Circle Tail, Inc.

A DOG’S LIFE at CIRCLE TAIL

Top dogs have lived in Pleasant Plain, Ohio, near Cincinnati, for two decades.Poetry Girl - Assistance Dog

Twenty years ago, Marlys Staley, founder and executive director of Circle Tail, made a home for herself and established the non-profit organization for assistance dogs in the small, rural community.

Labradors, Golden Retrievers, Standard Poodles, mixed breeds and rescues are all service dogs-in-training at Circle Tail. Circle Tail’s mission is to train high-quality service and hearing dogs to help people with disabilities, such as mobility or hearing impairments and Type I diabetes, at no charge to the individual within a 90-mile radius of Circle Tail in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

The volunteer-based organization has relied on inmates in two of Ohio’s women’s prisons to begin basic obedience training of the young pups and dogs. Foster families continue the dogs’ training and socializing in residential settings with children and other dogs and cats. Dogs learn to mind their manners in public settings like of retail stores, libraries, churches, movie theatres and restaurants.

Staley appeals to local residents to serve as fosters to care for dogs in training. Food and medical care of the dogs is provided. Volunteers also assist in the kennel with exercising and training the dogs at the Circle Tail Training Center.

Circle Tail offers basic and intermediate dog training classes, as well as nosework classes to the community.

“Nosework classes are new and help the dogs detect when blood sugar drops in a person with Type I diabetes,” said Staley. “Many local residents have adopted and loved Circle Tail dogs over the years,” she added. Visit www.circletail.org.

N.J. Jones, author of POETRY GIRL, has worked with Circle Tail service dogs since March of 2016 and is still in-training with Clem, a Circle Tail assistance dog. By partnering Circle Tail dogs with people who want to maintain independence, peoples’ lives are changed for the better,” Jones said.

 

Copyright 2017 by N.J. Jones