Bored Panda asked Bridget about Kinley and how she lost her hearing: “Kinley is a 9-year-old yellow Labrador and I’ve had her since she was 8 weeks old. She has some neurological disabilities that resulted in her losing her hearing when she was about 6 months old. We taught her signs to communicate with her and she lives a very happy, healthy life.”
When asked about Lily, Bridget explains: “I trained her as my mobility service dog, which means she performs tasks that help mitigate my physical disability. I taught her ‘Go get help’ for instances where I need more assistance. I think that provided the foundation for her to ‘Go get Kinley.’ Everyone seems to be really impressed with how many skills Lily can perform. She loves doing a job and whether that is helping me or Kinley, she’s always up for the challenge. I think that is what people connect with the most – seeing how excited Lily is to get Kinley.”
Bridget told us more about getting a service dog in general: “There are not enough service dogs to meet the demand. I was 11 years old when I got my first dog, Coal, and I trained him myself as my mobility service dog. I began volunteering and training service dogs for other people with disabilities. I felt so lucky that I had the skills to provide someone with a life-changing service dog and I knew I wanted to help more people. In 2010, I started a nonprofit called , which provides college students with the experience of training a service dog from puppyhood to placement. The service dogs are provided free of charge to people with physical disabilities since we are all volunteers. After Coal retired, I trained his successors and now Lily is my 4th owner-trained service dog.”
“Kinley and Lily are best friends and spend most of their day playing with each other or cuddling on the couch together. Since I am now working from home, we’ve been able to spend even more time together. The girls get along perfectly but there may have been one or two lamps that did not survive their zoomies,” says Bridget.
