Our Mission and Values
At Heeling Assistants, our mission is to empower people with disabilities of all kinds by helping them source and train assistance dogs. We are committed to fostering a deep emotional connection between handlers and their dogs, inspired by the bond-based training methods pioneered by Canine Assistants in Georgia, USA.
Our core values are empathy, dedication, and professionalism. We believe in the transformative power of the human-animal bond and strive to create a compassionate community where every person has the opportunity to experience the independence and joy a service dog brings.
A New Model For Service Dog Training
Heeling Assistants began as a small initiative with a big dream – to make a difference in the lives of individuals with disabilities through the companionship of service dogs. Founded by Carol Millman of Wag The Dog with the help of her wonderful clients, our goal is to provide high-level, professional-quality service dog training to those who wish to raise and train their own service dogs rather than borrow them from a charity.
Why Owner-Training?
- Service dog charities struggle to find puppy raisers to raise and then give up the puppies. Puppies require a secure bond with a parent-figure human in order to develop into mentally healthy adults, so service dog charities must find a willing raiser for each dog they produce. It is a highly rewarding but emotionally taxing role for volunteers.
- Breeding, raising, and training service dogs is extremely expensive. The amount of staff, facilities, and veterinary bills incurred take up the vast majority of donations, and yet they do not necessarily relate to the number of dogs being successfully placed with recipients.
- Success rates at most service dog institutions are usually between 30% and 70%. That means that as many as half the dogs or even more end up being placed as pets, transferred to another service dog charity for a “job change”, or released to homes that support the dogs’ needs.
- Demand far outstrips supply of well raised and well trained dogs. The wait list for professionally raised and trained dogs can be many years long. Many service dog schools are not accepting new additions to their waitlist, especially in Canada where there are only a handful of professional schools.
- This has led to many people trying to train their own dogs. When amateurs try to train their own dogs for service work, they often rely on information from pet dog trainers, sport trainers for activities such as Nosework or IPO, or fellow amateurs on Youtube. This results in inappropriate methods being applied with dubious levels of success.
- The bad reputation of “owner trained” service dogs makes them almost synonymous with “fake” service dogs and “emotional support animals”. And yet, the right dog raised and trained properly can be as good a service dog as one raised by a charitable school.
Our goal is to provide the knowledge and guidance to help owner trainers succeed at their endeavour. This will benefit not only the people themselves, but the dogs, and the general public who will see the quality of “owner trained” service dogs rise to meet those of those bred and raised by charitable schools.