Service Dogs Graduate After Weeklong Training at Promenade Temecula

Notice anything strange at The Promenade Temecula this week?

Canine Support Teams, their volunteers, trainers and staff brought the latest squad of service dogs and their brand new owners to the busiest place in the Valley for an intense training session that proved to the service dogs’ new owners that life’s obstacles can be navigated—with a little help from a friend!

Six people from around the country met at the Canine Support Teams compound in Menifee last week to begin a two-week intensive, life-altering program designed to provide the tools and training they need to overcome their disabilities, conquer their fears, cope with the loss of a limb, get pre-seizure alerts or just be able to walk down the street again without anxiety—all from the help of specially-trained service dogs from Canine Support Teams Programs.

These dogs bond with their new master over the course of a few days during the team training exercises. Sometimes it takes a few dogs; other times it is instant as in the case of Coal and his new master, retired Marine Garrett Jones. Through the Pawz For Wounded Veterans Program and a $5,000 donation from the city of Lake Elsinore, Jones will be graduating today during final testing and a brief ceremony at The Promenade Temecula.

Canine Support Teams was founded in 1989 by a woman crippled with polio at the age of 4. Her entire life has been led from a wheelchair, with an unstoppable desire to help others. Carol Roquemore, CST’s founder and visionary has developed a proven program to give her clients’ hope in a new life while everyday she tries to change the way the world thinks about disabilities—one dog at a time.

—Submitted by Kristine Turner for Canine Support Teams