Sunday, October 15, 2017

The Feisty FIZZGIG - Small Service Dog Ambassador in Training


Service Dogs come in all shapes, sizes & breeds.  Sadly there are people, especially with small dogs it seems, that abuse the service dog laws and bring their growling, snappy, barking, sniffing, pottying pet into public and this can create a very bad image of small breed Service Dogs.

FIZZGIG is in training to help remedy that.  I offer Business Education seminars where I go into businesses and help them understand their responsibilities to service teams under the current laws, but also their rights in terms of removing teams that are disingenuous or creating a problem for their business.  Fizzgig's job will be to showcase some of the ways that small dogs can assist their handler.  

She will be trained in a wide variety of tasks ranging from:

  • Hearing Alerts (for phone, doorbell, fire alarms, oven timers)
  • Diabetic Alert & Response Simulation
  • Seizure Alert & Response Simulation
  • Allergen Detection & Response
  • Medication Reminder/Retrieval
  • Item Retrieval (like keys or phone or any dropped item)
  • Wake from Nightmares PTSD Response
  • Anxiety/Self Harm Interruption
  • Autism Stemming Interruption
  • Hallucination Discernment
  • Dementia/Cognitive Dysfunction Finds (find the car, keys, phone)
  • Contact Emergency Services (Canine 911 Phone)
  • Turn on Lights/Room Check
  • Go Get Help
  • Pressure Point Physical Therapy


Training takes 100s of hours and she is obviously just a baby right now, but I have high hopes for her to success.  She is a focused, food motivated, play driven, goofy little whirling dervish at the moment but that is part of her charm.  

If you or someone you know needs more information about service dogs in general or needs help training for any of the type of tasks listed above - feel free to contact me.  

1 comment: