JUD (AP) - A $1 million gift to the Great Plains Assistance Dogs Foundation is being welcomed by officials who have been wrestling with tight budgets.

Mike Goehring, the foundation's executive director, said the money comes from the estate of Dorothy Rich of Vancouver, Wash., who died late last year of complications of Alzheimer's disease.

"We've already received the first distribution of $800,000 and expect the remainder after the estate pays its taxes in early 2007," Goehring said.

The assistance dog foundation has a budget of nearly $275,000 per year. Normal fundraising covers about $220,000, leaving the foundation scrambling for about $50,000, Goehring said. Great Plains Assistance Dogs employs five people full time and two part time.

"Last year was the first in seven where donations slid downward," Goehring said. "Hurricane Katrina drew a lot of money away from us."

Goehring said the foundation's board is discussing how to use the Washington woman's gift.

"At least a half million will go into an endowment fund with only the interest and dividends to be used for operating budgets in the future," Goehring said. "We also need to put some debt to rest and make some needed repairs."

One of the changes is needed for people who receive dogs from Great Plains.

"We need to switch out all the fluorescent lights to incandescent," Goehring said. "Fluorescent lights can trigger seizures in some of the people who are here to learn to work with their dogs."

Great Plains Assistance Dogs graduates eight or 12 dogs on alternating years, Goehring said.

"The year after we graduate 12 dogs, we have a lot of follow-up training to do with the people and dogs," he said. "We currently have 22 dogs in training at all levels."

Goehring said dogs are being trained to respond to such medical emergencies as seizures suffered by their handlers.

"For Emergency Medical Response Dogs we look for an animal with good common sense," he said. "During a seizure event in public, the dog is on his own. It is the only place where the dog has an unconscious handler."

Great Plains also trains dogs to perform other duties for people with disabilities.

"We train service dogs for people in wheelchairs and mobility assistance dogs to help people move around on their own instead of ending up in a wheel chair," Goehring said.

"We would like to work with dogs for people with autism, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in the future," he said. "One of our long-term goals is to be the lead in training dogs for other handicaps."

Goehring said Rich contacted the foundation by e-mail in 1999 and asked questions about it.

"She also toured the facility in 2002 or 2003 and must have liked what she saw," he said. "We also kept her on our e-mail list and stayed in touch with her."

Nearly $5 million of her estate went to a dozen assistance dog programs around the United States.

"Most of the programs she left money provide service dogs to children as well as adults," Goehring said.

Sandy Sherlock, of Drake, recently turned to Great Plains Assistance Dogs to stay independent.

"I have multiple sclerosis. One of the MS journals had an article about service dogs," she said. "When I went to the Web for more information, I found a link to here. I never imagined that this kind of work was being done in North Dakota."

Sherlock said that she finished her training with Eddie, her new assistance dog, this week.