Several agencies and dog owners are looking for Gabe, a 6-month-old poodle who is trained as a service dog. After an intensive Internet search, she learned about the Houston-based My Service Dog launched in 2004 to provide hearing dogs and service dogs for people unable to get around. Allie Keaton, My Service Dog executive director, stresses that service dogs are not just needed for people who have obvious physical conditions such as being in a wheelchair or blindness. Some people who have remitting/relapsing multiple sclerosis can have a sudden attack, rendering them in desperate need of a service dog to react by engaging in trained emergency procedures - fetching a phone, pressing a button to summon help or getting someone else’s attention. Another service dog recipient has multiple sclerosis and seizures and a dog has been trained to put his owner down so she will lay across the dog and not collapse and bump her head. read more

Tags: people, dog, service, attacks, dogs, hypoallergenic dogs