The Ultimate ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Companion<\/h3> All you need to know about going wild with man’s best friend.<\/a><\/div>![\"A](\"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/migrated-images_parent\/migrated-images_50\/RovingRebel_door.jpg?width=140\")
A service dog pressing a button to open an automatic door.<\/div><\/p>\nThe same can be said for most any dog, trained or not. Someone is always behind the heel. But for some people, the stakes are higher\u2014a disregarded command can be the difference between life and death. Service dogs like Gem may have four paws and a tail to wag, but they\u2019re not exactly pets. They are highly-trained professional work animals.<\/p>\n
Gem is Jeff Supergan\u2019s service dog. But she isn\u2019t his first. A yellow Lab named Yellowstone came before her and now works with Jeff\u2019s wife, Amy. Gem is new to the family, but Jeff\u2019s journey to owning her began 24 years ago when he fractured his C6-C7 vertebrae diving into a lake, limiting how he can use his arms and legs.\u00a0The injury threatened his independence and required life-changing decisions.<\/p>\n
Take choosing a wheelchair. When you don\u2019t know the details, they can all look identical. But Jeff had to pick between an electric-powered wheelchair and a manual variant, each with distinct drawbacks and strengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t want to be in an automatic wheelchair because once electric, you\u2019re always electric,\u201d says Amy. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t be able to use his arms and muscles\u201d because an electric wheelchair isn\u2019t designed to be actively powered by its driver.<\/p>\n
For 12 years, the manually-powered wheelchair worked for Jeff. Its downsides\u2014on steep terrain and over long distances\u2014were balanced by Amy, who could help push Jeff. Together, they led an active lifestyle\u2014hiking together and even going camping in Alaska. Jeff didn\u2019t even consider purchasing a service animal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never had a dog before,\u201d he says. I didn\u2019t know what they could do. I didn\u2019t know they\u2019d help. I thought it was going to be a hindrance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amy thought otherwise. Jeff didn\u2019t always enjoy going out in public; he thought people stared. She figured a dog would divert the attention and make him feel more comfortable. She was determined. So together with her daughter, she brought home a eight-week-old puppy on his birthday, and the dog peed all over. Her name was Yellowstone, and she was a yellow Lab.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Amy was falling ill. \u201cAll of the sudden, I got sick and couldn\u2019t help Jeff as much,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen we got Yellowstone and put her into training\u2014that very week we found out I had a brain tumor. A week later I was having surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without Amy’s support, Jeff\u2019s earlier choice of a manually-powered wheelchair seemed like the wrong one. With Yellowstone entering training, the couple decided to have her taught to pull Jeff, almost like a sled dog. Slowly, she became Jeff\u2019s independence. Amy couldn\u2019t help push Jeff on his hikes through the forest preserves, but Yellowstone could. Jeff contributed some of the horsepower, and Yellowstone chipped in with the rest.<\/p>\n
Together, they would hike up to six miles. \u201cI couldn\u2019t do it without her. I\u2019d be really sore. It would take more than twice the amount of time to do it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Without Yellowstone, Amy says Jeff wouldn\u2019t have been able to maintain his hikes. It would have been a major blow. \u201cI like to be in the outdoors,\u201d he says. \u201cGetting out into the forest is a lot of freedom. When you\u2019re walking alone, you can just view nature\u2014see deer and birds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond hiking, Yellowstone gave Jeff greater independence at work. Instead of relying on someone else to push him up the ramp to the office and to open the door, he can do it on his own with Yellowstone\u2019s help. What\u2019s more, she changed how other people interact with Jeff. Amy credits Yellowstone with helping him to meet more people because they \u201ccome up to us happy about the dog,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Over the years, the one-time skeptic became a convert. \u201cFor a dog he never wanted, they\u2019ve really bonded,\u201d Amy says. But after eight years of service, Yellowstone started having trouble with pulling. She couldn\u2019t fulfill all of Jeff\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n
UNDER THE AMERICANS WITH Disabilities Act and Amendment, all assistance dogs\u2014guide dogs (for the visually impaired), signal dogs (for the hard of hearing), or dogs otherwise trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability\u2014are treated equally by the law, regardless of their certification status.<\/p>\n
Even establishments that ban pets are required to admit service dogs. But that doesn\u2019t always happen, says service dog owner Kaney O\u2019Neill. They \u201csometimes hassle you about bringing dogs in,\u201d and require a polite but firm reminder that service animals must be admitted under the law.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill was a 21-year-old Navy airman apprentice in Virginia when Hurricane Floyd blew her off a balcony, leaving her with minimal use of her arms and hands. Getting a service animal made perfect sense. Unlike Jeff, she had grown up with Labs and always loved dogs, so \u201cthe idea of having an animal do things I can\u2019t do\u201d was natural to her. But the wait was long\u2014several years, in fact.<\/p>\n
Eventually, O\u2019Neill made her way to TOPS Kennel in Grayslake, Illinois. They just happened to have a dog ready. When she visited the kennel, he jumped into her lap and home. Now, O\u2019Neill can\u2019t imagine living without Pele. \u201cHe gives an added layer of independence. You feel more confident doing things on your own,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s changed her life. With Pele at her side, she feels comfortable driving. And he\u2019s helped to break down the \u201csocial barrier that exists between able bodied and disabled people\u201d because he gives everyone something to talk about, she says.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill has a three-year-old boy, and Pele helps watch over him too. When the boy\u2019s father sued for custody, he argued that O\u2019Neill was an unfit caregiver due to her injury. Her lawyers argued otherwise, and drew on O\u2019Neill\u2019s deep, multi-layered support network. A crucial part of that network: Pele. She won.<\/p>\n
YELLOWSTONE NATURALLY DEVELOPED A deep bond with Jeff, but she was no stranger to his wife. When Amy was sick and sometimes confined to bed all day, Yellowstone would lie by her side. She developed an uncanny ability to notice when Amy wasn’t feeling well and even predict health scares, like when she licked Amy awake before she suffered a seizure.<\/p>\n
Now, Yellowstone is Amy\u2019s service dog. Because bending over is difficult for Amy, Yellowstone helps with the laundry by pulling clothing from the dryer for Amy to fold. It\u2019s a task she relishes in and often fights over with Gem. She\u2019s also there to pick something up if Amy drops it. This ability is a fan favorite. People at Costco will jokingly ask Amy to drop her credit card for Yellowstone to pick it up\u2014no easy task from off a slick floor.<\/p>\n
For the last three years, Gem has taken Yellowstone\u2019s place. But because of an injury to her back, Jeff may be in the market for another dog\u2014no easy purchase. It\u2019s nothing like picking up a pup from the shelter. There\u2019s the wait (two years for a dog is normal), price tag (upwards of $20,000), and training.<\/p>\n
Gem, Yellowstone, and Pele were all trained at TOPS Kennel, where Jane Smerge has worked for 18 years. For 30 years, she\u2019s taught children with special needs. And for the last 12 years, she\u2019s worked both jobs part-time.\u00a0The work is personal. Because of a genetic illness, Smerge was often home sick. In the spare time, she would train her dogs to do tricks. It became a natural progression to go into professional training.<\/p>\n
Over the course of a year, she has time to train only two to three service dogs. It\u2019s an incredible commitment, and doing more would be financially impossible. TOPS doesn\u2019t charge for training, and the costs add up. But without the kennel\u2019s generosity, neither O\u2019Neill nor Jeff and Amy would have dogs.<\/p>\n
The process starts when someone contacts the kennel. Then, TOPS looks for a dog. But not any animal will do. The dog needs to be mellow, calm, and stable. The training is long\u2014up to a year of intense sessions, not to mention weeks of additional training with the owner and years of follow-up. The training begins with basic obedience, the \u201cfoundation for everything,\u201d Smerge says.<\/p>\n
From there, Smerge teaches individual skills, like flipping a light switch. Learning a single skill can take two months. It\u2019s all about breaking a task down into its smallest components.<\/p>\n
Take flipping a switch. First, Smerge will train the dog to put its feet on the wall by using a treat to reinforce the behavior. Next, she\u2019ll put the treat near the switch so the dog\u2019s nose can hit the light. Soon, she\u2019ll switch the treat out for a bit of cheese around the switch. Each step of the way, she verbally praises the dog. Three weeks to a month later, she\u2019ll begin to phase out the food until the dog can flip a switch on verbal command. (Each dog is different. Some breeds are more responsive to toys than treats, for example.)<\/p>\n
But it isn\u2019t just the lights she\u2019s training them for. Each dog is specifically tailored to her owner. And each owner is then trained to work with his dog\u2014at first for two hours a day, five days a week, Smerge says. Adjustments are inevitable, some minor and others more complicated. Most dogs heel on the left. But Jeff needed Gem to heel on his right. That means training Jeff to give a new command and Gem to take it.<\/p>\n
Because many owners can\u2019t make corrections on their own if the dog makes a mistake \u201cthe training has to be as close to perfect as possible,\u201d Smerge says. \u201cIt was initially very stressful. It\u2019s still hard. Hard but wonderful work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When his wife Amy showed up with a Labrador Retriever, Jeff Supergan wasn’t sure it made sense. He had never had a dog before, and, being confined to a wheelchair, didn’t know if he could handle it. But when Amy’s doctors discovered an unexpected brain tumor, the dog ended up taking care of them both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1555636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"uuid":"a8b00565bef82385ac5e8c2743a809a1","footnotes":""},"categories":[2549],"tags":[2657,2665],"byline":[1365],"ad_cat":[],"legacy-category":[],"class_list":["post-2450722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellness","tag-recovery","tag-wellness","byline-scott-rosenfield"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"The Dog He Never Wanted","url":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/health\/wellness\/dog-he-never-wanted\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/health\/wellness\/dog-he-never-wanted\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/migrated-images_parent\/migrated-images_50\/service-dog_fe.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/migrated-images_parent\/migrated-images_50\/service-dog_fe.jpg"},"articleSection":"Wellness","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"sperkins-pom"}],"creator":["sperkins-pom"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online","logo":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/favicon-194x194-1.png"},"keywords":["recovery","wellness"],"dateCreated":"2012-11-26T00:00:00Z","datePublished":"2012-11-26T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2022-05-12T13:29:03Z"},"rendered":"
A service dog pressing a button to open an automatic door.<\/div><\/p>\nThe same can be said for most any dog, trained or not. Someone is always behind the heel. But for some people, the stakes are higher\u2014a disregarded command can be the difference between life and death. Service dogs like Gem may have four paws and a tail to wag, but they\u2019re not exactly pets. They are highly-trained professional work animals.<\/p>\n
Gem is Jeff Supergan\u2019s service dog. But she isn\u2019t his first. A yellow Lab named Yellowstone came before her and now works with Jeff\u2019s wife, Amy. Gem is new to the family, but Jeff\u2019s journey to owning her began 24 years ago when he fractured his C6-C7 vertebrae diving into a lake, limiting how he can use his arms and legs.\u00a0The injury threatened his independence and required life-changing decisions.<\/p>\n
Take choosing a wheelchair. When you don\u2019t know the details, they can all look identical. But Jeff had to pick between an electric-powered wheelchair and a manual variant, each with distinct drawbacks and strengths.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t want to be in an automatic wheelchair because once electric, you\u2019re always electric,\u201d says Amy. \u201cHe wouldn\u2019t be able to use his arms and muscles\u201d because an electric wheelchair isn\u2019t designed to be actively powered by its driver.<\/p>\n
For 12 years, the manually-powered wheelchair worked for Jeff. Its downsides\u2014on steep terrain and over long distances\u2014were balanced by Amy, who could help push Jeff. Together, they led an active lifestyle\u2014hiking together and even going camping in Alaska. Jeff didn\u2019t even consider purchasing a service animal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never had a dog before,\u201d he says. I didn\u2019t know what they could do. I didn\u2019t know they\u2019d help. I thought it was going to be a hindrance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amy thought otherwise. Jeff didn\u2019t always enjoy going out in public; he thought people stared. She figured a dog would divert the attention and make him feel more comfortable. She was determined. So together with her daughter, she brought home a eight-week-old puppy on his birthday, and the dog peed all over. Her name was Yellowstone, and she was a yellow Lab.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Amy was falling ill. \u201cAll of the sudden, I got sick and couldn\u2019t help Jeff as much,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen we got Yellowstone and put her into training\u2014that very week we found out I had a brain tumor. A week later I was having surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without Amy’s support, Jeff\u2019s earlier choice of a manually-powered wheelchair seemed like the wrong one. With Yellowstone entering training, the couple decided to have her taught to pull Jeff, almost like a sled dog. Slowly, she became Jeff\u2019s independence. Amy couldn\u2019t help push Jeff on his hikes through the forest preserves, but Yellowstone could. Jeff contributed some of the horsepower, and Yellowstone chipped in with the rest.<\/p>\n
Together, they would hike up to six miles. \u201cI couldn\u2019t do it without her. I\u2019d be really sore. It would take more than twice the amount of time to do it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Without Yellowstone, Amy says Jeff wouldn\u2019t have been able to maintain his hikes. It would have been a major blow. \u201cI like to be in the outdoors,\u201d he says. \u201cGetting out into the forest is a lot of freedom. When you\u2019re walking alone, you can just view nature\u2014see deer and birds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond hiking, Yellowstone gave Jeff greater independence at work. Instead of relying on someone else to push him up the ramp to the office and to open the door, he can do it on his own with Yellowstone\u2019s help. What\u2019s more, she changed how other people interact with Jeff. Amy credits Yellowstone with helping him to meet more people because they \u201ccome up to us happy about the dog,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Over the years, the one-time skeptic became a convert. \u201cFor a dog he never wanted, they\u2019ve really bonded,\u201d Amy says. But after eight years of service, Yellowstone started having trouble with pulling. She couldn\u2019t fulfill all of Jeff\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n
UNDER THE AMERICANS WITH Disabilities Act and Amendment, all assistance dogs\u2014guide dogs (for the visually impaired), signal dogs (for the hard of hearing), or dogs otherwise trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability\u2014are treated equally by the law, regardless of their certification status.<\/p>\n
Even establishments that ban pets are required to admit service dogs. But that doesn\u2019t always happen, says service dog owner Kaney O\u2019Neill. They \u201csometimes hassle you about bringing dogs in,\u201d and require a polite but firm reminder that service animals must be admitted under the law.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill was a 21-year-old Navy airman apprentice in Virginia when Hurricane Floyd blew her off a balcony, leaving her with minimal use of her arms and hands. Getting a service animal made perfect sense. Unlike Jeff, she had grown up with Labs and always loved dogs, so \u201cthe idea of having an animal do things I can\u2019t do\u201d was natural to her. But the wait was long\u2014several years, in fact.<\/p>\n
Eventually, O\u2019Neill made her way to TOPS Kennel in Grayslake, Illinois. They just happened to have a dog ready. When she visited the kennel, he jumped into her lap and home. Now, O\u2019Neill can\u2019t imagine living without Pele. \u201cHe gives an added layer of independence. You feel more confident doing things on your own,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s changed her life. With Pele at her side, she feels comfortable driving. And he\u2019s helped to break down the \u201csocial barrier that exists between able bodied and disabled people\u201d because he gives everyone something to talk about, she says.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neill has a three-year-old boy, and Pele helps watch over him too. When the boy\u2019s father sued for custody, he argued that O\u2019Neill was an unfit caregiver due to her injury. Her lawyers argued otherwise, and drew on O\u2019Neill\u2019s deep, multi-layered support network. A crucial part of that network: Pele. She won.<\/p>\n
YELLOWSTONE NATURALLY DEVELOPED A deep bond with Jeff, but she was no stranger to his wife. When Amy was sick and sometimes confined to bed all day, Yellowstone would lie by her side. She developed an uncanny ability to notice when Amy wasn’t feeling well and even predict health scares, like when she licked Amy awake before she suffered a seizure.<\/p>\n
Now, Yellowstone is Amy\u2019s service dog. Because bending over is difficult for Amy, Yellowstone helps with the laundry by pulling clothing from the dryer for Amy to fold. It\u2019s a task she relishes in and often fights over with Gem. She\u2019s also there to pick something up if Amy drops it. This ability is a fan favorite. People at Costco will jokingly ask Amy to drop her credit card for Yellowstone to pick it up\u2014no easy task from off a slick floor.<\/p>\n
For the last three years, Gem has taken Yellowstone\u2019s place. But because of an injury to her back, Jeff may be in the market for another dog\u2014no easy purchase. It\u2019s nothing like picking up a pup from the shelter. There\u2019s the wait (two years for a dog is normal), price tag (upwards of $20,000), and training.<\/p>\n
Gem, Yellowstone, and Pele were all trained at TOPS Kennel, where Jane Smerge has worked for 18 years. For 30 years, she\u2019s taught children with special needs. And for the last 12 years, she\u2019s worked both jobs part-time.\u00a0The work is personal. Because of a genetic illness, Smerge was often home sick. In the spare time, she would train her dogs to do tricks. It became a natural progression to go into professional training.<\/p>\n
Over the course of a year, she has time to train only two to three service dogs. It\u2019s an incredible commitment, and doing more would be financially impossible. TOPS doesn\u2019t charge for training, and the costs add up. But without the kennel\u2019s generosity, neither O\u2019Neill nor Jeff and Amy would have dogs.<\/p>\n
The process starts when someone contacts the kennel. Then, TOPS looks for a dog. But not any animal will do. The dog needs to be mellow, calm, and stable. The training is long\u2014up to a year of intense sessions, not to mention weeks of additional training with the owner and years of follow-up. The training begins with basic obedience, the \u201cfoundation for everything,\u201d Smerge says.<\/p>\n
From there, Smerge teaches individual skills, like flipping a light switch. Learning a single skill can take two months. It\u2019s all about breaking a task down into its smallest components.<\/p>\n
Take flipping a switch. First, Smerge will train the dog to put its feet on the wall by using a treat to reinforce the behavior. Next, she\u2019ll put the treat near the switch so the dog\u2019s nose can hit the light. Soon, she\u2019ll switch the treat out for a bit of cheese around the switch. Each step of the way, she verbally praises the dog. Three weeks to a month later, she\u2019ll begin to phase out the food until the dog can flip a switch on verbal command. (Each dog is different. Some breeds are more responsive to toys than treats, for example.)<\/p>\n
But it isn\u2019t just the lights she\u2019s training them for. Each dog is specifically tailored to her owner. And each owner is then trained to work with his dog\u2014at first for two hours a day, five days a week, Smerge says. Adjustments are inevitable, some minor and others more complicated. Most dogs heel on the left. But Jeff needed Gem to heel on his right. That means training Jeff to give a new command and Gem to take it.<\/p>\n
Because many owners can\u2019t make corrections on their own if the dog makes a mistake \u201cthe training has to be as close to perfect as possible,\u201d Smerge says. \u201cIt was initially very stressful. It\u2019s still hard. Hard but wonderful work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When his wife Amy showed up with a Labrador Retriever, Jeff Supergan wasn’t sure it made sense. He had never had a dog before, and, being confined to a wheelchair, didn’t know if he could handle it. But when Amy’s doctors discovered an unexpected brain tumor, the dog ended up taking care of them both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1555636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"uuid":"a8b00565bef82385ac5e8c2743a809a1","footnotes":""},"categories":[2549],"tags":[2657,2665],"byline":[1365],"ad_cat":[],"legacy-category":[],"class_list":["post-2450722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellness","tag-recovery","tag-wellness","byline-scott-rosenfield"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"The Dog He Never Wanted","url":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/health\/wellness\/dog-he-never-wanted\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/health\/wellness\/dog-he-never-wanted\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/migrated-images_parent\/migrated-images_50\/service-dog_fe.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/migrated-images_parent\/migrated-images_50\/service-dog_fe.jpg"},"articleSection":"Wellness","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"sperkins-pom"}],"creator":["sperkins-pom"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Online","logo":"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/favicon-194x194-1.png"},"keywords":["recovery","wellness"],"dateCreated":"2012-11-26T00:00:00Z","datePublished":"2012-11-26T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2022-05-12T13:29:03Z"},"rendered":"