ASSISTANCE ANIMALS
Thanks for enquiring about one of our dogs to assistant you in your day to day lives. There are many ways a dog can assist
it's human. In order to best meet your needs you need to recognize what your needs are so we know what the dogs job will be.
It is very helpful if you have a proper medical diagnosis of your condition so we know how you will be best helped with an
assistance dog. It is of no help to you if we place the wrong dog with you who is not suited to meet your needs.
Below are a detailed list of types of assistance dogs and their roles in the lives of their handlers.
Please talk to your medical professional and decide which type of assistance dog best meets your needs.
Please note that if you are seeking out an assistance animal you are looking for a tool, not a pet. Colour and markings do not
matter and will not be taken into consideration, in fact due to the nature of people to be drawn to merles we are much more
likely to seek out a very plain black tri puppy or a plain red tri puppy before looking at any of the merles. We may even be
inclined to purposely breed an all tri coloured litter to work with to eliminate the merle colour completely. So if you think that
you can get priority to get a special colour by telling me you need an assistance animal think again. I take all of my assistance
dogs placements very seriously.
Emotional Support Dog:
An emotional support dog (ESD) is a companion animal (pet) that a medical professional says provides some benefit for a person
disabled by a mental health condition or emotional disorder.
People who qualify for emotional support animals have verifiable psychological disabilities that substantially interfere with major life
activities, such as anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, or panic attacks.
An emotional support dog differs from a service animal. Service animals are trained to perform specific tasks such as helping a blind
person walk, while emotional support animals receive no specific training beyond socialization and basic training.
When it comes to mental illness, whether or not the animal is a “service dog” vs. an Emotional Support dog would hinge on whether
the dog is formally trained to do something specific to mitigate the mental illness.
Most Common Reasons Listed For Emotional Support Dog Needs.
Emotional Support dogs from us DO NOT get priority over pets because they are not typically trained in any formal capacity.
If you have a medical diagnosis and a professional trainer lined up and you can prove that to us, we will move you to a higher
priority spot on the waiting list and match you up as we are able.
Stress Related, Adjustment Disorders, Generalized anxiety disorder, Social anxiety disorder, Phobias, Panic disorder,
Post-traumatic stress disorder, Separation anxiety, Dissociative Disorders, Factitious Disorders. Eating Disorders,
Impulse-Control Disorders, Mental Disorders, Neurocognitive Disorders, Mood Disorders, Neurodevelopmental Disorders,
Personality Disorders, Psychotic Disorders, Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders, Sleep Disorders, Somatoform Disorders,
Substance Related Disorders, Suicidal Thoughts.
Medical Alert Dogs:
A medical alert dogs job is to alert their handler to dangerous physiological changes such as blood pressure, hormone levels or
another verifiable, measurable bodily symptom.
Common types of medical alert dogs would be Diabetic Alert, seizure alert, high or low blood pressure etc
Medical Alert Dogs’ jobs and functions can vary widely. The dog may retrieve medication, utilize deep pressure stimulation to end
a seizure early, fetch a nearby person to help or call 911 or any other trained task designed to assist the owner in medical distress.
Hearing Ear Dogs:
A hearing ear dog's job is to alert their Deaf handler to specifically trained environmental sounds, including, but not limited to, alarms,
doorbells, knocking, phones, cars or their name.
Hearing Ear Dogs can be trained to respond to any environmental sound or cue their handler needs to know about. Just because you
can’t see what a Hearing Dog is responding to does not mean he’s not working.
Physical Assistance Dog:
A physical assistance dog is a service dog trained to assist a person who has mobility issues, which may include being
wheelchair-dependent. Among other tasks such as “providing balance and stability” and “pulling wheelchairs or carrying and picking up
things for persons with mobility impairments”, a mobility assistance dog can be trained to open and close doors, and operate light
switches, and can “have a major positive impact on the lives of recipients”
Brace/Mobility Support Dogs:
A Brace/Mobility Support Dog works to provide bracing or counterbalancing to a partner who has balance issues due to an
injury or birth defect.
Severe Allergy Alert Dogs:
A severe allergy alert dog's job is to alert their handler to life-threatening allergens that may be in the area, especially tree nuts,
gluten or shellfish. Often allergens are hidden and can not be seen until it is too late.
These dogs are often partnered with children, but can be seen partnered with any person with a life-threatening allergy.
Most Allergen Alert Dogs carry medical information and emergency protocol in their vest or on a USB key attached to their collar.
Autism Assistance Dogs
An Autism Assistance dog's job is to assist in calming and grounding an individual on the autism spectrum via tactile or deep
pressure stimulation. May also assist in teaching life skills, maintaining boundaries or finding/accompanying a “runner.”
Wheelchair Assistance Dogs
A wheelchair assistance dogs job is to assist their partner by retrieving dropped objects, opening doors, retrieving the phone,
helping with transfers or anything else their partner may need.
Visual Assistance Dogs
A visual assistance dog's job is to guide their partially visually impaired handler. They are their handlers eyes warning
of dangerous situations, curbs, walls etc. A handler does not need to be completely blind, they may be near sighted,
far sighted, colour blind etc
While there may be other services a dog is needed for these tend to be the most common ones we see.
You need to be clearly aware of what your needs are so that we can match you up appropriately.
Please note, these dogs are tools for a serious and legitimate medical condition, they are not fashion statements.
We will NOT take requests for colour or markings if it has no bearing on the medical issue we are working with because
that is not important in helping you medically. In some situations we will take gender into consideration because we realize
each gender has strengths and weaknesses and one may be better suited to an individual situation
If you still wish to purchase an Assistance Dog from us, please contact us for an appropriate application.
We will ask where you plan to have your dog trained, you see an actual medical service dog needs training to do that type of work and chances are you are not qualified to do the training yourself. So you need to have an animal behaviour specialist working with you who is able to help you train the dog for the tasks needed and we will require contact with that trainer before the sale happens to work with the trainer to find the best puppy for their training style. Again we take the placement of service dogs incredibly seriously and we are happy to work with you if you truly need one for medical reasons but we also do not want to place one with you and have you ill equipped to train it and have it fail at it's job. So we need to work together to make this happen.
Any questions reach out any time.
