From Director, Jennifer Petre:

A year ago we were contacted by an ambitious senior from Kensington Woods High School. Cheyenne Honey was interested in doing her required senior project on Stiggy’s Dogs. The project was to be conducted over a year, she did fundraising and help spread awareness on how Shelter dogs are trained as service dogs and how they help our veterans.

Cheyenne came and interviewed Donna Fournier (Director of training and development) and I. She conducted herself very professionally and asked great questions to keep it short, “we were impressed”. Six months later I was invited and went to listen to her presentation. I was amazed at the maturity of such a young woman. At the end of presentation she handed out a flyer she had put together with the Top 10 things handlers want you to know about their service animal. Not only did she do research on service animals, but she also did extensive research on invisible wounds such as PTSD.

For the next 10 days we will be posting each thing she came up with. Thank you Cheyenne for your willingness to learn and your creative insight to help build awareness!

Lesson #5 Not All Service Dogs Are The Same. 
Service Dogs come in all shapes, sizes, breeds, colors, coat types and specialities. You cannot identify one by sight alone and it doesn’t matter if you think my partner doesn’t “look like” a Service Dog. Unfortunately as well, fake Service Dogs are relatively common, and they do a lot of damage to legitimate teams. Please don’t judge my obviously well-trained, well-mannered, quiet, well-groomed, highly responsive Service Dog based on the behavior of some yappy, smelly, aggressive little mongrel someone claimed was a “Service Dog.” Behavior tells all, and I ask that you not compare me to any other Service Dog handlers or teams you may know or may have met, because not all Service Dogs are the same.