April 12 Meeting Preview
Speaker Beth Kantor, Host Hope Schroeppel
Can Do Canines is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for people with disabilities by creating mutually beneficial partnerships with specially trained dogs. Beth Kantor and her Mobility Assist smooth coat Collie "Dazzle" will talk about the organization. Since 1989, Can Do Canines has provided assistance dogs to people with disabilities, free of charge. The fully-trained dogs, often adopted from local animal shelters, are provided to clients with mobility challenges, hearing loss or deafness, seizure disorders, diabetes complicated by hypoglycemia unawareness or children with autism. Can Do Canines is the largest provider of assistance dogs in Minnesota and relies on individual contributions to support its important work. It costs on average $25,000 to train and place an assistance dog. A defining characteristic of Can Do Canines is its commitment to find new ways for assistance dogs to help individuals with disabilities. The organization’s leadership in ‘thinking outside the box’ can be seen through a variety of innovations. Can Do Canines pioneered the training of assistance dogs to detect low glucose levels for people with type I diabetes and Can Do Canines was one of the first organizations in the country to train a Seizure Assist Dog to interact with a Vagus Nerve Stimulator (VNS), a device implanted in the chest of an individual to help control seizures.