Sit Means Sit Clients and Therapy Dogs Join the GO TEAM

In the summer of 2012, the Waldo Canyon fire ignited four miles outside of Colorado Springs, burning nearly 20,000 acres. More than 32,000 people were forced to evacuate as the fire destroyed nearly 350 homes.

In the midst of the fire, two clients of Sit Means Sit Dog Training took their therapy dogs to a hotel filled with displaced residents to offer comfort and distraction to those affected by the tragedy. They also spent time with first responders, allowing the firefighters to take a break and enjoy the company of a four-legged companion.

This began the GO TEAM—a non-profit organization devoted to assembling and helping train dogs who have gone through the Sit Means Sit training program for service, therapy, crisis and emotional support.

On Jan. 21 and Jan. 22, Sit Means Sit of Portland partnered with the GO TEAM to assemble our own team of volunteers and their dogs. The two-day training was immersive and extensive as 15 of Sit Means Sit’s most dedicated clients and their dogs navigated the city and learned what it takes to bring their dogs into public.

“With the GO TEAM, we take the dogs out on the go to anybody who needs some joy their lives,” said Sam Elgin—a trainer with Sit Means Sit Dog Training.

Sam found Sit Means Sit Dog Training in 2014 when her 1-year-old German Shepherd became reactive and barked at people in public. Not long after, she became a trainer for Sit Means Sit. Now, she’s training her second dog—Bilbo—to be part of the GO TEAM. Bilbo is a 3-year-old dachshund Sam rescued from the humane society.

“Bilbo is a good therapy dog because he’s adorable,” Sam said. “He’s just really sweet and he loves all people and he doesn’t get too overly excited with people, so he has a nice temperament.”

The weekend began on the TriMet city bus as 15 of our clients piled onboard with dogs at their feet. The group practiced boarding the bus and unloading over and over again, before moving on to the MAX light rail, which took the group to the Clackamas Town Center.

In the busy mall, the pups got exposure to a hectic and dynamic environment with distractions galore. They practiced riding the escalator—a surprisingly tricky task when you’re a dog with sensitive toenails and paws unfamiliar to escalator steps—as well as laying underneath tables and out of the way as their owners ate lunch in the food court.

The next day, they put their training to the test at Brookdale Sellwood, an assisted-living home that specializes in Alzheimer care. The pups had ample opportunity to interact with the home’s residents and lit up the room.

“The retirement home was the thrill of the whole weekend, and the whole reason why we’re doing this,” said Shannon Conner, a client of Sit Means Sit Dog Training. Her dogs, Jet and Dash, are two young doberman sisters who have been in the program since they were puppies.

“Our goal is just to get them out,” Shannon continued. “They’re such well-behaved dogs thank to Sit Means Sit and all the training that we’ve done. We just want to share them and give back t
o the community and go to retirement homes, schools—wherever we can get them.”

Afterwards, they went to a fire station, where the dogs worked around a ladder truck with sirens blaring. Getting them used to all kinds of sounds and distractions is key for a successful therapy and crisis dog. Not to mention, the firemen loved them.

The team ended the weekend with mock TSA airport security drills. Airports can be a stressful place, so learning how to get dogs through security quickly and efficiently is important in handling a reliable therapy or service animal.

For Kimberly Bernards-Wright and her dog, Luka, she hopes they can visit children in the hospital who are battling cancer. Luka is a Cheaspeak Bay / Australian Shepherd-mix who went through Sit Means Sit’s in-home training sessions.

“Luka is adventurous,” Kimberly said. “She’s not afraid of anything. She’s a goofball. She’s loving. She always wants to go put her head on everybody’s lap. I love that about her.”

Teresa Bonnell has trained two of her dogs through Sit Means Sit. This weekend, she enlisted the help of her 1-year-old German Shepherd, Marco. Together, they had many encounters throughout the weekend that enforced the power of therapy dogs for Teresa.

“I was unprepared for the emotional toll that it takes to be out interacting with so many people that you just want to keep coming back and you don’t want to leave them where they’re at,” Teresa said. “You want to stay. They connect with the dog on so many levels and they didn’t want us to leave and I want to go back every day with Marco.

“Even at the Gateway MAX platform, just interacting with a disabled mother and her young son. A Latino family that told me about how they lost their dog to cancer. A couple that had trained guide dogs for the blind that they trained and gave back to a facility. They were no longer able to do that and they really missed it,” Teresa said. “Every conversation was like that.”

Having a therapy dog requires more than a patient, well-balanced and soft, fluffy dog, though. It also requires incredibly reliable obedience. The owner has to be certain that when she tells her dog to sit, her dog will sit no matter what the environment. Sitting at home with a treat in front of her nose is a much different expectation than sitting in the middle of a retirement home or a busy airport full of people and smells and pieces of food on the ground. But “sit” still means “sit,” regardless of the temptations and distractions around us.

“I think the hardest thing for dogs are all those real-life distractions,” said Sam, a trainer at Sit Means Sit. “You never know out in the real world what’s going to be coming around the corner, so being able to keep your dog under control and not going too crazy in the world is really important.”

Sit Means Sit Dog Training have helped our clients to gain this level of control and reliability with their dogs through our board-and-train programs, our one-on-one lessons and our group classes. Sam said group classes are one of the best ways to create distracting scenarios that put our dogs’ training to the test.

“Just being able to have their attention in those situations, in our group classes, being able to put them in situations where there’s multiple dogs and multiple people, and being able to control your dog in those situations is key,” Sam said.

Stacey Pittman, who owns Jet and Dash with Shannon, said Sit Means Sit Dog Training is the perfect fit for them and their dogs.

“When we found Sit Means Sit, it was just a match made in heaven,” Stacey said. “Sit Means Sit teaches you everything you need to know in a controlled environment, where you can put these dogs out in fantastic community events like we did this weekend, and we’re just totally blown away.”

For Kimberly and Luka, Sit Means Sit has helped them realize what they’re capable of together.

“Sit Means Sit has helped us with our confidence—confidence in Luka, confidence in me, recognizing our potential and helping us figure out what we need to do to get there.”

At Sit Means Sit Dog Training, we are proud of our clients this weekend who have raised the bar of their training and strived for the next level of reliability in their dogs. Each of them went through months, if not years, of training with Sit Means Sit and each one passed the American Kennel Club Canine Good Citizen Test, which allowed them to become members of the GO TEAM.

Now, they’re ready to provide comfort and assistance to the Portland-metro area whenever needed—whether it’s a visit to the hospital, a school or university, an assisted-living home, a library or anywhere else in need of a little joy from our pets.