Testimonials >Success Stories >Leigh Ann and Candy

How Sweet It Is

By Leigh Ann Shingler, THSD Graduate

Editor's note:  Leigh Ann Shingler is the Information Specialist for the Brazoria County Center for Independent Living.  Candy is a female black Labrador Retriever we adopted from the Town Lake Animal Center, Austin’s municipal animal shelter. 

Leigh Ann and Candy's training were sponsored by grants from The Tapeats Fund, The Educational Foundation of America and your donations.  Leigh Ann and Candy not only passed their certification exam, they also have passed their 3 month follow up re-certification exam. Their next re-certification will be in six months and then annually.

Here Leigh Ann shares her experiences with Candy. Thank you for supporting a lifetime of benefits.

Leigh Ann Shingler and Candy Sponsored by The Tapeats Fund, The Educational Foundation of America and your donations

Dear Sheri:

Miss Dandy Candy and I are writing to say “Hello” and to thank Texas Hearing & Service Dogs, The Tapeats Fund, the Educational Foundation of America and everyone else who made our partnership possible.  Life is going well here in Angleton.  Since Candy came to stay with me in September of 2007, we’ve gotten well acquainted with one another and settled into a comfortable routine.  

I have Cerebral Palsy and use a power wheelchair.  Candy is a big help to me. She retrieves dropped, items, opens and closes doors, brings me the cordless phone when it rings and pushes access buttons for automatic doors.

One thing that we did not work on in Transfer Training was using Candy to help balance me if I am out of my wheelchair.  We didn’t work on it because I was not comfortable relying on Candy for that.  I think it was a trust issue at that time; but, now that we are used to each other, I am comfortable asking her to help with that. Sometimes I am out of the chair and I drop something that I don’t want her to pick up, like maybe a piece of paper. (Doggie drool and paper don’t mix well.) I have trained her to come and stand right beside me and just let me keep an arm around her so that I don’t fall over when I lean over.  I don’t really need her to hold me up or bear my weight, but just having her there to place a hand on is a huge help.  It offers a little extra stability and that makes all the difference for me. Often times if I fall it isn’t the fall that hurts; it’s the getting up again that does me in.  Now I fall less frequently and that is great in my book; not to mention safer.

Monday through Friday we are up at 5:00 AM and off to work we go.  Candy gets her exercise by walking about three miles a day just keeping up with my On-the-Go lifestyle.  It’s slightly less than a mile and a half to work everyday and she makes that trip to and from work like a champ now. (It was a little tough on her at first but she’s used to it now.)

I work for the Brazoria County Center for Independent Living.  After we arrive there, she spends a great portion of the work day asleep on a large pillow under my desk; but, if I need her, she’s always eager to wake up and help out.  My co-workers and clients all adore her and they have all openly welcomed BCCIL’s newest four-legged staff member. After work, we run errands most days on the way home. Once we get home, I let her go play for a while.  I feel like that is important for her.  I worry about life being lead around on a leash all day.  Yet every single time I say “Candy, Get your leash”, she’s more than happy to get it and wait for me to hook it up.  She loves to “Go”! 

On Sundays we always go to Mama and Daddy’s house for a family dinner.  Everyone there loves her, too.  She is great with my brother’s little kids. She even plays t-ball with my six year old nephew Christopher.  He hits the ball off the stand and she runs and fetches it and takes it back to him.  That took some training because he used to get mad because she’d go get it and bring it to me not to him, at first. I taught him not to fuss at her because she was only doing what she was trained to do.  Now she thinks every ball she finds goes to Christopher, but anything else she brings to me. Retrieving is her all time favorite task.

When I first started the procedure to get Candy, to be perfectly honest, I did not want her.  Mama had been after me for ages to "get a dog".  I finally got frustrated enough one day that I asked her, “If I go fill out the paperwork and start the process will you stop hounding me?”  She said “yes” so I looked up THSD on the Internet.  Or more accurately, I did a broad search for Service Dogs.  I decided to select THSD when I read that all you use dogs are rescued from animal shelters.  That put you guys over the top in my book. That’s how our journey together began.  Now I regret waiting so long.

Candy and I have achieved minor celebrity status in my small town.  People always notice people in wheelchairs and after I got a beautiful black Lab that increased 100 fold.  Everywhere we go people say “Hi” and greet us, whereas before I got Candy, people just stared but didn’t usually speak to me. So in a way, Candy helps promote disability awareness because now a greater number of people see me as approachable.

In spite of my initial resistance to the idea of getting a dog, the day Becky called to say that you had my dog, I could hardly sit still for the rest of that day or that week.  I wanted to come get her immediately and that surprised me after all my doubts. When I met Candy and I knew she was going to be mine, I was thrilled!  I had a black Lab as a child.  He was not a Service Dog;  just a pet and I still miss that dog today.  In my opinion Labs are the best kind of dogs.

The staff at THSD is wonderful.  I have to say that for the first two days of Transfer Training I felt intimidated by you guys.  You watched every move we made together and I was terrified to mess up.  I kept thinking, “There is no way these people are going to trust me enough to let me have her, I have to get this right.” I was so nervous.  Then on the third day, things started to click between Candy and me.  I left on the third day and Mama said she could tell that day was better for us just by my mood. Anyway, keep doing training just that way, even if it does make people a bit nervous to be watched so closely.  It’s a good base for future training issues after the dogs go home, and it gives you guys the opportunity to know that these awesome dogs will be well cared for after they leave your facility.

On a lighter note, before I got Candy, the people who would typically approach me to ask about my disability were women and kids. One day in Wal-Mart last week, four different men approached me in twenty minutes.  That was highly unusual before Candy.  Now they all come up to me because they want to meet my dog.  I’d heard about single people using dogs as a way to meet men and women.  I always thought it sounded silly, but believe me, it works.  They approach because of the dog and while we talk, we form attachments.  My best friend recently got a Guide Dog and we are planning a girls’ night out with the dogs to see if we can attract any worthy attention form any eligible guys.

Candy makes life a little easier and a lot brighter.  She’s such an absolute joy to have.  I have fallen in love with Candy. Thanks so much.

Sincerely,
Leigh Ann Shingler