Service dogs are riding Edmonton Transit buses to provide better help for their owners.
Aspen Service Dogs (ASD) is a provincially-certified service dog training organization which connects people with disabilities with a service dog.
By riding the bus, the dogs-in-training will learn the sights and sounds of the ride to help their human in any situation.
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“We want them to be very confident dogs … Our goal is to bring our dog to different situations, a different environment, (to) work with their forever partners,” said Maria Illes, the director of training for ASD on Tuesday.
“As they go, they (become) very accustomed to any situation,” she said.
Illes said real scenarios are important to a service dog’s training, just like when ASD brought their pups to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra rehearsal in February.
“It’s important our dogs are not scared of that, and if you find out they are, then we have to figure out how we can fix this and make them be comfortable,” she added.
University student Natalia Jimenez was diagnosed with dysautonomia, a condition which causes her to faint at times. Her service dog Winifred – or Winnie for short – alerts her when she’s about to pass out and provides ‘deep pressure therapy’ to help relieve her chronic pain.
Exposing Winnie to the bus is as important to Jimenez as it is to her four-legged companion.
“She’s been learning a lot, and it’s been helping (me) manage my medical conditions,” said Jimenez. “I need to be able to access the world.”
Ania Telfer with ASD was training a service dog named Chewy for her son on Tuesday.
She also happens to be on her way to be a provincially registered psychologist. She said her research on service dogs shed light on the “amazing influence and effect they have” on their companions.
“There’s so much healing potential in all areas, ranging from post traumatic stress to physical ailments to ADHD, to mental health, increasing executive function, emotional regulation, cognitive capacity (and) behavior regulation” Telfer said.
“Even to have them in a classroom with children, it makes a huge difference.”,
ASD begins training their pups when they are aged six to eight weeks and lasts until the dogs are two years old.
The organization typically keeps around 20 dogs in their training program.
More information on ASD can be found online.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg
