Doggy deputy

The old adage is that a dog is man's best friend. One man who ran from the police would disagree wholeheartedly, however.

Carole Shay trains dog with the Alaska Assistance Dogs. The dogs help wheelchair-bound people and people with disabilities perform regular functions in life, such as opening the refrigerator door, turn on the light switch, and pay for groceries at the store.

Last Monday morning, one of Shay's "trainees" went a little further -- she apprehended a man Wasilla Police Department officers were pursuing.

Shay and her husband were awakened at 3:30 a.m. when Tigger, a 7-month-old golden retriever, started barking like crazy. As a service dog, she is trained not to bark, and that was a sure indication something was up.

When Shay went to the window, she saw a couple of Wasilla officers, guns drawn, searching for someone in the woods around her home.

"We have 17 acres and it's pretty thick," Shay said. "They weren't going to find them out there."

The police left, and the Shays went back to bed. Two hours later, at 5:30 a.m., Tigger again got agitated, and Shay let the dog outside, thinking maybe there was a moose in the driveway.

When she went to the window to see the dog, she was astonished at what she saw.

"There was a guy with his hands up, and Tigger had him cornered, barking away," Shay said. "He was wearing a light jacket and a vest and jeans, and it was at least 5-below zero. We figured he was probably hiding under our house and got so cold he couldn't run."

The Shays called 911, the police showed up minutes later, and the man was taken into custody.

Tigger got her man, but she was only doing her job. She has been in training with the Shays since this summer, and someday, she will make someone very happy and even more confident.

"Almost everybody knows about seeing-eye dogs, but not too many people know about service dogs," Shay said. "They are just as important."

Shay had been working with service dogs in California for years with the Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) program, in which individual families raise a dog for a year and teach it 30 required commands.

The families then send the dog back to the CCI people, who give the dog even more specialized training and 60 more commands, before the dog is given to somebody who needs it.

"Up here, there is a demand for service dogs, but there was nobody training them," Shay said. "We decided to do it, and here we are. There are two ladies in Palmer doing the same thing now, too."

Throughout the summer, Shay worked with Dr. Bonnie Bergen, who founded CCI and is one of the premier trainers in the world.

Shay learned how to train the dogs to perform functions that people without disabilities sometimes take for granted -- like giving a store clerk money on a counter, picking things up off the floor and opening doors.

Using simple commands and a soft approach, Shay and other trainers spend two years with each dog, teaching them 90 commands that make life easier for those with limited mobility.

"There is one command -- balance -- when the dog must recognize when the owner has lost his or her balance, and the dog goes over to one side and supports the weak leg," Shay said. "The dogs understand the needs of their owners.

"These people just blossom when their dogs are with them," Shay added. "For some, it is just too much to go out by themselves. The dogs give them the confidence they need to go out in public. It's endless what these dogs can do."

While being trained, Tigger has gone to several local grocery stores and businesses.

Shay puts a cape on her identifying her as a service dog in training, and she always talks to the management before going in the store. So far, every store has been very helpful to her, Shay said.

"Tigger knows when the cape goes on, she is a working dog doing a job," Shay said. "When it comes off, she knows she is a puppy again."

Shay has been meeting with a number of people about possibly providing service dogs. The Providence Extended Care Nursing Facility is interested in two dogs, Shay said, and other organizations have expressed interested as well.

"One of the good things about doing this is that I get to do a lot of education as well," Shay said. "I've been talking to a lot of community groups and informing them about the importance of service dogs. A lot of people don't realize just how much these dogs do."

Shay is going to try to start training a toy breed, a papillion, which is relatively new in the service dog industry.

"It's still in the snicker stage, like when they see it, they snicker," Shay said. "But a toy breed can really help become a companion to people."

The papillion won't be able to perform some of the tougher tasks, such as opening refrigerator doors, but it will be able to do all the routine commands a larger service dog can do.

"Some people can't have a big dog, and a papillion may be just what they need," Shay said.

"They need smaller dogs for smaller facilities," she said.