As four of Canine Companions’ golden retriever and Lab mixes walked across the makeshift stage, there were no diplomas, no caps and no gowns.
Instead, there were orange leashes, blue vests and wagging tails as Arugula, Chives, Bubba IV and Dawson VIII graduated to become official service dogs and walked, or in Arugula’s case, ran, right into their new owners’ arms.
Friday’s graduation ceremony was part of Canine Companions’ nearly 50-year mission to provide free service animals to people with disabilities. Florida’s Southeast Region chapter in Orlando, which hosted the ceremony, will celebrate 25 years of service on June 20.
The nonprofit organization breeds dogs at its national headquarters in California, then flies them out to each region to be raised by volunteers for around a year and a half, said Adam Goldman, the Southeast chapter’s manager of public relations and marketing. Once they master basic commands, the puppies are brought to one of the organization’s six centers to be professionally trained and matched with its new owner.
All four recipients who were gifted service dogs had hearing-related disabilities, making Friday’s graduation stand out from the nonprofit’s other service dog ceremonies. The four esteemed graduates have the ability to hear and alert their owners to important sounds like doorbells, alarms and sirens.
Some recipients traveled hundreds of miles for their service dog, and had waited years for a solution to their hearing-related disability.
Sixty-year-old TinaMarie Sifford, one of the service dog recipients from Wilmington, North Carolina, came to Orlando to receive Arugula, or as she more affectionately calls her, “RuRu.”
Sifford has congenital rubella syndrome, a virus that originated from her mother developing rubella during pregnancy. She was born 98% deaf.
While she’s had a service animal before, she said she’s been “lost” in recent years after losing her mom and previous service dog.
“I stopped going out. I stopped socializing. I stopped loving.”
RuRu has changed that, she said.
Now, she feels like she won’t miss “anything” in her life, whether it be someone calling her name at her North Carolina church, a doorbell ring, or simply having a companion.
When Sifford’s picture was displayed on the screen at the graduation ceremony and Arugula’s trainers, Kate O’Connor and Christy Fajkowski of Massachusetts, prepared to pass her on to her new owner, the white Lab darted from their side and into Sifford’s arms.
“I thought she was gonna be calmly walking toward me … nope,” she said.
Marisol Velázquez, a junior at the University of West Florida, was gifted Bubba IV — one of what Canine Companions calls its “sports influencer puppies” to help advertise its cause.
These “influencer puppies” are named after well-known sports players. Bubba IV bears his moniker from Gerry Lester “Bubba” Watson Jr., a two-time Masters Tournament champion and co-owner of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos minor-league baseball team. The golfing human Bubba even supports the barking and tail-wagging “Bubba” by reposting pictures of the black Lab and retriever mix on his social media accounts.
In the past, Canine Companions has collaborated with the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs to advertise its “influencer puppies” — garnering national attention with a May 10 SNL skit depicting audience members sporting the organization’s shirt while watching a bad, poorly received play.
Velázquez was born with moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears and originally applied for a hearing service dog in her senior year of high school. Now three years later, Bubba IV is joining her for some college experience and will live with her in the university’s dorms, she said.
Bubba IV’s trainers, Kathryn Daniel and Brion Crow of Pensacola, specialize in influencer puppies, and already have plans to train their fourth Canine Companions dog, Diamond VII, named after the diamond of a baseball field.
The job of a trainer is hard, as both Daniel and Crow spent almost a year with Bubba IV only to give him up.
“The month leading up to turn him in is very tough … but then once I turn him in, I’m like ‘OK, you’re where you’re supposed to be,’” Daniel said. “This is literally what he was born to do.”
When the time came Friday to turn the dog over to Velázquez, and the two saw Bubba IV look longingly at his new owner, Daniel remembered the nonprofit’s purpose to help those with disabilities and recognized its success.
“He will always be our puppy, but he is her dog.”
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