CCI's Mitsui to talk at FOL meeting

SANDPOINT — Interested in learning more about Canine Companions for Independence?

Lilly Mitsui , a local puppy raiser for the organization, will be speaking at the Sandpoint Friends of the Library today from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Joining Mitsui will be one of the dogs in training for CCI.

Canine Companions for Independence provides highly-trained dogs to men, women and kids with all types of disabilities except blindness — Guide Dogs for the Blind has provided that service since 1942.

Canine Companions for Independence is a nationwide, nonprofit organization founded in 1975 in Santa Rosa, Calif. The organization breeds, raises and trains golden retrievers, labrador retrievers or a cross of the two to perform all sorts of tasks for their handlers.

Canine Companions for Independence train four types of assistance dogs — service dogs, skilled companions, facility dogs, and hearing dogs.

Service dogs are trained to perform tasks, such as opening and closing doors, turning lights on and off, pulling wheelchairs and retrieving items to deliver to their handler.

Skilled companions are trained much in the same way as a service dog, but are typically trained for children as part of a three-part team, where the child’s parent or gaurdian is the handler. Hearing dogs are trained to alert people who are deaf or hard of hearing to sounds in their environment. Facility dogs are used in a wide variety of settings, including occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, special education, courthouses and more.