Service Dogs in Alberta

[pattymac]

There really needs to be more awareness for Service Dogs here. There's a gentleman in Medicine Hat here who has a service dog in training. Unfortunately in Alberta you can't train a dog yourself and it has to be trained by a certified trainer and the nearest one who will train your dog is in Manitoba. This guy needs a seizure alert dog, which the dog does pretty well naturally without training. Of course the places I checked on line that train, you have to use one of their dogs, it doesn't count if you have your own dog already. He's been having more than his fair share of issues. He's trying to raise money for the rest of his dog's training and he went to a local business to get some shirts etc done up re service dogs. The owners had their dog running around in their shop and it went after his dog. His dog was muzzled, leashed and tethered to him, in case he has a seizure and can't hold the leash. The shop owners couldn't call their dog off his and then had the balls to call by-law and complain about his dog! Like Holy C$%p! Fortunately, by-law called him and said they wouldn't be pressing charges against him! It's like oh that's sweet of you! Crazy!

[Longblades]

Holy C$%p! indeed. What a sad story. I hope his dog is all right?

[pattymac]

His dog is fine fortunately. She's an awesome dog, from what I've seen in his videos. German Shepherd, she's only 8 months old and is already alerting him to his seizures. It's quite amazing to watch, he managed to tape a seizure and she gets very mouthy with him, not biting but just trying to hold him. She's always watching him.

[pattymac]

I posted one of his videos on the pets FB page. It's quite amazing.