Helping Dogs: Roles, Rights, and Responsibilities

Saturday, November 4 @ 10:30

Local author and service dog consultant Cynthia Crosson will talk about the various types of dogs used to help people with disabilities. She will explain how these dogs are chosen based on their roles, and how they are trained specifically for these roles. Further, participants will learn what rights canines and their partners have under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), as well as the public’s responsibilities when encountering a helping dog.

Through NEADS in Princeton, MA, Dr. Cynthia Crosson designed and helped to implement the Trauma Assistance Dog program, the first program to place specially trained service dogs with veterans with military-related PTSD. Since placing the first dog/veteran team in 2009, Cynthia has consulted to several service dog agencies across the country and has written Only Daddy’s Dog and Sunny and Malcolm, two children’s books about service dogs for PTSD. She is also the author of You Cannot Cage the Wolf: A Mother Struggles with the Suicide of her Soldier Son (Haley’s, 2020) that traces her healing journey from the suicide of her son to developing the NEADS program. She is working on another children’s book about the training of service dogs in prisons.

Free and open to the public. Please register by calling 978-249-9515 or at Helping Dogs: Roles, Rights, and Responsibilities | Athol Public Library (librarycalendar.com)