The Exceptional Sidekick Service Dogs

Meatball is a two-year-old black labrador who is there through “thick and thin” for Kai Spiller of Sandy Hook, CT. The service dog was placed with Spiller in 2023 by The Exceptional Sidekick Service Dogs, based in Newtown. The organization was founded by its executive director Abby Hill in 2016 as an answer to the call from families of children who survived the Dec. 14, 2012 school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Kai, a recent high school graduate about to go to college is one such survivor who shared they have needed a service dog since then.

“My life at that time was not a healthy place for a dog. I visited with many therapy dogs throughout my schooling and I eventually found The Exceptional Sidekick. I was jumping at the opportunity to be able to help raise and train over 20 service dogs over the course of almost 5 years, in which my family and I learned not only the incredible benefits of having a service dog, but how they too can be incorporated into our lifestyle,” Spiller said.

Hill recounted how people came to her wanting their personal dogs trained as a service dog.

“In every one of those situations, the dog wasn't appropriate. The dog was too old or too stressed or didn't have the right temperament. When I tried to find these people an appropriate dog, I learned how hard it is to get a service dog, particularly for somebody with a psychiatric disability that's not a veteran,” she said.

Hill reached out to Assistance Dogs International (ADI) and was encouraged to start her own organization.

“I had something very unique, being a trainer and [knowing] the type of clientele that I wanted to work with, and they've been mentoring me ever since. We're working on our ADI accreditation, which takes years,” Hill explained.

Hill’s mission is to “provide psychiatric service dogs to disabled teens and young adults, empowering handlers to complete their education, and opening up their world to the life they want to live.”

The dogs begin their training at 8 weeks of age. “We’ve got some folks that go on to college campuses, and we've got programs at SUNY Cobleskill and Sacred Heart University. So in the fall, dogs will go to those campuses and be raised by students during the school year,” Hill said. The clients are young people with mental illness who are struggling to complete their education between the ages of 12 and 22.

Many of them are Sandy Hook shooting survivors and also kids that have survived sexual assault. “A large population of our clients are part of the LGBTQIA community. They're all kids, essentially, that have suffered trauma or are dealing with disabling anxiety and depression,” said Hill.

Hill started working with animals riding horses professionally after college. “I couldn’t ride for a while and it just so happened that I had a golden retriever that was reactive, and I started working with her and a trainer on fixing her reactivity and learning about that. And I never went back to riding horses.”

From there, she dove into dog training. That was 25 years ago. Back then, there were fewer resources for those who need a service dog as there are today.

She learned from other “great dog trainers” by attending conferences and workshops. She was among the first round of people to become certified as a Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA).

All of the dogs from Exceptional Sidekick are labrador retrievers. “We use labs because they can handle the stress of the job better than some other breeds. They don't take on the kids' stress; they're able to handle going into all these different environments, they've got the drive needed,” Hill said. “It’s not to say other breeds can’t be a service dog. It [just] lowers the chance of success.”

Clients take their dog everywhere to support them through the trauma and anxiety that is affecting their education. Young clients take them to school and afterschool activities, and to college when the time comes.

Hill said as long as the service dogs are properly trained, they are allowed in high schools and on college campuses.

“Their anxiety is so high that they can't learn in school, or they can't even make it onto the campus. That's very tragic. With that they lose their peer friendships, they lose their access to after school activities, and then it becomes very isolating. It's very disabling for some kids,” she explained.

A service dog is certainly not a cure, but they lessen the severity and the frequency of their young client’s symptoms. “If they have full blown panic attacks, we can help. We can hope that the dog will keep those full blown panic attacks from happening, and the kid will just have manageable panic attacks.” said Hill.

Among other things, their dogs learn to mitigate disability symptoms. For example, picking at skin or pulling hair are indicators that anxiety is starting to rise.

“We can teach the dogs to interrupt that behavior, so when the dog sees the picking happening, then the dog might come over and poke them or paw at them, or rest their head in their lap, and then that symptom is mitigated, so then it doesn't escalate into a larger symptom.”

Another example is leg bouncing. Dogs are taught to put their weight on the person by putting their head on them or climbing onto the person’s lap to interrupt the behavior.

The dogs also learn blocking to mitigate anxiety in a crowd for their client.

“The dog can move to, move the people away, and create a barrier for the handler,” said Hill.

Some clients disassociate to the point of not being able to speak. “They don't know where they are anymore, and the dogs can really help to keep them safe during those episodes. So the dog can start poking at them. Or if the person sits down before they disassociate, the dog can lay on top of them until they come back around and can start communicating again. And that can be a real sense of protection. It's scary if you disassociate.”

Kai Spiller is, “forever in debt” to Sidekick. “[My dog has] been with me through thick and thin, and helped me when I couldn’t even help myself,” they said.

Meatball, among other skills, is trained to mitigate PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other disabilities. The dog alerts Spiller to oncoming medical episodes and responds to them.

“I’ve graduated high school, and am headed off to college this fall. Some very big things I thought I wouldn’t even be alive to accomplish. With Meatball by my side, he spreads his love of the world and I’m learning to see all the wonderful things this world has to offer,” Spiller said.

“I know he is there for me when I need him,” they added.

There are volunteer opportunities to be a puppy raiser. For more information or to make a donation, visit their website or call 203-270-DOGS.

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