History of Brigadoon Youth and Service Dog Programs

Brigadoon was founded in August of 2004 by Denise CoStanten. 

Brigadoon's History as recalled by Denise I first thought of training dogs to help people with disabilities back in 1994 after attending a six-week intensive training program to become a professional dog trainer. Ten years would pass before the time was right for me to pursue this endeavor.  This time gave me the experience of working with hundreds of people helping them to train their dogs to have good manners; I also raised several litters of collie pups; I attended every dog behavior seminar I could go to and read every book I could get my hands on. After attending another six-week study program at The Assistance Dog Institute in Santa Rosa, CA; I received my accreditation to train assistance dogs. When I returned home I applied for and received a 501(c)(3) corporation non-profit status. Next,  I closed the doors to my pet dog training business and opened Brigadoon Youth and Service Dog Programs; a facility to train assistance/service dogs to help people with disabilities. But the question was, who did I want to serve and how large of an organization did I want this to become? After 18 months of trial and error, this is what became very clear to me:

  • There was a need to be filled that was not being met by other service dog agencies
  • I wanted to keep it small and personal
  • I wanted to build a lasting relationship with all the people who received a dog from us
  • I wanted to help children of all ages and the at-risk teens in high school by engaging them to learn about people with disabilities and how a well-trained service dog could change their lives.
  • I wanted to develop a program that encouraged at-risk youth to be part of the training and care of the dogs to benefit another human being and in doing so, teaching them skills they take into their own lives of caretaking, dependability, consistency, follow-through, patience, positive motivation, anger management and leadership skills.
  • I wanted to help the people who did not qualify for a dog by other agency's guidelines
  • I wanted to help children with autism (and their families)
  • I wanted to help people based on their specific needs rather than stereotyping disabilities.

The bottomline was that if we could train the dog to fill a need for someone with a disability, we would.

Our accomplishments: In five short years we have thirteen partnership teams, established a youth program in the local high school for at-risk teens; and we have opened our doors to several youth groups such as a camp for autistic children, the Parks and Recreation Youth Camp, Girl Scouts and home-schooled kids. We also participate in helping high school seniors with their culminating projects. We’ve trained dogs for children with seizures, young adults with hearing impairments, visual impairment, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, autistic children, etc. We currently have 7 dogs in training and 9 people on our wait list for an assistance dog.

Our Mission
With the help of the Youth of the community, we train dogs to provide assistance to children and adults with physical and developmental disabilities.
About Us

Brigadoon Youth and Service Dog Programs  -  4759 Mission Road, Bellingham, WA  98226
Non-profit Registration#:  27-0100385
Phone: 360.733.5388  Email: info@brigadoondogs.org

Brigadoon
Youth & Service Dog Programs
"Offering a Helping Paw!"
Changing Lives One Partnership at a Time!