University Park, Pa. -- When Cindi Lashinsky had such a severe migraine that it required a visit to the hospital, it was her roommate who grabbed the phone, found Lashinsky's medication and who stood watch for the residence hall assistant to get to her room. Not bad for a roommate who sleeps on the floor and has a fascination with squirrels.
Lashinsky, 20, a senior majoring in psychology at University Park, suffers from a neurological disorder that requires medication and impairs her balance. Her roommate, Cubby, is a male Labrador retriever trained as a service dog. The two have been a team for nearly a year. "It's at the point where I can't imagine not having him," she said.
Cubby is Lashinsky's shadow. He sleeps in her room at Thompson Hall, rides the elevator with her, accompanies her to class and parks under her table in the residence hall commons while she eats with friends.
"Whenever we go anywhere, he goes along," said junior Shannon Kentis, a biology major. "He's one of the gang. He's like Scooby in the Scooby Gang."
Lashinsky acquired her service dog through Susquehanna Service Dogs, which is under the umbrella of Keystone Human Services, a group of private nonprofit agencies that serves parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut. She and Cubby went through a rigorous training and accreditation period to ensure that her dog is obedient, performing up to standards and is safe to the public.
Having a service animal allows a student with disabilities to lead a more independent life, according to Nancy Fierer, program director at Susquehanna Service Dogs. "The physical help that a dog gives getting them from place to place really makes a big difference," Fierer continued. "A dog at Edinboro hauled a girl in a wheelchair out of snowdrifts so many times. (Having a dog) gives them more access to their community in a way that the community is more friendly to them. They don't see a person with a disability; they see a person with a dog."
Placing a dog in a university setting can be a challenge, Fierer said. "They need to be a dog that can deal with going, going all the time because that's what university students do," she continued. "The dog should be nonreactive to the environment. The biggest thing is a dog that doesn't need a lot of downtime."
The Americans With Disabilities Act prevents discrimination against people with disabilities and requires that service animals be allowed admittance into any public place. (For specifics of the act, see the story below.)
Bill Welsh, director of the Office for Disability Services (ODS), said there are other service animals helping their owners around University Park this year. In order for a student to use a service animal in the classroom or residence hall, the student must contact ODS. The office will verify that the student has a disability and that the animal is a trained service animal providing a required service. The verification is done so that students do not bring their pets to class or to live in the residence halls. Service animals are specially trained, not only to provide the service, but to work in certain settings and to have a certain temperament, Welsh said, adding that he's seen a fair number of service animals on campus in the past five years.
Cubby responds to about 35 specific commands. In addition to "sit," "stay" and "under," which means Cubby plants himself under a desk or table, the dog is trained to brace himself to help Lashinsky get up if she falls; to get help by barking on command; to get her medication; to help her climb stairs by taking one step and stopping while Lashinsky braces herself against him and hangs onto his harness; to get her attention by pressing his front end into her lap; and to retrieve the phone, although the last task can be a puzzling one for the lab. "Technically, the phone is supposed to be in one place, but I'm a college student and the phone is everywhere," Lashinsky said. "Sometimes Cubby retrieves the television remote instead and I have to ask him to keep looking."
Lashinsky, who as a youngster raised pups in her hometown of Miami for a service dog agency, decided to acquire a service dog for herself after she had some incidents on campus. "I had a couple of little accidents in terms of falling and I changed medications," she said. She had her name on a waiting list at Susquehanna Service Dogs for eight months before she was contacted. Lashinsky took the intensive two-week training course and returned to campus with Cubby.
"The first month was very, very difficult," she recalled. "It was so much harder than I thought it would be. I'm barely responsible for myself. Now I've got this dog to take care of."
That means being up every day at 6:30 a.m. to feed, groom and walk her dog. Cubby has settled into residence hall life and has become the floor favorite. "Everyone gets a kick every night in the bathroom when I brush his teeth," Lashinsky said, noting that she has tried to make sure that if someone is afraid of dogs or has an allergy that she is aware of it.
The faculty has been very responsive she said. On a Tuesday afternoon in Willard Hall, Lashinsky settled in to her "Ethics and Values in Health Development Professions" class along with about 40 other students, who ignored Cubby as they filed into the room and took their seats. Instructor Kathy Peters said the experience has been "fabulous."
Having Lashinsky and Cubby in her classroom "exposes students to people living with disabilities. It exposes them to real life. It's wonderful that she can have the help that she needs," she said.
For Lashinsky, Cubby has opened up doors to a new level of independent living. "I went to my first concert ever when Tim McGraw was here," she said. "I had Cubby (with me) and I knew he would make everything OK."
Lashinsky and Cubby are graduating in May, but it won't be the end of their academic career(s). She's planning on graduate school studies in clinical psychology. "I want to work with adolescents and the juvenile justice system," she said. "I want to study how animals allow people to connect on a level that they may not be comfortable connecting to people. I hope to integrate Cubby into my work in that capacity."
Americans With Disabilities Act
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights bill passed in 1990. Under the ADA, Americans with disabilities have the right to be accompanied by their assistance dogs in all places of public accommodation. Three elements define this right:
1. The disabling condition must be severe enough to substantially limit one or more major life activities, such as the ability to see or hear, speak, breathe, learn, work, think or take care of oneself.
2. The dog must be individually trained to do work or perform tasks which serve to mitigate the disabling condition. (Seventh Circuit decision, Federal Court of Appeals in Bronk vs. Iniechen).
3. The dog must be well-behaved and under control. Business owners and other representatives of places of public accommodation have the legal right to exclude any dog that displays aggressive behavior or is out of control. They also may exclude any dog whose behavior disrupts the provision of goods or services, such as a dog barking in a movie theater.