March 20, 2018

Her name is no more known now than before bringing the dog to school, but now *Hanna Lovejoy has a moniker that everyone knows. For as much help as *Maggie brings Lovejoy, she brings a good amount of attention too.

“People aren’t exactly used to seeing a dog in the halls, so I get it…It has gotten better, but when she first started coming to school in the middle of first semester, I couldn’t go a day without someone saying ‘Oh look, it’s a little dog!’ or ‘Aw that is so cute.’”

Maggie is a one and a half year old Miniature Australian Shepherd and Toy Australian Shepherd cross. She comes to school with Lovejoy to help her with her health problems that impact her daily life. If she did not have Maggie, she would not be able to safely make it through the school day, Lovejoy says.

Under the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, in order to qualify for a service dog, an individual must have a disability that impedes their ability to successfully and comfortably participate in everyday life. The dog must be able to perform at least one task that specifically aids their handler in their life. Emotional support alone is not a task. Maggie helps Lovejoy stay safe by performing many tasks and alerts.

Lovejoy has been ‘owner-training’ Maggie, which is perfectly legal. Service dogs need to be well trained, but it is not required that they be trained by an organization or professional trainer. Through her journey, Lovejoy has met many amazing people and dogs that have helped her on her journey of training her first service dog. One of these people is Jennifer Guynup, a young woman who owns her own training business, as well as has her own service dog. She was able to offer Lovejoy knowledge about what dogs are able to do for people.

“Some service dogs are trained to alert to medical emergencies like increased heart rate, blood glucose, allergies, etc. These dogs go through a detailed scent training process learning to use their nose to pick up on certain smells to be able to alert/warn their handler…One task I find many service dogs enjoy performing is receiving items! This task can be picking up dropped items to getting their handler a water from the fridge.”

Maggie has been hard at work since she was a young dog. According to Lovejoy, it took Maggie about a year to be trained enough to come to school, but it takes most service dogs between a year and a half and three years to become fully trained.

Lovejoy plans to take Maggie to college. Unfortunately, Lovejoy’s need for mobility support is growing, so Maggie likely won’t work until she’s ready to retire. The ultimate hope is that medications and technology will allow Lovejoy to independently live and she will not need the assistance of an animal. However, unless things change relatively soon, Lovejoy intends on getting a larger breed such as a German Shepherd or Standard Poodle as a new service dog, so that the dog can help guide, provide brace support when standing up, and perform counterbalance takes. Lovejoy says that Maggie will become an at-home service dog once her new one is ready to go into public with her. Until then, she loves coming to school every day.

Service dogs are valuable assets to the daily lives of many people. It is important to remember that bringing untrained pets into public is both illegal and dangerous. If another dog barks or lunges at Maggie while she’s working, there is a chance that she could become distracted for a moment. In that time, Maggie might miss an important alert to Lovejoy’s syncope, causing her to faint and fall.

Most public places are not pet friendly, like Target, WalMart, and the Mall. Those are for service dogs only. If you want to take your pet out, Sierra Trading Company, PetSmart, and Home Depot in Silverdale love seeing friendly dogs in the aisles.

*Names have been changed.