Great Falls Forum: Christy Gardner touts the power of service dogs
May 16—LEWISTON — Christy Gardner's life was traumatically altered during her time in the Army, but she said it also blessed her with new opportunities.
That includes her work in establishing and growing Mission Working Dogs, a service and therapy dog training and breeding operation now headquartered in Oxford.
Gardner spoke during a Great Falls Forum in Lewiston on Thursday about the organization and what it takes to train dogs for service and therapy roles.
The Edward Little High School graduate, who lost both her legs and suffered other traumatic injuries while serving in the military police, also became heavily involved in Paralympic competition.
She's competed in several Paralympics in both track and field events and on the U.S. Women's National Sled Hockey Team. In 2022, she was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame, and is hoping to compete in the Paralympics in Paris this summer.
On Thursday, Gardner had several canine guests and handlers with her on stage, and she broke down how Mission Working Dogs trains them to help people with physical disabilities, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder or other issues.
She showed how the service dogs can accomplish tasks like close drawers and cabinets, turn on lights and pick items up off the floor to make them more accessible to a human. In public places, they're trained to push accessibility buttons that open automatic doors.
Golden retrievers Gator, Ranger and Valor were part of the event, as was Douglas, who had to be redirected by Gardner a few times due to distracting his fellow dogs.
Gardner said she's trained service and therapy dogs for 10 years. When asked, she said some dogs that enter training aren't cut out for either role, or are better suited to being either a service dog or therapy dog. She said the organization calls it a "career change" if a dog switches roles.
Mission Working Dogs, founded in 2020, has a roughly 70% graduation rate from its training program, she said. A dozen dogs are set to graduate this year.
Gardner said the organization recently started a breeding program, which helps bring potential service dogs into training earlier.
She said early exposure to loud noises, distractions and other things that service dogs are trained to ignore make it easier in the long run.
"It's much easier to teach manners when they're a kid," she said.
The dogs have to pass basic obedience as well as what Gardner called a "public access test," which means the dog can remain calm and under control when leaving a vehicle, going into a store, and walk and heel through buildings.
"Dogs need to be able to adjust, and maintain composure," she said.
Therapy dogs, which generally work with groups of people in the public setting, were heavily utilized in Lewiston following the Oct. 25 shooting last year.
The organization recently moved out of Lewiston to its new 12-acre training center in Oxford.
When asked how it's funded, Gardner said through a mix of grant writing and fundraising events like an annual gala. In its first year, the organization raised $9,000 from bottle drives.
Another question from the audience asked Gardner's advice for getting into service dog training. She recommended people interested in the field start out with basic obedience training and then go from there.
Douglas, after waiting patiently by Gardner's side, was finally given some work to do when Gardner asked him to pick up a water bottle from the floor and bring it up to her.
He made it look easy.
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Photos: Ride of Silence
Photo: Child safety seat training
