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For over two decades, I have worked with people and pets as a trainer and behavior specialist. While I work with a variety of species, dogs are my specialty. I have a life-long interest in animals, including those complex two-legged creatures called humans. Helping people develop a closer and more rewarding relationship with their pets is my goal.

My teaching method includes a commonsense approach to establishing a mode of communication and developing a trusting bond between owner and pet. I believe that dogs, like us, are individuals and should be treated as such. Understanding each dog’s unique communication signals is the key to training. Using my expertise and experience, I help people interpret and read those signals. From there, I teach them how to communicate with that pet using positive reinforcement and motivational techniques combined with step-by-step patterning.

This method is a rewarding way to teach people to understand and train dogs. From rehabilitating adult dogs with a little or no history (perhaps a rescue or shelter dog,) to helping owners provide an optimum training and socializing environment for younger dogs and puppies, this method has proven results. When the method keeps a dog in your home or its new home, this is my reward. I find it most satisfying that this method works no matter what the background is or aspirations are for the dog.

In the early 1980s, I founded and served as the executive director of Support Dogs St. Louis, a program that placed trained dogs with people with disabilities. For my pioneering work in the assistance dog field, I was honored in 1990 as one of President George Bush's "Thousand Points of Light."

In 1993, I founded and developed Assistance Dogs for Living (ADL), designed to work directly with people with disabilities who want to train their own dogs. ADL has produced many canine success stories that include mix breeds and breeds not usually associated with assistance dog work. Fortunately for all involved, a number of my clients have obtained their dogs from shelters and rescue groups. ADL also has components of advocacy, education and networking. On a national basis, ADL provides coaching and mentoring to trainers and other assistance animal programs.

A recent component to the assistance dog field is a program I co-founded, Pet Visitation Consultants, designed to set-up animal-assisted therapy programs.

Over the years, the work in the assistance dog industry has included promoting legislation and gaining acceptance for the assistance dog concept. Dogs had served the blind as guide dogs for fifty years, but assistance dogs for people with other disabilities were not automatically accepted. The building process for a successful program has included the selection and development of methods that match the intricacies of the work. Sometimes I wondered if I had the resources to pull it all together. Well, the journey has been memorable and I still enjoy the work because I continue to learn something new every day.

Personally, I have used assistance dog for almost 20 years after suffering from the effects of post-polio syndrome. I used a “walker dog” starting with Jocko, a rescue dog. He was a big yellow guy that had to have had Great Dane somewhere in there. His ears stood straight out only to draw your focus into his expressive eyes. What an ambassador he was! My second was Flyer, a Doberman and the David Niven of dogs. His dignity and elegance were his noticeable attributes, all the while combined with a distinctive sense of humor. Flyer was given to me after finishing his dog show career, and he always seemed happy with his job change.

Since 1996, when I was involved in an auto accident, I function from a chair. My current assistance dog partner is Zeb, 120 lbs. of yellow sunshine. We both survived the accident and fortunately he was not hurt. Zeb and I have literally been to the wall together and lived to wag about it. Zeb is a Lab mix and when asked what he is mixed with, I usually answer with a smile, "something tall." Zeb was rescued with two of his littermates, abandoned in a state park. Just side notes, both of Zeb’s littermates are assistance dogs.
I have indeed been blessed with wonderful canine partners to share my path and teach me along the way. I also share my life with my husband and three wonderful people who are my adult children. But, as my license plates say “MUT-NUT,” my passion for canines is ever present.

Developing assistance dog programs and using a canine partner myself has given me a unique, in-depth perspective on training. I believe that animals bring a special gift into our lives and that is the basis for who I am professionally. Assistance dog work illustrates my philosophy of a person's ability to gain independence through the partnership a dog can provide. What do I consider the most important work, assistance dogs or training a family pet? For me there is no difference because they are all loyal friends who enrich and share our lives.

So when I am asked what I do for a living...I say that I'm helping people, through dogs, and I am very grateful for the privilege.

Marilyn Pona

Canine photographs copyright 1997 by Shel Secunda, The Bond: people and their animals / essays by Roger Caras.

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