Community Outreach

American Poodles At Work is extremely active in the community, both here in Central Massachusetts (USA) and more broadly across the world. The principles upon which the service dog community were founded decades ago has required a strong community presence to sustain and increase the ability for assistance dogs. It has taken a large number of people many years to ensure that assistance dogs are legally permitted to provide service to their partners -- to board airplanes, to accompany into restaurants, to attend a movie theater.

Service dogs are not pets -- they are living helpmates needed by their partners for even the most seemingly basic daily functions. The best way to continue broader adoption and acceptance of service dogs is by community education. American Poodles At Work is very proud to be a highly visible reminder of the needs of this sometimes underserved segment of the population.

Out And About

Anyone local to Warren, MA may see our caped training dogs out at the bank or settled in during reading time at the Warren Public Library. The puppies constantly are brought in contact with society, in as many situations as possible, while they are in training. Cute as they may be, when the dog has a cape on, it is 'working' and should not be petted -- we explain this to folks that we meet.

We have been invited to give a number of demonstrations -- at the American Red Cross, at nursing homes and even at at a criminal justice college course! We often work together with the Holden Huggable Hounds (a therapy-dog focused 4H club in Holden Massachusetts). We are also affiliated with the Berkshire Mountain Search & Rescue, and the Central Mass Disaster Animal Response Team.

Our volunteers takes the dogs out for short day trips, for weekends, and eventually Puppy Parents take the dogs for months on end to live in their home.

Our Specialized Programs

American Poodles At Work is very involved with our community, from youth groups to nursing homes, and many others between! Besides taking the in-training dogs to a multitude of stores and local events, we give demonstrations through-out New England.

Within our own program, we are establishing Social/Therapy locations at local nursing homes, hospitals, and adult day facilities. These gentle dogs (many of which are still in training to become Service Dogs) spend time visiting residents and patients, getting pats, giving wags, and performing cute tricks.

Another branch of our program is that for the reading dogs. These dogs visit schools and libraries where they listen attentively as children read them a story - unlike a human audience, the dogs never care if their reader is a little slow or mispronounces a wor ... they just love to listen patiently. These dogs have also been taught to read some commands that have been typed onto flashcards, providing amazing encouragement (and entertainment!) to all involved.

We have a puppy petting program, too. Puppies need to be constantly socialized from an early age so we invite the community to arrange times to visit and play with the puppies. Whether it is a single adult spending quality time with a single puppy of a whole troop of Brownies entertaining all the pups at the same time, we encourage community participation and encourage organizations to email us for more information about how they can learn about the vital role service dogs play in our society.