LESSONS OF DISABILITY STRIKE HOME; DOG PROVIDES MAN WITH INDEPENDENCE

With his canine companion, Yoda, by his side, Roger Resinger described Saturday how it makes his "blood boil" when he sees someone who is without a disability using a parking space reserved for the handicapped.

But in the same breath, he admitted he used to do the same, before a gunshot wound sustained in a military accident nine years ago while he was in the Air Force left him partially disabled and confined to a wheelchair.

"You take a lot for granted when you can walk," he said. "I did."

Resinger, 29, now does volunteer work to promote awareness of the needs of disabled people. Saturday, he and Yoda, his nearly 4-year-old Labrador retriever, demonstrated the importance of support dogs for the disabled at the Disability Talent and Resource Fair at West Park Mall.

"The dogs give you more freedom, more maneuverability," he said, explaining that Yoda, his constant companion, assists him by opening and holding doors and pulling his wheelchair.

"He picks up things I drop as small as a dime and gives them back to me," Resinger said. "He's my third arm."

Resinger, a native of Southeast Missouri who now lives in Festus, obtained Yoda through Support Dogs for the Handicapped Inc., a St. Louis-based organization that breeds and trains support dogs.

The group relies on donations from individuals, businesses and civic organizations to help pay for the cost of training the dogs. Each one costs from $8,000 to $10,000.

The dogs are provided free of charge to disabled people, hundreds of whom are still waiting to acquire the specially trained dogs.

"It's almost like a marriage," said Chris Casalone, a "foster-puppy parent" from St. Louis who assisted with the demonstrations Saturday.

"We match the temperament and the personalities of the dogs and their owners," she said. "They end up making a very special team."

Puppies for the breeding program are raised in foster homes where volunteers provide daily care and attend weekly training classes in basic obedience.

At 18 months, the dog then enters a training facility to begin intense training. Recipients of the dogs are screened and interviewed, and then the dog and prospective master enter a team training program. In all, it takes about two and a half years of training to prepare the dogs.

Resinger said that although it took close to five years to get Yoda, the independence he gained was well worth the wait.

"He makes me feel more secure," Resinger said. "I don't have to worry now about opening heavy doors. I don't have to put off buying something because I won't be able to push my wheelchair and carry it at the same time," he said.

Despite laws that guarantee handicapped access to public places, Resinger said he has experienced discrimination. Once while in a restaurant, he was asked to leave the dog outside.

"The public was blind to the needs of handicapped people for a long time," he said. "People are just now starting to open their eyes."

Resinger said handicapped ramps, automatic doors and even reserved parking spaces were not in abundance until recent years. And in many smaller towns, they still aren't, he said.

"What makes me mad is if I want to go to a nice restaurant, and when I get there they don't have a ramp," he said. "I have to go somewhere else."

Casalone said the dogs make it easier for disabled people to get around in a world that is still not adequately equipped for the disabled.

"Since World War I there have been people in wheelchairs," she said. "It's taken this long to make it easier for them."