Iyal and Chancer

By |2019-02-23T01:52:05+00:00February 22nd, 2019|Service Dog Stories|

Meet Iyal, who is now in his 20’s and attending classes at a college​. ​Quite an accomplishment considering what he faced as a child. At a young age it became clear that Iyal’s development was drastically behind his sister’s. Iyal was overwhelmed by the smallest tasks. Unable to focus, challenged by bizarre behaviors, Iyal’s hyperactive mind and constant need for attention could not easily be quelled. At the age of four, a diagnosis is given: fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a life-long disability. Though the diagnosis offers a name, the treatment is difficult to define and interventions fail year after year. Iyal’s internal struggle and ​explosive rages create a heightened state of alert for all in the home. In 2009, desperate to alleviate ​Iyal’s anguish and ​the crushing toll on the family, his mom Donnie, comes up with an innovative, untested, four-pawed solution: a golden retriever service dog named Chancer. Chancer is specially trained to give Iyal a unique love he desperately needs. Chancer was trained to do many of the same tasks as an Autism Assistance Dog including: calming sensory overload, soothing emotional dysregulation and using behavior disruption to keep Iyal safe. Quinn, Chancer’s successor, is also an FASD Assistance Dog. It took eight paws over ten years and fur-covered love to bring Iyal to live on a college campus. His mom, Donnie, wrote a memoir that takes you on an emotional, humorous and inspiring journey that you won’t soon forget. We highly recommend CHANCER – How One Good Boy Saved Another. To order the book you can you can CLICK HERE.

ART n OLLIE

By |2018-08-09T02:20:36+00:00August 9th, 2018|Service Dog Stories|

Meet Ollie my golden retriever who has been my Service Dog partner since 2016. In 1993, I had a brain stem stroke as the result of a chiropractic adjustment. I'm a full-time wheelchair user and my speech is impaired. I have let-sided weakness so he retrieves almost everything from my left side and many things from my right. He's become very good at retrieving papers, books, and my phone which I'm dropping all the time. I teach Peace Studies and Political Science at a University. Ollie accompanies me in recreational and professional activities including travel.

ADAM n ROCKY

By |2018-08-05T18:19:30+00:00August 5th, 2018|Service Dog Stories|

I got sick a few years ago. So sick, I thought maybe pneumonia? I was so hot, I took an ice bath, my dog Rocky, kept nuzzling me in the side and licking me on my side. He wouldn't leave me alone. After I crawled into bed he pulled his bed from the foot around to my side and sat up all night. All night long he would nuzzle me and lick my side waking me every 5-10 minutes. The morning was very foggy to me, I only remember parts and pieces. When I woke up my wife said I had been on life support and in a comma for two and a half weeks. I had a couple of blood infections and Sepsis, and acute renal failure. Rocky knew my liver and kidneys were shutting down. As I was released, having known what Rocky had done, my doctors prescribed Rocky for me to tell me if I get sick or injured.  We then began the arduous and expensive process of training him. Rocky is our Hero and saved me three weeks after we saved him. It is very rare to find a dog with natural abilities like his. Often enough, we go out and " pets in vests" act out , scare me and put us as a team at risk. I have finally found my voice and begun to tell everyone, owners, fake handlers and businesses about the risks involved by having untrained and unaware pet owners in public! I have an extremely rare animal and couldn't imagine the risks associated with not having him because of a pet injuring him. #ihaveaservicedog

MONICA

By |2018-08-04T00:14:01+00:00April 16th, 2015|Service Dog Stories, Stories TEST|

Hi, my name is Monica and I have a service animal.  Her name is Sky.  We were denied entrance into a Chinese restaurant.  I had been working with Sky for several months before she came to live with me.  I was feeling pretty confident as a team when we went to the restaurant.  I knew that she was able to sit quietly under a table and that she wouldn’t even be noticed by many of the other people in the restaurant. We entered the restaurant with a group of my co-workers and Sky, who at this point, had been living w/ me for a week.  We were still getting to know each other but she is a great service animal and has been very well trained.    We all walked to the front desk to be seated and the girl told me that I couldn’t have a dog in here.  I tried to explain that she wasn’t a dog, but that she was a SERVICE ANIMAL and that we had rights.  There were several of my co-workers who tried to explain it to her too and several other people in the restaurant that told her that she couldn’t refuse us service.   I didn’t want to make a big scene because we had only been living together for a week and I didn’t want to “upset” her.   I did ask if I could speak to the manager and she went and got her manager who said the same thing – NO DOG in here and we went through the whole thing again – Sky is not just a dog – she is a service animal and under the law she couldn’t be refused service.  At this point, [...]

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