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Service Dog Dream becomes Service Dog Nightmare

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

My name is Amber Steehbock and I have Moderate/Severe Quadriplegic Spastic Cerebral Palsy. This video details my loss of almost $21,000 when I attempted to get a disability service dog through Arizona Goldens, LLC in Phoenix, AZ. You can read more about it at my blog @ http://www.dogdreamteam.com/
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Video Language:
English
Duration:
08:20
Radical Access Mapping Project edited English subtitles for Service Dog Dream becomes Service Dog Nightmare

English subtitles

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