We have the first pick for our new Dog Of The Week feature, and I don’t think the winner will come as any surprise. It’s no other than…drumroll please…Sam, the 2009 Community Service Pet Hero.

I posted Sam and Brittney’s story on Monday and if you haven’t read it yet take a minute to do so, they are an amazing duo.

Sam is a very special dog. I am currently [and will be until May of 2010] training him to become a Certified Service Dog, AND Arizona’s first Courthouse Dog. His job will be to sit up in the witness stand with victims, mainly children, who have been terribly abused and traumatized, and will be a comfort to them and can help them to testify.

There are only four or five other Courthouse Dogs in the US, and out of those, Sam will be one of the first that is actually a Service Dog. The others are only Therapy Dogs, and do not have public access…which means they can be, and often are, removed from the courtroom.

All of Sam’s training is being done through The Foundation for Service Dog Support. He truly is special, though, because the rest of the dogs in the program are being trained to become service dogs for individuals with a physical disability, but because of Sam’s phenomenal temperament and personality, he was chosen for this very honorable position.

-Brittney-

Sam was chosen as the winner of the 2009 Community Pet Service Hero award for his work assisting crime victims in the courthouse. He is truly a one-of-a-kind dog, I think you can see why he is the blog’s first Dog Of The Week. We are honored he, along with Brittney, are Dogster members.