Cuba Education Tour's New Website: A Diary of an American Service Dog in Cuba

Blaine, Washington (Vocus/PRWEB) April 18, 2011

This new website offers the first-ever the story of an American service dog visiting Cuba. It is told by his traveling companion Davis Hawn. Mr. Hawn, a grad student at Bergin University of Canine Studies, and his service dog Booster, joined a Cuba Education Tour in March 2011. They remained on the island for an extra three weeks to conduct research, meet the people and make new friends.

Please see Cuba Education Tours page for complete article. In the meantime we share these excerpts:

We just returned from an amazing month in Cuba. My traveling companion was Booster, a 100-pound Labrador retriever service dog.

Booster went to Cuba with me as part of my Bergin University Master’s degree program in Canine Life Sciences. My thesis is titled Project Fidelity. Its focus is to introduce Cubans to the value of assistance and therapy dogs (which are uncommon in Cuba).

As a result of the success of our Cuba journey, I have established a scholarship fund for a Cuban citizen to come to the U.S. to learn to train dogs in these skills.

While in Cuba, I adopted a homeless Havana dog. His passport name is Fidelity. He’s in the process of immigrating to the States now, and will be trained in Mississippi to become a therapy dog. Fidelity is missing half his tail, and has a lame rear leg. But he has a heart of gold to match the color of his coat. He’ll excel, I am certain.

Many cautioned me prior to travel about the difficulties of bringing a dog to Cuba (let alone bringing a Cuban dog back to the States). I was not thwarted. There were tons of obstacles, yet all were overcome with the help of Canadians, Cubans and Bahamians. Booster and I arrived on the island without complications. Indeed we were greeted with interest and respect a warm welcome indeed.

In Havana, we met with the President of the Cuban Association for the Blind (ANCI) to discuss my project. Seeing eye dogs don’t really exist in Cuba and are a new concept. I also met with the President of the Asociaci