Lowell Park was filled with barks and cheers as Cotuit Athletic Association secretary and host parent Cheryl McPhillips’s dog Caeli brought a baseball from the pitcher's mound to home plate, giving the ball to player and current resident of McPhillips’ house Mikey Ebner (USC) for the ceremonial first pitch.
Dogs socialized with other dogs and humans as Bark in the Park brought furry friends from near and far.
Bark and the Park’s fourth iteration was a success with dogs all around Lowell Park. The idea for Bark in the Park came from 2021 community relations interns Hannah Hall and Jenna Meyer. They saw that other places were doing similar events and thought it was a great idea. McPhillips got two organizations to come and share awareness about their dog-based non-profits.
Canine Companions is an organization that provides highly trained service dogs to people with physical disabilities, autistic people, people with PTSD and others who need service dogs. They place over 300 dogs every year with people who need a service dog. Most of the dogs they train are labrador retrievers or golden retrievers.
“There are chapters all over the U.S.,” said Nadine Thomas, a member of the leadership team of the Bay State Chapter of Canine Companions. “We take people that are in need of a dog and supply them for adults, children, veterans, and they’re free. They are then given a lifetime worth of training to keep going and to come back to Canine Companions at any time.”
With Thomas were two people, Lyndsey and Dawn, who got service dogs through Canine Companions. They both talked about how great it is to have their dogs help them.
“When I’m bored, I have someone to hang out with,” said Lyndsey, who has a service dog named Smith. “If he sees that I drop something, he picks it up.”
“Irving helps me pick up things I drop,” Dawn said. “He opens and closes doors. He helps me get dressed. He does laundry, turning light switches on and off, so pretty much daily living tasks.”
Irving and Smith showed off their skills to fans, walking around with their owners with baskets in their mouths for a raffle Canine Companions held. The prizes included a T-shirt and a bag.
Across the parking lot by the concession stand was a tent with more dogs — comfort dogs with red bandanas. Hearts and Paws Comfort Dogs, a Cape Cod-based all-volunteer non-profit, brings its dogs places to comfort people. Volunteers brought their dogs to the park to comfort fans, which worked very well for me.
“We’re a group of dog owners who recognize that our dogs can bring a lot of love to people,” vice president Jeff Idels said. “We thought we’d share that with all the community, everyone in Cape Cod from Sandwich to Provincetown. We bring our dogs to schools, senior centers, Alzheimer’s groups and veterans outreach groups to spread their love.”
All of their dogs have passed the Canine Good Citizen’s Test through the American Kennel Club, meaning that they are less likely to be aggressive around people. The dogs are also trained to be friendly and be loved by humans.
Idels also said that Hearts and Paws Comfort Dogs attend community events to raise money for other non-profit organizations. At the game Sunday, they had a small bucket for donations to the Cape and Island Police K-9 Relief Fund, a non-profit that helps provide funds to care for retired police K-9s.
Canine Companions is looking for people to raise puppies to be service dogs. They would raise and train the dog from eight weeks to 18 months and then transfer them back to Canine Companions to finish training. The trained dogs are then matched with people who need a service dog. Hearts and Paws Comfort Dogs is also looking for volunteers with dogs to join its team.
Click here to learn more about Canine Companions and Hearts and Paws Comfort Dogs.
Photos by Dennis Theoharidis (Mass. College of Art & Design).
