About Us

Founded in 1999, ADH serves a real need in our community by providing more mobility, dignity and companionship to those with disabilities.

Our programs attract both adult volunteers and involve school students as we develop further support from the community.

Many people with physical disabilities live lives of very limited mobility and personal isolation.Those with hearing impairment may feel cut off from the world because they cannot hear the doorbell or telephone ring. They often feel very dependant on family members or other caregivers. Loneliness adds emotional pressure to the disempowerment of depending on others.
Trained assistance dogs are being recognized worldwide as a vital resource to people withdisabilities. Assistance dogs are trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability. They respond to as many as 90 commands to assist a person to open doors, retrieve items, pull a wheelchair, board a public bus, and help with transactions in a retail setting, etc.
In the state of Hawaii there are nearly 227,000 people with disabilities and 27,000 on The Big Island alone, according to the State Commission on Persons with Disabilities. Though an assistance dog is not appropriate for every situation, people who could benefit from an assistance dog may wait from 3 to 5 years. To date, there are very few assistance dogs in service in the state of Hawaii.

Founder

Elena Arnold, founder is a former Grief and Loss Counselor. She is a certified Service Dog Instructor and studied with The Assistance Dog Institute in Santa Rosa, California headed by Dr. Bonnie Bergin, the pioneer in the service dog field.

Elena’s professional background includes: Certification as Service Access Animal Specialist by Delta Society, studies on animal assisted rehabilitation of youth at risk from The Assistance Dog Institute and training at Florida Guide Dogs for the Deaf on hearing dog programs