The Indiana Canine Assistant Network service dogs are making a difference in the lives of people with disabilities, inmates, and students here at Indiana University. 

The Indiana Canine Assistant Network, or ICAN, has a club here at IU that raises awareness and money that goes towards providing service dogs to those who need them. The club also includes a select group of people that are called furloughs. Furloughs volunteers are students who volunteer to be placed with a dog for three weeks at a time to help the dogs get used to an environment outside of prison and practice the commands they have already learned with their handlers.

Sydney May, a sophomore at Indiana University, is a furlough volunteer currently. She was just recently placed with a service dog, Nova, for a three week period. Nova accompanies her to class, in the car, to work and anywhere else she might go. She has previously been a furlough to one other dog, Chef. She plans to continue being a furlough to dogs during her time here at IU.

“I want to see a dog that I work with be able to graduate and help someone else, I very much value being able to help others and give my time to better other people’s lives,” May said.

Susanne Even, a professor at Indiana University, is just one of several people whose life has been touched by the service dogs at ICAN. Even received a service dog from ICAN in 2019 after applying for a mobile assistance service dog in 2017. When she finally received her service dog, Oliver, it completely changed her life for the better. 

“He is a mobility assist dog, so he picks up things for me, he finds the phone, he pulls the laundry to the washing machine, and recently I taught him to grab on a rope so I can actually pull myself up out of bed,” Even said.

  Even was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998, a disease of the central nervous system that debilitates a person’s body. This disease has made simple tasks progressively hard over the years. Not only does Oliver help her physically but also mentally and emotionally too. 

“What I completely underestimated was the emotional impact. Both blown away, my husband and I. We laugh much more, we communicate much more and for me it’s like I fall in love with this dog several times a day and I have done so for the last three years and he just makes me very happy,” Even said.

Oliver has become such an important part of her life. He accompanies her everywhere she goes except for a few places here and there. 

Even says that, “When he is not there it actually doesn’t feel quite right”.

This special bond between Oliver and Even was made possible through ICAN. ICAN has inmate handlers that train the dogs while serving their sentence in prison. Service dogs are currently being trained at three correctional facilities in Indiana, Indianapolis Women’s Prison, Plainfield Correctional Facility and the Correctional Industrial Facility. Inmate handlers spend about 60% of the time with the dog during the two years the dog is in training with ICAN.

Hannah Sauce, the training manager at ICAN, says,“You can imagine that when you have maybe 10, 20, 40 years on a sentence it’s easy to lose hope and it’s easy to feel like your life is wasted, there is nothing left for you, you serve no purpose. So it gives them purpose in a purposeless place.”