TOP DOG has been successful in promoting public understanding of people with disabilities and their service dogs. The program has performed hundreds of educational demonstrations for thousands of children and adults in schools, nursing homes, hospitals, and civic organizations in the greater Tucson area. The volunteer demo teams, usually consisting of a narrator and two TOP DOG teams, illustrate for the audience how a service dog assists its human companion in the everyday activities the able-bodied take for granted. The teams demonstrate how their service dogs help them get dressed, turn lights on and off, bring a telephone to their owners, push or pull wheelchairs, and so on.

For demos in schools, TOP DOG encourages teachers to take advantage of a booklet we have prepared called More Alike than Different. It prepares the students to understand disabilities, recognizing that we are all handicapped in some way. It includes exercises for the class to enjoy before the TOP DOG demonstration.

Mary and Blake, with their TOP DOGs, Sedona and Savannah, talk to a classroom of fascinated youngsters.