There had been simply a few barks and some squeals.
It was the ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday for Canine Companions’ new building, which is dedicated to coaching service dogs which are given free to folks with disabilities, and even the puppies had been well-behaved.
Canine Companions is the nation’s largest coach and supplier of service dogs. The new 32,000-square-foot facility — which features a veterinary hospital — marks a major enlargement for the nonprofit, based in Santa Rosa.
“We need to grow. We have way too many people on our wait list. We have way too many people that we know need our dogs. We have new communities we need to get to,” mentioned Canine Companions CEO Paige Mazzoni, welcoming a crowd of greater than 200 folks on the ceremony.
“This building is really the beginning of the next 50 years. It’s the beginning of more puppies that can be turned into more service dogs that can go out and change more lives,” Mazzoni mentioned.
She added: “We started this with the vision of a center that would show not only innovation and excellence and expertise, but also joy and fun and love.”
Ground was damaged on the $23 million Nelson Schulz Canine Health and Wellness Center in 2022.
On Thursday, just some particulars remained to be taken care of: some portray and indicators, a glass wall across the puppy park, the set up of some kennels for breeder dogs. The organization will transfer in utterly on May 1.
The building about doubles the scale of the $45 million nonprofit’s present, leased area throughout the road, on Dutton Avenue in southwest Santa Rosa. It sits on a 12-acre campus donated to the organization in 1994 by the late Charles Schulz, creator of the “Peanuts” cartoon, and his spouse, Jean Schulz.
Elsewhere on the campus are dormitories for visiting trainers, administration workplaces, and kennels for dogs in coaching.
In an interview Thursday, Jean Schulz mentioned the brand new facility is crucial in an period that has seen an increase within the variety of dogs being falsely offered as real service animals.
“It’s important for Canine Companions to stand head and shoulders above,” she mentioned. “To have us be a strong organization with a good breeding program and good training is so important.”
Schulz is an investor in Sonoma Media Investments, mother or father firm of The Press Democrat.
The new Canine Health and Wellness Center consists of two buildings.
The bigger is the Nelson Canine Early Development Center, at 25,000 sq. ft, named for the late Nancy Nelson, a Canine Companions’ benefactor from Orange County.
It homes Canine Companion’s analysis program, which research canine well being and vitamin, how meals might help their position, even probably boosting their immune methods, and canine cognition and behavioral points.
There are also 4 wings within the building: one for breeder dogs and dogs in warmth; one for whelping, or when the dogs give delivery; a neonatal wing, the place puppies keep till they’re weaned; and the largest wing, the place puppies reside till they’re placed with their volunteer puppy raisers.
“It’s really going to be transformative for us,” mentioned Brenda Kennedy, Canine Companions’ vice chairman of canine well being and analysis. “It allows us to really do the work that we do in a state of the art facility.”
The second building is the 7,000-square-foot Schulz Vet Hospital. It contains an working room; a dental suite; an ultrasound room; two examination rooms, two therapy rooms; and a room for endoscopy (not endogscopy) — or inside examinations.
That all these procedures will now have the ability to be taken care of in-house, along side the breeding, whelping and elevating of dogs, helps ensures that dogs are cared for and puppies are initially raised in an atmosphere shielded from infectious ailments, mentioned Kennedy.
On Thursday, a complicated service canine pulled a rope to open the door for company to the Early Development Center. As he led a tour group inside, James Dern, nationwide director of puppy applications, nodded to the organization’s reliance on volunteers who work as breeder/caretakers and as puppy raisers.
“This space is also all about bringing our community together,” he mentioned. “We really want this to be a space for volunteers to engage with our mission, for staff to collaborate and bring new ideas and innovate.”
The grey and white partitions had been accented in blue and yellow and glossy with newness. One wall held the phrases that make up Canine Companions’ core working rules: “Compassionate Service, Community, Teamwork, Excellence, Innovation, Integrity.“
From 800 to 900 dogs a 12 months now go via the Santa Rosa coaching facility. About 55% go on to be service or facility dogs, that are paired with professionals working in well being care, rehabilitation or schooling and legal justice settings. There are 5 different coaching facilities across the nation.
The variety of dogs skilled in Santa Rosa is anticipated to develop to 1,200 to 1,300 yearly, mentioned Sarah Yoslor, the nonprofit’s breeder/caretaker program coordinator. She famous that almost all whelps will nonetheless take place in volunteers’ properties.
“The backbone of our program is still going to be this amazing breeder/caretaker who will be at home. So nobody panic,” Yoslor mentioned. “This is just more support for the amazing mission that you guys are helping us achieve.”
The courtyard between the 2 buildings options dog-bone benches and an extended fountain with statues of 10 dogs, together with 4 nursing puppies.
Waiting there for her tour to begin, one breeder/caretaker mentioned the brand new facility is an indication of how a lot Canine Companions values and helps its volunteers.
“The breeder dogs are the foundation of the whole organization, and it means that they’re there to help us as the volunteers every step of the way,” mentioned Debbie Segal of Santa Rosa. “It’s just amazing.”
You can attain Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @jeremyhay
