Those with disabilities can get their very own assistant dog, which can open doors, get their car keys or even pull a wheelchair and are being raised and trained in the Olds and Sundre area.
Pacific Assistance Dogs Society (PADS) operates in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, with their main training campus in Burnaby, B.C.
“We raise and train assistance dogs so they can be placed with people with disabilities,” said Wendy Proudlock, a coordinator for PADS.
“The client is using the dog to do everything they need to do in the world.”
PADS specializes in breeding, raising, training and supporting service dogs, hearing dogs and intervention dogs.
Service dogs interact with physical objects, hearing dogs are trained to alert their partner to a variety of noises and intervention dogs are used to help diffuse emotional situations or provide comfort.
Puppies begin their training early in life, with an emphasis placed on basic obedience training.
“They live with some of our families that welcome our puppies,” said Heather Kidd, a dog trainer who lives on the west side of Sundre.
Cheryl Verhesen is a registered nurse in Olds who has already raised one dog for PADS and is currently raising a second dog named Pan.
“The main thing that's really stressed in the first couple of years is socialization,” Verhesen said.
“Basically, you try to expose them to as many situations as possible.”
Pan is never left alone, often taken to work by Verhesen's husband, Peter.
The goal of this training is getting the dog to only focus on their human partner, unlike seeing-eye dogs, who are trained to focus on the environment instead.
Pan is the only assistance dog currently being raised in Olds.
“We're open to the idea of raising more in the area,” Kidd said.
After their basic training is complete, the dogs are then sent to PADS' main campus in Burnaby to determine what kind of assistance dog they will be.
“We don't know what they'll be really, really good at till their advance training,” Proudlock said.
Service dogs and hearing dogs have full public access, meaning they can enter areas that dogs are normally not allowed in, such as restaurants.
However, businesses often refuse assistance dogs entry, not knowing they are a necessity for their human partners.
“There's a lot of PR in puppy raising, and we're trying to educate the public,” Proudlock said.
She also said that casual passersby should avoid petting assistance dogs without the permission of the human partner, for it could distract the dog from doing its job and potentially put the human partner at risk.
PADS assistance dogs all wear vests and have B.C. tags.
But because assistance dog vests can easily be purchased on the Internet, amateur trainers can pass off their dog as the real deal, which makes it difficult for PADS.
PADS is over 90 per cent volunteer driven, and it costs them $30,000 to raise, breed and train one dog.
“It's a great organization,” Cheryl Verhesen said.
“We're always looking for raisers or volunteers to puppy sit.”
