Circle of Love

We have a wonderful article in Ladies Home Journal by Jan Goodwin to read here.

It is about 6-year-old Katherine Robb, ECAD trainer Michelle Toth, and the golden retriever who changed both of their lives, Radar.

Winter 2008 Newsletter

We just put out our Winter Newsletter. Click Here to view.
There are many great stories to read like how Blip, a three-year-old Golden, is helping Veterans at the Bronx Veterans Hospital.
You can also view any of our older newsletters by visiting our website and going to the "What's New" menu followed by the "Newsletter" menu.

You're Invited!

You’re invited to
A Graduation Party for our new Teams!

This is ECAD’s 1st Team Training
focusing on wounded soldiers.

We will celebrate the placement of Four Service Dog Teams.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
5:30 pm ceremony,
Location: Canine Training Center
on the campus of The Children's Village.

Please RSVP to Yuka by email: ykoike@childrensvillage.org
or
call Tara at 914-693-0600 ext. 1950.

2009 Calendars!

We just got our 2009 calendars in for sale!!! Adorable pictures of our dogs PLUS a bonus page of Sky's family tree!

Sky is our foundation dog and mother/ grandmother/ great grandmother to nearly all of our dogs--past, present, and future!

You can order here or you can mail a check or money order to:
ECAD Calendar
PO Box 831,
Torrington, CT 06790.
Calendars are $10.00 plus $4.80 for shipping and handling up to 5 calendars and $9.60 over.

Coming Up

We are busy as always here at ECAD and we are excited to be getting our dogs ready for another Team Training.

Team Training is about the process of matching clients with a canine partner during a two-week period. It's an emotional time for the clients, whose mental, physical, and emotional limits are tested for 13 days. For the dogs, who have been in training for up to two years, the process of bonding with a new partner can also be very stressful. For the trainers and volunteers, seeing their work come to an end is often bittersweet.

This Team Training is going to start on November 4th and will be for soldiers that were injured. We will have three men and one women attending. Their graduation will be on November 19th from 5:30-7:00.

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ECAD will also be venturing into a new program for soldiers. A new puppy named Bella from Budapest,Hungary will be leading the way. We will be able to give you more information on this very soon! She will be a *big* surprise!

About Us

East Coast Assistance Dogs is a nonprofit organization where our mission is to train and place Assistance Dogs to help people with disabilities gain independence and mobility.

A unique feature about ECAD is that all of the dogs we place are trained by adolescents attending alternative schools and the campuses of residential treatment centers. The ECADemy© program takes place in five facilities in lower New York, all of which specialize in helping children with emotional, behavioral, and learning problems. Through the ECADemy© program, working with the dogs helps even the most difficult children establish a sense of self worth, master their tempers, and learn to trust again.


The benefits work both ways, though. Thanks to the inexhaustible energy, dedication, enthusiasm, and creativity of the teen trainers, ECAD is able to produce a high number of extremely well-trained, well-socialized, highly skilled Assistance Dogs. The students and clients also learn a lot from each other, and not just about training dogs! ECAD would like to recognize its ECADemy partners:

·The Children's Village and Greenburgh Eleven USFD in Dobbs Ferry, NY
·Green Chimneys in Brewster, NY
·mercyFirst in Syosset, NY
·The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in Hawthorne and the Bronx, NY

Please visit our website for more about us!