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Community Cares: Arizona Coyotes adopts new service dog
PHOENIX - The Arizona Coyotes Hockey Club has teamed up with the National Assistance Dogs Inc. (NADI) to adopt a service dog.
Bravery the Golden Retriever will call the Coyotes family his own, all while helping to raise awareness for the nonprofit and the work it does to provide physical and mental assistance to anyone in need, especially veterans.
The three-year-old retriever is the newest addition to the pack, with his owner, Taylor Campbell, working for the team.
"I think it's great that we can show the community that it's physical and mental [health] that these dogs can help us with," Campbell said.
Bravery's main job will be to raise awareness about NADI.
"These dogs bring independence, they bring another soul into your life that is always going to be respectful to you," said a representative with NADI. "Instead of asking someone constantly to pick up your dropped pen or get you your shirt, your dog will do it and they're going to love doing it."
The service pup trained for three years.
"Everything from 'sit down,' 'stay,' and then...his final phase training was more of the mobility, the PTSD work, so we train all of our dogs with all of those skills," explained the NADI spokesperson.
His skills are already being put to great use in the office and among fans, who he eagerly awaits for and greets during games.
"Bravery is such a sweet fun personality," his owner said. "He can be calm and there for you to pet him, and he can be hyper - play tug of war and run around."
Bravery will also make special appearances during community service projects, assist the foundation with hospital and school visits and much more. Fans can follow Bravery’s story on the Arizona Coyotes Foundation’s social media pages on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
A few years ago, the hockey team also helped train Luna, a service dog that was placed with a veteran. It just so happens that Bravery graduated in the same class as Luna to become an official NADI service dog!
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