Protective pooches Service dogs can bring mobility, security and dignity to owners with physical and developmental difficulties
By ROBIN SUMMERFIELD CALGARY HERALD
It's a simple thing really. The unconditional love of a pet for its owner and vice versa. But for 39-yr-old Deborah Lees, having her dog Smokey is more than just a warm, furry pal who loves her no matter what. She gives me the dignity to live my life--it's so true. Smokey was the reason, for a long time, that I got out of bed, said Lees, whose true failed Lumbar Syndrome confines her to a wheelchair 90 per cent of the time. Smokey the pet is also Smokey the service dog.
The six-year-old Norwegian elkhound opens doors, picks up dropped things, opens the fridge, pulls clothes from the dryer and can press the appropriate speed dial button in case of emergency. She is my security. I trust her to protect me. Lees hopes to bring that same sense of well being to other people with physical and developmental difficulties. Through her three-year-old Smokey's Assistance Dogs Foundation, Lees has begun to train 10 service dogs, which she has promised to children and adults in Edmonton and Calgary who have epilepsy, autism, cerebral palsy and mobility issues. At a negative cost to her, Edmontonian Lees raises and trains puppies to become highly specialized service dogs
A trained service dog costs approximately 100,000.00. To make sure the dog fits the owners needs, Lees will specifically teach each dog to handle the unique tasks different people face. What an autistic child needs is different than an adult in a wheelchair. I work with the dog on different things to make sure they're compatible with the owner said Lees. In about a year and a half, four year-old wheelchair-bound Kyle Waeyen will bring home Dewy, his specially trained service dog. More than just having a pair of paws to help Kyle with daily living tasks everybody else takes for granted, having a service dog will be like having an instant best friend, said his mom Susan. He really responds when they're around. He loves to touch them, pet them. You can see the difference in him, she said. His life's challenges, added Susan, sometimes alienate Kyle from others who don't face such difficulties.
For my son, even within our family, I hate to say, he is often segregated, Waeyen said. In late May during the Cerebral Palsy Association open house in Calgary, Kyle and his family met Dewy to make sure the puppy was a good fit for everyone concerned. During the open house Lees brought 10 dogs to visit with association members and their families. I'm just blown away by what I've seen. These dogs will take care of the child, these dogs will protect the children, said Mezaun Evin, member services advisor for the Cerebral Palsy Association of Alberta in Calgary.
Where helping and protecting children who can't always do that for them selves is always the bottom line, said Evin, the dogs provide an even more valuable service to their young charges. It brings a smile to a child's face regardless of the severity of the person. There isn't a toy in the world that could bring out a child like a dog can, said Evin, adding that children with cerebral palsy can benefit tremendously from a service dog. A lot of children with CP are often within themselves. They don't have the ability to reach out on their own. Having a dog gives them the ability to respond.
It gives them back the ability to feel independent, they're in control, and they can leave and go, as they want. They can drop things a hundred times and the dog will pick it up a hundred times, Evin said. Seeing how her dogs touch people's lives makes it all worthwhile for Lees, who has also made it her mission in life to see that owners of service and companion dogs have the same legal rights as seeing eye dog owners. At present, service dogs do not fall under the same laws as Seeing Eye dogs.
This means that owners have no legal right to take their service dogs into public places like they could a seeing eye dog, Lees said she hopes to see that change soon and has begun lobbying government officials to help her cause.
She points to bureaucracy as the main pitfall in her question to see the laws changed. It's a question of passing the buck. The health department says it's not a health issue, the justice department says it's not a human rights issue. Every body's going, It's not my problem. Lees said. Despite her difficulties getting the support she needs, Lees is far from giving up the battle. I'm a little pitbull. I won't let this go. This is too important to way too many people.
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