Freedom Service Dogs

A Freedom Service Dog hits the handicapped door trigger to open the door for its master.Freedom Service Dogs rescues the animals from shelters, trains them and gives them to disabled people free of charge. The organization is holding a canine love affair event Sept. 13 at Centennial Park to show off the abilities of mixed-breed dogs and raise money for the program.


A Freedom Service Dog hits the handicapped door trigger to open the door for its master. Freedom Service Dogs rescues the animals from shelters, trains them and gives them to disabled people free of charge. The organization is holding a canine love affair event Sept. 13 at Centennial Park to show off the abilities of mixed-breed dogs and raise money for the program.

Dogs and their owners have their day Sept. 13 when Freedom Service Dogs brings the Italian canine love affair to Englewood.

“We decided to bring the event, called the Festival of the Bastardino, to the area to showcase all things Freedom Service Dogs and mixed-breed dogs can do,” said Colette Palmer, director of development. “We have a lot of events, demonstrations and activities to showcase the wide and varied skills of mixed-breed dogs.”

The free event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 13 at Centennial Park which is east of South Federal Boulevard and West Union Avenue.

Owners can enter their dogs in a variety of events — such as bobbing for tennis balls — and there will be demonstrations by police canine units and Ruff Flyball.

Palmer said the festival is being put on with help from businesses and residents. Also, a number of organizations are putting on demonstrations to showcase the talents and skills of their animals.

The event is will also raise funds for Freedom Service Dogs. There will be a small fee for the dog wash and other services, vendors pay a small fee for space and there will be locations to drop off donations which will go toward training a service dog.

There will also a place to sign up as a volunteer with Freedom Service Dogs, which moved to new, larger headquarters at 2000 W. Union Ave. in Englewood.

The organization was established in 1987 to create dogs to provide assistance to people with handicaps. Freedom Service Dogs rescues dogs from shelters with the goal of training each animal to perform services for a handicapped individual such as turning on lights, opening doors and even helping do the laundry. To achieve that goal, each animal must complete a two-year course at a cost of about $20,000 but the dogs are provided to the clients free of charge.

The organization works to match the client’s needs to the dog’s abilities. The trainers are persistent and frequently give dogs more than one chance to complete the training. However, even with all the patience shown by the trainers, only one of 10 dogs rescued from shelters is able complete the training. But no dog is returned to a shelter because Freedom Service Dogs finds homes for the animals that aren’t able to complete the training.

The organization has placed 109 service dogs with clients since it was founded. Of course, there are many more applications from prospective clients than the organization can fill.

For information about Freedom Service Dogs, call 303-922-6231 or visit the Web site at www.freedomservicedogs.org.

303-566-4108 | tmunds@ccnewspapers.com

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