Schaumburg firefighters help train assistance dogs-to-be

Imagine you are disabled, living with an assistance dog, and a fire breaks out in your home, or you have a medical emergency. How would your dog react to the lights and sirens of the ambulance or the presence of firefighters/paramedics dressed in turnout gear and wearing Self Contained Breathing Apparatus?

Canine Companions for Independence puppies and their volunteer puppy trainers recently made a visit to Schaumburg Fire Station 52 to allow the dogs the experience of being around apparatus and firefighters. Canine Companions for Independence provides highly trained assistance dogs free for children and adults with disabilities.

Captain Robert Levin, firefighter/paramedic Anthony Laurie and five other firefighters/paramedics hosted the get-together for the volunteer puppy trainers and eight CCI puppies in training — Cameron, Carina, Dietzer, Einstein, Greely, Lida, Nicholas and Rufus.

Puppy trainers and their dogs worked with ambulance 52, engine 52, and truck 52, getting into the cabs, walking up and down an open-grate staircase, and listening to vacuum noise, loud dispatches, and lights and sirens as the equipment went out on two calls.

Then Laurie and firefighter/paramedics and Gus Tsoulos dressed in their turnout gear with breathing apparatus, and simulated a search pattern by crawling along the floor dragging a pickax, fire tools and search lights, all to see if the puppies-in-training would react appropriately. The dogs did a great job.

In the third exercise, four puppy trainers, each with two puppies, acted as if they were injured. This gave the dogs an opportunity to respond to the presence of a stretcher, paramedics, blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes.

In fact, Schaumburg Fire Department ambulances also are equipped to deal with injured pets, carrying oxygen masks for cats and dogs.

For information on Canine Companions for Independence, go to cci.org.