'Love, time, care and effort': Service dogs celebrated at graduation party
More than a dozen specially trained service dogs graduated Sunday.
Dogs with Wings, a non-profit organization providing guide dogs across Canada, held a graduation ceremony for its most recent class of canine helpers.
Danika Power has been raising three-year-old labrador retriever Charger for a year, teaching him how to be the best autism service dog possible for his new owner.
"He might be trained how to lay on them if they're feeling discomfort," she said. "If they're feeling stress, he can lay on them and do a squish, which means he pushes into their chest with (his) head until they're feeling calm."
Hundreds of people gathered in west Edmonton to support Charger and 15 other graduating service dogs. Power said it was a "proud dog mom moment."
"It is very hard though to give up an animal, because you are attached to them," she said. "But you think, 'OK, this is why I'm doing it – to make a difference, to make someone's life better.
"And so seeing him today on stage graduating with his cap gown with his family – that means a lot to me."
Danika Power and three-year-old Charger, an autism service dog, at the Dogs with Wings graduation ceremony on May 26, 2024. (Adel Ahmed/CTV News Edmonton)
According to Dogs with Wings, it takes around $40,000 and between two and three years to breed, raise, train and home an assistance dog.
"There's a lot of training that we put into these dogs, there's a lot of love, time, care and effort that we put into them," training program manager Piera Angotti said.
That love and care, Angotti said, makes these ceremonies bittersweet moments for many of the Dogs with Wings staff who also care for the animals before they're homes.
"It's really incredible and as hard as it is to say goodbye to the dogs, seeing them with their final person … it's full circle, and it makes me feel good about what we do here,"
In its 27 years, Dogs with Wings has placed more than 200 assistance dogs.
For more information, visit the Dogs with Wings website.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6929558.1718631751!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
Heat warnings to last into the weekend for some provinces
A heat wave is expected to hit parts of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick this week, and it could feel as warm as 45, according to latest forecasts.
opinion Symbolic meaning behind Princess of Wales' style choices at first public appearance since diagnosis revealed
The Trooping the Colour marked the first public outing this year for the Princess of Wales, who has not been seen at any official royal engagements since December 2023. We now know that was due to abdominal surgery and preventive chemotherapy, with no return to public life anytime soon. But the Princess of Wales chose this occasion to soft launch her return to royal life, and it was eagerly anticipated.
'People get very sick': Manitoba sees rise in rare, potentially fatal bacterial infection
A rise in cases of a rare bacterial infection in Manitoba has prompted health officials to issue a warning.
Calgary mayor says 3 to 5-week repair timeline is the 'maximum'
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says work is progressing simultaneously on five issues identified in the city's feeder main last week and residents are being asked for continued patience with water conservation measures.
CMHC says annual pace of housing starts in May up 10 per cent from April
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says the annual pace of housing starts in May climbed 10 per cent compared with April, helped by gains in Montreal and Toronto.
2 Canadian cities ranked high on global list of most expensive places to buy a home
As Canadians continue to struggle with the extremely high cost of buying a home in some of the country’s major urban centres, a new global report is underscoring just how expensive some of those markets are.
Scientists may have found an answer to the mystery of dark matter. It involves an unexpected byproduct
For about 50 years, the scientific community has been grappling with a substantial problem: There isn’t enough visible matter in the universe.
Nuclear-armed nations are deepening their reliance on their nuclear weapons, watchdog finds
The world's nine nuclear-armed states continue to modernize their nuclear weapons as the countries deepened their reliance on such deterrence in 2023, a Swedish think tank said Monday.
World's first weekly insulin injection coming to Canada in 2 weeks, manufacturer says
Many people with diabetes in Canada will soon be able to take insulin once a week instead of daily, drug manufacturer Novo Nordisk announced on Monday.