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least another year.
The part of raising a puppy most people comment on is the difficulty of giving up a dog you’ve raised for between a year and a year and a half. Regina and Yoana are the Kimpsons’ third and fourth puppies, though, and they say it’s easier than you would think. “You get puppy breath forever!” Jeff says. When the dog has reached a certain age, they’re sent back to Canine Companions for Independence, where they receive more training and begin the matching process. The dogs are screened for health and any anxieties that would compromise their ability to serve their person, but they’re also evaluated for placement in
the organization’s breeding program. Denise and Jennifer’s puppy Lenora was placed into a breeding program, where she produced two litters—one of which included Regina—before retiring to live out the rest of her life as a family pet. Most dogs, however, are placed into service. The Kimpsons’ second puppy, Josie, was tough to give up, Jeff says. “Josie was my dog,” he says, adding that the two bonded incredibly strongly. “If I was anywhere, she was with me.” But Jeff said that once he saw Josie with her recipient, a girl named Annie in Puyallup, Washington, he knew that the two of them had bonded even more strongly. The organization’s intensive two-week training programs and matching algorithms ensure that the person and the dog are working in sync before they’re sent home. “It’s not like they walk up to you and hand you a leash and say here’s your dog,” he said. There is a ceremony, though, at the end of the training period in which the puppy raisers literally hand the dog over to the dog’s new recipient. The graduation made Jeff realize that, at that point, Josie really was Annie’s dog. “When we walked across the stage with Josie, Josie trotted right over to Annie and jumped in her lap,” he says. “It was pretty sweet.”
ASSISTANCE DOG ETIQUETTE If you meet a service dog team in public: DON’T talk to the dog or attempt to pet it. Calling to it or even calling it a “good dog” could distract it and put the person in danger—literally. DO give the dog space to do its job. Allow the team to go about their business just as you would anyone else. DO talk to the person, not the dog, if you are interacting with an assistance dog team. DO offer help if appropriate, but don’t insist on it. Your actions may actually interfere with the dog’s job. DO remember that if a service dog is in public, he or
“When we walked across the stage with Josie, Josie trotted right over to Annie and jumped in her lap,” he says. “It was pretty sweet.”
she is always working. Even if, like Regina, the dog is asleep in a movie theater…she is still on the alert for the moment her partner may need her. DON’T ask the person about his or her disability. Likewise, DON’T be offended if the handler doesn’t want to answer questions about his or her dog. You wouldn’t want to answer a series of probing personal questions every time you went to the store for milk.
Denise says the owners often follow up with the raisers, letting them know what the dog and owner are up to, where they’re going and how the dog is making a difference in the person’s life. Knowing that the dogs have an important job to do helps, Denise says. “You know in the back of your head that you’re just training them. You always have it in your head that there are things you’re not allowed to do, like feed them people food or let them on the furniture. When we turn the dog in, we’re not giving them up, we’re giving them back. We know the puppy is going to a very good place, and they’re going to go out and do a good thing.” Kate Wutz is a copywriter for Corporate Communications and is located in Hailey.
A perfect match. The Kimpsons’ second puppy, Josie, is shown at right with her partner, Annie. Each dog and potential handler go through an extensive training and matching process to make sure the pair bonds and will work together well as a team. PHOTO: COURTESY CANINE COMPANIONS FOR INDEPENDENCE
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