Tinker couple fosters future service dogs

  • Published
  • By Jeanne Grimes
  • Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. (AFPN) --  McIntosh came from the streets; Greer from a local breeder. Then there was Atoka. Love came from Purina. And Dottie is a temporary placement from another foster home that did not work out.

For all their differences, the five Labrador retrievers have one thing in common -- they spent their formative puppy months learning the basics of a service dog’s responsibilities in the home of Ray and Stephanie Edquid.

Ray, a systems analyst with a contractor here, and Stephanie, an E-4B program manager in the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, are puppy raisers for “Paws With A Cause.”

In 1996, Ray saw a Public Broadcasting Service documentary on service dogs. During the Combined Federal Campaign, he checked the catalog of charities for one working with service dogs. He found Paws With A Cause and called the organization.

Ray and Stephanie researched the organization and liked what they learned. Not long after they volunteered to foster a puppy, Barbara Lewis, Paws coordinator for Oklahoma, made a home visit.

Within a week, the Edquids had their first of many foster puppies. It was the spring of 1997.

McIntosh, like other Paws puppies from Oklahoma, was named for one of the state’s 77 counties. She was a rescue dog who was used to scavenging for food -- “we called her a junkyard dog,” Ray said.

But she was also bright and readily learned obedience commands like heel, sit, down, stay and come. Her socialization included months of outings to every place imaginable -- restaurants, grocery and department stores and, with the approval of Ray and Stephanie’s supervisors here, even the work place.

By the time McIntosh left their care months later, she was an obedient, well-adjusted and healthy dog ready for the rigors of more specialized training.

Eventually, McIntosh was placed with a Michigan woman confined to a wheelchair. The Edquids got a real sense of satisfaction that they had made someone else’s life better. They also got an 8-by-10 picture of McIntosh with her new owner.

Greer, another Oklahoma dog who got his start with the couple, is now in Michigan training to be a hearing dog.

“We’re waiting for our 8-by-10 for that one,” Stephanie said.

Love, the puppy donated by Purina, sailed through basic obedience and socialization, but an incontinence problem sidelined her service-dog career before it even started. Although the medical condition could be controlled with medication, evaluators in Michigan decided dosing the dog twice a day might prove a daunting task for someone physically challenged.

Paws officials also screen for other potential health problems. Dogs may wash out of the program for disposition problems, allergies or, like Atoka, because their hips fail to meet strict Orthopedic Foundation for Animals criteria.

Roughly 40 percent of puppies that go through the foster program never become service dogs, Stephanie said. But that does not mean the puppy raisers’ work is wasted.

Only 144 of 257 dogs that came to the charity’s Michigan headquarters facility in 2001 to 2002 completed their training, said Paws officials. Of the 113 which did not, 18 were given to the Customs Service and are now fighting the war on drugs; four went to Leader Dogs for the Blind and are now guide dogs; 14 were returned to their raisers; 24 were returned to animal shelters and subsequently adopted; and 51 became family pets. Paws officials kept two of the washouts for the organization’s breeding program.

Dottie, a product of that program, came to the Edquids at 7 months old.

“Dottie for us is an extended sleepover dog,” Stephanie said. When Dottie’s previous puppy-raiser needed surgery, a new foster home had to be found. “We don’t know how long we’ll have her.”

Puppy-raisers like the Edquids pay all the costs associated with raising and socializing a young dog. They keep track of their expenses and, in turn, Paws workers provide the documentation so they can take a tax write-off. But much of what they do with the puppies in their care can not be quantified in dollars and cents.

“It’s a daily devotion,” Stephanie said. “I start training as soon as I get them. The dogs are really smart; they want you to lead them.”

“We both like dogs and the work dogs can do for people,” Ray said.

The dogs become an integral part of their family, Stephanie said, and that sets puppy-raisers up for some heartache, because every puppy comes with a message: “I’m yours for 15 to 18 months, and then you have to let me go.”

“It’s tough; you get attached,” Stephanie said.

“But you go in knowing (in) 15 to 18 months, that puppy is going to help someone,” Ray added. “It eases the sadness, but it doesn’t take it away.”