Canton Resident, Service Dog Graduate

Editor’s note: We published this story earlier in the week, but here it is again in case you missed it.

Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities held its graduation ceremony on Wednesday and one of the graduates is a Canton resident.

Joe Recupero is a Vietnam Veteran with PTSD and Parkinson’s Disease. He will be graduating with Colby, a black lab who will help him with his balance, retrieving dropped items, and in answering the home phone if Joe Recupero doesn’t have time to reach it.

Recupero was diagnosed with PTSD in 1995. Complications and progression of the PTSD and Parkinson’s Disease forced him to close the family iron works business a few years back and to give up working on automobiles as a knowledgeable mechanic - a life long passion which earned him respect throughout his community.

He had a doberman-lab named Smokey when he was a young adult and has never forgotten the companionship this beloved pet gave him.

“I knew what a dog could do for you,” he said in a prepared statement, “And then through my Veterans support group, I began to learn what these (service dogs) are all about. It is just the icing on the cake.”

Colby is a tall, strong, back lab, who “loves his job, is very enthusiastic and the perfect match for Joe” says ECAD instructor Sherry Burger.

After only a few days of team training, Recupero was comfortable knowing that Colby could help him with his balance as needed. And, just for Recupero, Colby was given the very special task of answering the landline phone that Joe had trouble reaching, thereby worrying his anxious neighbors.

After only one test run with Burger, on command Colby dashed to the ringing phone, took it from the stand, put it securely in his mouth, and dashed back to Recupero.

As a realistic man who looks ahead, Recupero anticipates the time when Colby will be able to help him from the chair or up off the floor.

Recupero’s longtime partner, Debbie Fiori, is equally pleased but finds it difficult not to give Cobly praise and pats as well. She knows that she must “stand back at this point and let Joe and Colby be the A-Team.”

ECAD is a Dobbs Ferry, NY organization whose mission is to train and place service dogs with people with disabilities so that they may lead lives with greater independence and mobility.

Photo courtesy of Patricia Robert.