Assistance Dogs of Hawaii offers a new leash on life
Photographs by Chris Archer
SOMEWHERE ON ISLAND, an Assistance Dogs of Hawaii graduate noses a light switch, retrieves a dropped item, tugs open a closed door, steadies a child’s nerves in court or comforts a trauma survivor or critically ill patient by resting its head on their lap.
The 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which operates from a wooded Upcountry campus edged by green pastures, raises, trains and places service and facility dogs. Since its founding in 2000, ADH has helped island residents live with greater independence and confidence.
Cofounders Will and Maureen “Mo” Maurer began working with assistance dogs in 1995, helping raise and place guide dogs with Hawaiʻi residents. In 2000, Mo left her career as a CPA to devote herself to the work full time. Hawaii Canines for Independence, as the nonprofit was first known, took shape in the Maurers’ modest living room, where dogs and humans shared limited space and unlimited potential. The program initially focused on adults with spinal cord injuries.
Demand soon dwarfed diagnoses. ADH expanded its service-dog program to people with other physical disabilities and developed facility and outreach programs for hospitals, schools, courts and other organizations.
As ADH’s program expanded, so did the need for more space. “We were able to grow, thanks to tremendous community support,” said Mo, the nonprofit’s cofounder and executive director.
The organization next set up shop in space donated by Queen Kaʻahumanu Center, then at Hope Chapel for a time, before Haleakalā Ranch agreed to sell ADH a 3-acre parcel of raw Makawao ranchland for its permanent facility. It was a massive undertaking, Mo recalled. There were no utilities or infrastructure, but plenty of trees to clear and earth to move.
Opened in 2007, the campus now includes classrooms, offices, staff living quarters and indoor and outdoor training areas that replicate real-life situations, such as opening a door for a wheelchair user, comforting a bedridden patient or navigating uneven terrain. Outside, shaded gathering areas offer quiet places to meet, and a gentle trail winds through the forested property.
There’s even an on-site apartment where ADH clients can practice daily routines with their canine graduate-in-training as staff further fine-tune the dog’s skills to align with the client’s speech patterns, mobility equipment and devices and other particulars of daily life.
The founders dubbed it Sadie’s Place in honor of the yellow Labrador retriever that helped spark ADH’s therapy-dog and clinical scent-detection programs. Sadie was slated for service-dog training but did not meet the program’s physical criteria. Her gentle temperament, however, proved a balm in therapy work.
Today, the Maui campus is ADH’s flagship location, with additional locations on Oʻahu and Bainbridge Island, Washington.
No matter how far the nonprofit expands, Mo returns to one point: The dogs are not the mission; the people whose lives they change are. “We are a human-services program, not an animal organization,” she said. “The dogs are how we serve those in need.”
After the 2023 Lāhainā wildfire, Mo and her team had boots and paws on the ground soon after. Therapy-dog teams and puppies in training visited shelters, hotels, schools, fire stations and police stations to support displaced families, first responders and disaster-relief workers.
ADH also adopted Hope, a puppy rescued from the fire. She began visiting a West Maui school each day, spending time with students who had also lost their homes.
The nonprofit also gave keiki stuffed animals outfitted in ADH scarves, something familiar to hold amid the upheaval. In the weeks that followed, whenever dog teams visited displaced families, keiki would race over, many still clutching their stuffies. Some continued to call out the dogs’ names during school visits months later.
“Everyone on Maui assisted any way they could,” Mo said. “And that was our way.”
Every ADH dog begins with people willing to make room at home. Training starts at about 7 weeks. Volunteer puppy raisers socialize program candidates and bring them regularly to Sadie’s Place for classes. Dogs that pass Kindergarten Puppy Class and Basic Training move into three to six months of advanced work, learning to turn lights on and off, open doors and retrieve objects while ignoring cats, birds and food on the ground.
Each assignment incorporates the dog’s greatest strengths and attributes. A pup that connects best one-on-one and loves to train may be well suited to the service-dog track. Dogs that thrive on the attention of many or are happiest as a lap dog often make excellent facility dogs that support schools, hospitals, courts and similar institutions.
Hospital dogs, for example, must respond without hesitation to one command in particular, said Emily Stauffer, ADH’s director of training, with a laugh. “It’s ‘Lap,’” she said. On cue, the dog rests its head on a patient’s lap or leg.
Courthouse dogs accompany children through painful testimony and legal proceedings, providing reassurance and routine throughout the legal process. Canines with similar skill sets work with anxious students and students with disabilities in school settings, spending their days in counselors’ offices and classrooms.
Additional ADH programs include hosting weekly visits from hospitals, schools and organizations, as well as internships, workplace readiness, student volunteer programs and a summer camp for keiki with profound disabilities.
ADH uses social styles, a compatibility tool that compares the personalities, routines and habits of both dog and client, to help Stauffer and the training staff orchestrate the best match possible. Once a match is made, the dog enters three to six months of graduate training tailored to the client. A trainer may speak only in a whisper or use one side of the body to prepare the dog for the client’s speech or mobility.
During a two- to three-week Team Training Camp, the client learns the 90 commands the dog already knows. ADH provides follow-up visits and training for the life of each team, adding skills as a client’s needs change.
ADH draws from breeding lines selected for calm temperaments, quiet confidence and low prey drive. Those traits help the dogs bond with people and remain focused on their work. An animal bred for hunting or sport generally isn’t a suitable candidate, Stauffer continued.
“Our dogs can’t be chasing chickens when tethered to a wheelchair,” she said.
Maui-built and community-driven, ADH relies on private donations, local grants and an annual fundraiser. Those funds allow the organization to provide assistance dogs and lifetime follow-up support without charge.
“We’re thankful to Maui for the support to provide dogs where they’re needed, not just to those who can afford them,” Mo said. “We can’t do this alone.”
Stauffer could talk story for hours about the weeks, sometimes months, spent fine-tuning canine graduates for a smooth transition to their new roles. At Sadie’s Place, she pointed to a framed photograph of Summer, a quadruple amputee, with Trooper, her first ADH service dog. Summer now works with her second ADH dog, Oakley, Trooper’s offspring.
“Summer travels the world with Oakley always by her side,” Stauffer said. “They’re a great example of what is possible.”
