Part of the Magic

Students team up with 4 Paws for Ability to Train Life Changing Service Dogs

by Leigh Hall ’13

It was only the third day of on-site training, and Zumba sat next to 10-year-old Max Switala.

“All of the sudden, Zumba snapped to attention, got up and started walking around Max, tracking a scent in the room full of other dogs and their families,” says Max’s father, Kevin. “She came back to Max and started licking his hands and ears.”

“Four hours later, almost to the minute, Max had a seizure.”

When the same thing happened again the next day, the frightening problem the Switalas had been unable to manage with uncounted doctors became manageable with the help of one gentle dog.

“We knew right away – she was completely zoned in on Max,” Switala said. “I understand the science behind it, but the only word I can use to describe it is ‘magic.’”

Since 2009, Wittenberg students have helped that magic happen. Through a groundbreaking co-curricular opportunity with Xenia-based 4 Paws for Ability, students prepare puppies for their life-changing work as service dogs. Students have helped socialize nearly 120 dogs on campus, 53 of which have been placed with a family and actively work as service dogs in 24 states from Alaska to Florida. One dog works in Canada.

A year ago, the Switalas were living in constant worry that Max might have a seizure while swimming in a pool, riding a bike or eating – making such common childhood activities potentially life-threatening.

After years of searching for a solution in traditional medicine, therapy, changes to the physical structure of their home and different schools, the Switalas still struggled to find a way to help Max with his ADHD that manifested itself as anxiety, Tourette’s syndrome and a seizure disorder.

Born in China with a cleft lip and palate, Max was adopted along with his sister, Eva, when they were toddlers.

“Ninety-five percent of his challenge has been his cognitive delays – the social and emotional delays – that come from lack of nutrition early on and lack of stimulation in the orphanage,” Switala says. “Those, along with a seizure disorder that emerged about two or three years ago present Max with some real life challenges.”

They have presented challenges for his parents, too.

“We just never knew when Max would have a seizure or an anxiety attack,”Switala says. “There was no way to be prepared or to positively intervene. As a parent, that’s what’s so concerning. It’s always in the back of your mind and you never get a break from that.”

“So we were seeking innovative, outside-the-box methods to help him get over the hump, to give him some protection, and to give us an early warning system for his seizure disorder and anxiety in particular.”

Then a family friend saw Pip, a wide-eyed Papillion fostered at Wittenberg, on the front page of the March 9-11 edition of USA Weekend in 2012, and shared the article about service dogs and 4 Paws for Ability with Max’s mom, Katie.

A Ph.D. in civil engineering, she started researching as a true scientist and concerned mother would.

“What she kept finding was that 4 Paws was the only place we could find that was willing to place a service dog in our household with Max, who was underage and has these emotional outbursts. It’s a really unique situation,” Switala recalls. “To me, that’s the blessing of 4 Paws: their ability and willingness to place service dogs in the exact kind of challenging environments in which they are needed the most.”

To better serve the needs of thousands of families across the country, 4 Paws has allowed families to foster a puppy after it has gone through obedience training. Families socialize the dogs, giving them the opportunity to experience daily life out in public before beginning specialized training for the families they’ll serve.

Committed to providing co-curricular opportunities that allow students to develop compassion and explore service to the world, Wittenberg proposed a campus foster program, a 4 Paws first.

“Wittenberg asked how students could help, and we decided to expand the traditional foster program so that students could be included,” explains 4 Paws Trainer Jessa Kensworthy, who coordinates the college campus foster programs. “Wittenberg was the founding college for our campus program, with just three dogs the first year, and we’re so grateful that more and more students are interested and that the program continues to grow every year. For the dogs, being comfortable and confident in public – wherever they go and whoever they meet – is vital for their success.”

“The program at Wittenberg and other schools that partner with 4 Paws is absolutely instrumental because Zumba, in public environments like the grocery store, Sunday school and church, is so well-acclimated,” Switala says.

Zumba stays with Max wherever he goes, even riding in a crate next to Max’s seat on the school bus, staying with him in class in a room with other children who have special needs, and shadowing him in the yard when he plays after school.

“We’re an active family, and Max is very outgoing, energetic – very exuberant and emotional. When he’s playing, it’s always an adventure game, and Zumba is alongside him the entire time,” Switala says.

“She’s been our lifeline,” he praises Zumba, who has correctly alerted the family to every seizure Max has had since she joined the family in September 2014. “And when she works, she can’t be distracted by what’s going on around her, and it is really interesting to see. Because of that socialization, she is able to screen out the subway train coming onto the platform or not be disturbed by a truck going down the street.”

Since Zumba joined Max and his family, their lives have changed for the better.

“We were always worried. But that was all pre-Zumba – ‘P.Z.’ as we like to call it,” Switala says. “The entire anxiety of the household has decreased dramatically. We’re back to appreciating family time together,” knowing that Zumba is always focused on Max.

“The only reason she can do that is because of her socialization training.”

The students who foster 4 Paws dogs on campus find that the experience helps them focus as well.

“It really made my college experience what it was,” says Emily Goodman, who fostered Zumba with co-trainers Sarah Funderburg and Lorena McConnel, all class of 2014. Now a Children’s Services social worker, Goodman says the foster experience “helped me to decide that I wanted to work with kids every day and to at least try to help improve one thing in their lives.”

The three co-trainers fostered six service dogs total, five of which are serving families of children with special needs, doing seizure detection, diabetic alert, search-and-rescue tracking and behavioral distraction.

“This program changed my life from the moment we got our first dog, and it gave me a new perspective on families with children who have special needs,” says Funderburg, who plans to practice as a pediatric physical therapist. “It’s such a humbling experience to be able to help families by working with the dog that changes their lives.”

Back to top