Planet Dog Foundation Awards Grants to Seven Canine Service Organizations

· Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota: HSDM, in Minneapolis, MN, provides hearing and service dogs throughout the Midwest. PDF is funding their Autism Assist program, placing specially trained dogs with children with autism. These dogs help keep children from “bolting”, open up communication skills for often very withdrawn children, foster social interaction and provide comfort and relief to the child’s family. PDF has been funding this program since its inception. www.hsdm.org

· NEADS: The PDF grant will continue to support Massachusetts-based NEADS for the 4th year in a row. The grant will fund their Canines for Combat Veterans program, which provides assistance dogs to wounded veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. These dogs provide mobility assistance, but their calming and consistent presence also helps alleviate the symptoms of PTSD from which most veterans suffer. www.neads.org

· Susquehanna Service Dogs: Based in Harrisburg, PA, SSD trains and places service, balance, hearing, psychiatric and autism dogs for children and adults. They are an industry leader and offer one of the few programs that places assistance dogs with children younger than 16. This is the third PDF grant to SSD. www.keystonehumanservices.org

· Teacher’s Pet: Based in Rochester Hills, MI, this program uses at-risk youth in danger of failing or dropping out of school to help train shelter dogs to be more adoptable. They take dogs out of shelters, and the kids engage in a 12-week curriculum providing the dogs with basic commands, house manners, and socialization with other dogs. Many of the lessons parallel the kids’ lives, and a marked improvement in school performance and behavior is seen in every participant. The dogs have a 100% adoption rate, and hundreds of teens have improved school attendance and performance. This is the second PDF grant to Teacher's Pet. www.teacherspetmichigan.org

· Working Dogs for Conservation: This program based in Three Forks, MT uses highly motivated dogs, adopted from animal shelters, to locate the scat of a variety of species throughout the Western Mountains which helps identify habitats for animals often on the move to escape predators and environmental hazards. They also find rare plants. The PDF grant supports veterinary care, basic needs and “off-duty” activities. In honor of PDF, they have named a rescued dog Orbee after Planet Dog's award-winning toy, and have trained him as a successful tracker. This is the second PDF grant to Working Dogs for Conservation. www.workingdogsforconservation.org