Life in Retirement: My service dog has special needs

I wholeheartedly agreed when my daughter approached me with the idea of training her own service dog. She would benefit so much from having a service dog, I thought, and just committing to the responsibility for its training would be beneficial. I imagined the dog leading my autistic adult daughter onto a bus, making their way together to a park or a little shopping trip. I thought of how comforting the dog would be, holding tight to my child during thunderstorms and other times of fret. Let’s do it!

Life in Retirement: My service dog has special needs Published 7:00 am Thursday, July 16, 2026 I wholeheartedly agreed when my daughter approached me with the idea of training her own service dog. She would benefit so much from having a service dog, I thought, and just committing to the responsibility for its training would be beneficial.

I imagined the dog leading my autistic adult daughter onto a bus, making their way together to a park or a little shopping trip. I thought of how comforting the dog would be, holding tight to my child during thunderstorms and other times of fret. Let’s do it!

She made all the arrangements. A breeder was carefully studied and then chosen for her background in providing competent service dogs to others. She was a veterinarian, too, which topped the qualification list.

When the puppies arrived, we were given photos and updates of our special little fella until it was time to bring him home. He was an adorable and playful gaffer, full of the usual shenanigans, and we quickly fell in love. The first few months went quickly and soon it was time to begin the training.

We had already plotted, charted and researched effective at-home training methods for this goal and settled on an area trainer to deliver the intensive daylong introduction. It went well as a first step of many, and the trainer was full of insight as to how we should continue proceeding to build this dog into a service dog. We were getting ready for the next steps as the puppy approached his first birthday.

But a few months after turning one, he developed dramatic breathing and drooling issues that had us running to the emergency vet in the middle of the night – the first trip of many. He had developed parvo, despite all the odds that this deadly virus could break through a fully vaccinated dog. After a week of 24-hour care, he came home from the vet.

With a staggering invoice. This was soon followed by severe reactions to food, which had us traipsing off to the vet on a regular basis as we worked to determine a food he could tolerate. It’s an expensive veterinarian grade, non-protein kibble that is more like a basic soda cracker than anything.

Given how sensitive he is, we even place some of this food into his treat container to make him believe something special is happening when we reach in that direction. He can’t tolerate even a teeny morsel of anything else. By the time his medical rollercoaster had been effectively dealt with, too much time had gone by for any further specialized training to be impactful.

There wasn’t a lot of lamenting about this, though, as both my daughter and I are simply happy that he’s now healthy and still with us. I’m fairly certain he would never have made the cut as a service dog, anyway.

He’s never taken the lead on any situation and is as fearful of the doorbell as he is of a thunderstorm. He’s a rascal and he’s a lab, so we need to intervene consistently to ensure he doesn’t nab anything from the counters or slice through the fabric of the couch with his frisky play. We have dog-proofed the entire house and limit his living space to the main floor, but he still needs constant supervision when he’s awake or else he cries, shakes or simply runs amuck.

He’s silly and playful and makes us laugh every day. Five years after the great idea, the reality is that now I have a special needs child and a special needs dog at home. And I love them both with all my heart.

Visit Sandy’s website at LifeInRetirement.ca.