It’s A Dog’s Life

Cardin gets up every morning and goes to work at Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center. He works a straight job, 8:15-5:00, five days a week. Highly trained, Cardin works with a wide range of persons with disabilities.

With the utmost patience, Cardin helps people regain their strength, coordination and balance in weak limbs. He teaches them to stretch and increase their range of motion. And, he helps those with developmental disabilities learn the importance of having a daily living routine. There is only one difference between Cardin and the rest of the highly trained staff at WWRC. Cardin is a canine.

Called a facility dog by the organization that trained him, Canine Companion International, Cardin’s role at the rehabilitation center is priceless. It’s not just that Cardin can literally open doors for people (with an attached rope), or knows 41 verbal commands, and that he can hand money to a ticket holder at the movie box office. 

It’s not just that he is a perfect gentleman at all times, faithfully following the commands of his primary handler, Kelly Lum, every single time.

Those are all extraordinary skills for a dog to possess. But by far, Cardin’s greatest gift is teaching people to believe in their own ability to heal, to live meaningful lives in spite of their disabilities.

“He’s just amazing with our clients,” Kelly tells us. As the Occupational Therapy Director at WWRC, Kelly says she is coming up with new tasks for Cardin all the time. “We are only limited by our imagination.” 

Shannon Lineberry suffered devastating injuries when a roof collapsed at a construction site. Cardin helps Shannon with the slow process of regaining strength, coordination and balance. A gentle tug-of-war over a tug toy with Cardin not only relieves the boredom of physical therapy, it also helps strengthen Shannon’s hands.

To exercise his hands and arms, Shannon gently strokes Cardin’s side. With a wide grin Shannon says, “This is the motion I’ll need when I get home to wash my pick up.”

For those with developmental disabilities, Cardin’s job is to teach daily living skills. Clients will set up a schedule to groom and feed him, brush his teeth, and make sure he gets his exercise. By demonstrating daily living skills with Cardin, they broaden their own daily living skills.

Cardin has his own work attire as well. It’s a snappy blue vest with the CCI logo on the side. It lets everyone know that he’s working.

But where does Cardin go after work? Who takes care of him? Cardin really does have a privileged life. He goes home with Kelly after the workday has ended. And just like the rest of us, he’s off the clock, running, playing and just enjoying being a regular dog.

CCI is an extraordinary organization. They train dogs for service, skilled companion, hearing and facility teams. As you can imagine, their dogs are always in demand. It costs about $22,000 to raise and train dogs like Cardin. But it costs nothing to those with disabilities who qualify.

To learn more, go to www.cci.org or call 800-572-BARK (2275).

Highly trained dogs like Cardin bring an extraordinary joy to the lives of persons with disabilities. These wonderful dogs transform a world full of barriers to wide open spaces. What better purpose could anyone ask for?