CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Monsters have a new addition to the rosters.

It’s a four-legged labrador retriever puppy named Reggie. Pam Frasco, the VP of Social Impact and Equity for the Cavs, said he’s just like the other employees.

What You Need To Know

  • The Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Monsters now have a service dog in training

  • The four-month-old labroador retriever puppy named Reggie will be with the organizations for about 18 months then will head off to help a veteran or first responder with a disability 

  • This is in partnership with the nonprofit organization America's Vet Dogs

“He comes in the employee entrance, he badges in, he, you know, really just sits in all meetings,” Frasco said.

Reggie is a service dog in training for America’s Vet Dogs, which is a nonprofit organization.

“America’s Vet Dogs reached out to us probably about 10 months ago to talk to us about their program," Frasco said. "They have several dogs throughout professional sports and how impactful these dogs can be and how important it is to get them socialized in an awesome setting, like an arena."

Reggie will be with the Cavs for about 18 months, and he comes into the office about once a week and attends different games and events. Then, Reggie will head to a training that is specified for a certain veteran or first responder with a disability. Allison Storck with American’s Vet Dogs explained that it could be an amputee who needs mobility assistance, someone who needs help with their PTSD and more.

“Reggie’s mission with the Cavaliers right now is really teaching basic house manners as well as crate training but, most importantly, socialization, and I can’t think of a better spot than to be working with the Cleveland Cavaliers being raised in an arena and able to really socialize with various sights sounds and smells that an arena can offer,” Storck said.

Storck said the partnership with the Cavs is invaluable.

“For a nonprofit to be able to work with teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have such an incredible platform and military focus, to really just create awareness about our organization, talk about the benefits of service dogs for folks that have disabilities and generate an obviously incredible awareness about the organization to garner more volunteers and more support,” she said.

The Cavs are the first NBA team to have a service dog in training, and it’s something that they do to help offset the cost of raising, training and placing Reggie.

“To be able to literally be a part of something that’s going to change somebody’s life,” Frasco said.