My name is Amber Steehbock,
and this is the story of what happened
when I tried to get a service dog
through Arizona Goldens LLC, located in Phoenix Arizona.
I have quadripelegic spastic cerebral palsy and use a power wheelchair.
Because of this, many daily tasks are difficult for me,
such as turning off and on light switches,
hitting elevator buttons, and opening doors.
And a service dog seemed the obvious solution to these problems.
I heard about Arizona Goldens and was really excited
because getting a service dog had been a lifelong dream for me.
I contacted them, we met,
and they decided that they could provide a dog that would meet my needs.
All I needed to do was raise a little over $20,323
and pass what they called "service dog boot camp".
On August 10, 2010, I signed a contract with them.
They then set up a donation page, a bank account and a paypal account
where people could donate to my service dog fund.
These were their accounts, and I never personally had any access to them.
They said that this was set up this way so that it wouldn't, donations would not interrupt my SSI.
Friends and family were wonderful and donated.
And because of that, I raised a little over $20,000, or $21,990 in less than 5 months.
Arizona Goldens were expecting me to take over a year to raise this money.
It was not until after they had all the money that all the major warning signs started.
After they had all the money, they finally provided me with a booklet containing all of the rules.
Only then did I learn that I had to pass a multitude of tests
with a score of 80% or higher,
and that if I scored less on any of these tests
boot camp would stop for me,
they would fail me and they would keep all the money that I had raised toward a service dog.
The booklet also stated that before bootcamp was to start,
they would conduct individual personality and needs testing,
and based on the results of these,
would spend several months tweaking the dogs to my individual needs.
This never happened.
They never even asked me specific questions about my disability.
All I did was walk around the mall with a dog a couple of times.
After 4 more months of me repeatedly asking them when I could start my bootcamp
they finally scheduled it for May 9th, 2011.
They would not give me any study materials until 14 days before the start of bootcamp.
They said that this was to be fair to all of the other clients,
but my bootcamp study material did not arrive until 10 days before my bootcamp.
They did not even provide it in electronic format.
It came in a book format,
even though they were aware that book format is harder for me to utilize.
As scheduled, I started what was supposed to be a 21 day bootcamp.
To their shock, I passed the written test, the written entrance test
with the highest score of anyone they have ever seen.
I studied the material and I knew it well.
When it came to working with actual dogs,
they brought a bunch for me to try out in the beginning,
and narrowed it down to 2 potential dogs within several days.
This is when the problems became very apparent.
They were supposed to train the dogs for my specific needs,
and it quickly became obvious that they did not.
They insisted that they trained the dogs for someone with Cerebral Palsy,
but CP is very different between individual people,
and you can't just do generic training.
With my particular CP,
every movement I make intentionally
starts with an unintentional movement,
and sometimes ends with an unintentional one.
The dogs had been trained to regard any tug, jerk or sudden stop as a reprimand,
like telling the dogs "bad dog!".
So, even though the dogs were doing everything right,
I jerked often, and they thought they were doing wrong and became confused and shut down.
The other problem is that the people who raised and trained the dogs
were my teachers, and they were in the room with us at all times.
Therefore, the dogs got confused as to who they were supposed to listen to, their trainers or me.
Other service dog programs that I know of don't allow the trainers to be teachers.
They also don't even allow the clients to interact with the dogs for the 1st week of training.
Except to allow major downtime for the client to get to know their potential dog.
This downtime was never allowed for me,
and I never got to bond with any particular dog.
Any time I pointed out the problems with the training,
they would reprimand me by telling me to get over my disability,
"grow a pair", and stop blaming my disability.
I wasn't blaming, I wasn't making excuses,
I was pointing out my disability needs,
which is why I was seeking a service dog in the first place.
Because of their improper training, I fell very behind on what their expectations were.
On the 5th day they gave me my 1st actual test scores, as with the dogs,
but they were dogs they selected.
I failed.
These tests included things that I physically can't even do,
and of the ones that I can do, the dogs refused to respond to anything I said
because they didn't know who to listen to, me or the trainers.
And they also shut down because of what they thought were reprimands.
The result was that it was a total disaster and I failed the tests.
They allowed me to retake the test, the next day after reviewing the videos,
and they urged me to practice.
What was I supposed to practice with?
I don't have a dog at home.
And they also coached me more about "growing a pair" of balls and "getting over" my disability.
The next day when I came, they announced that I would need to score
double the amount that I had scored last time
because they decided that I was responsible for more of the dog commands on the list.
Even though I did much better on this test,
I failed because they raised the bar too high.
At this point they informed me that I had failed boot camp,
they were not placing a service dog with me,
and they would be keeping all of the money that I raised.
Before I left the classroom,
they asked me to record an apology video to all of my donors
for wasting their time and money and failing them.
I did not fail anyone.
Arizona Goldens failed me.
If you would like to know more about this,
please go to the address below
http://www.dogdreamteam.com/
Thank you very much.
http://www.dogdreamteam.com/