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Our Blog
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Public Access for Assistance Dogs |
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Written by Kate Jenian
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Monday, 30 August 2010 04:46 |
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There has been a bit of publicity lately from Disability Services Qld about their new legislation, the Guide, Hearing and Assistance Dogs Act (2009) (GHADogs), which has replaced the Guide Dogs Act. This Act is designed to protect the rights of assistance dogs to accompany their handler in public places, but also specifies who can train and certify an assistance dog in Queensland. This should allow regulation of the assistance dogs that are out in public, and give confidence to members of the public that the dogs that they are coming into contact with are properly trained and accredited.
While it's a new development for the Qld Government, public access for assistance dogs has been protected by federal legislation since 1992, under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). So public access privileges for assistance dogs in Qld is not a new phenomenon; assistance dogs already had a legal right to access public transport and other public spaces with their handler. The DDA specifies that a person can not be denied access to a public place on the grounds that they are accomplanied by an assistance dog. The Act is certainly vague, and not very specific about what an assistance dog is, nor does is specify training requirements, but it does exist, and has done for 18 years.
There are some gaps in the GHADogs legislation that means that not all people with a properly trained assistance dog are able to comply with the legislation. For instance, if a person with a disability has trained their own assistance dog, without going through an assistance dog training organisation, it's impossible for them to find a DSQ-approved trainer or training organisation that is able to accredit their dog under the new legislation. As it stands, trainers and training organisations that administer a public access test become responsible for the behaviour of that dog in public. Therefore, trainers and training organisation are unwilling to test dogs whose previous training and behaviour history is not known to them.
Canine Helpers remains the only organisation that offers a certification course for privately trained assistance dogs, which takes six months to complete. There is no quick answer to accrediting a privately trained dog, and there are currently no DSQ-accredited training organisations that are able to accredit a dog that was not trained by that organisation.
The legislation also precludes a training organisation from accrediting an assistance dog belonging to a member of its Board. As I am Secretary of Canine Helpers' Board, I am not able to undertake DSQ's public access test by any of our trainers. Dexter and I have passed an Assistance Dogs International public access test. The legislation also fails to provide for assistance dogs visiting from interstate with their handler.
However, these assistance dogs retain their public access privileges, and can continue to accompany their handler in public places, protected by the DDA. The difficulties they face, however, include battling with DSQ's own promotion campaign regarding the GHADogs Act, which specifies that assistance dogs must wear a DSQ logo on their coat or harness, and handlers must carry a DSQ-issued ID card. Public transport officials and business owners are trying to do the right thing by members of the public by questioning people with dogs in public, armed with information brochures from DSQ with pictures of "assistance dogs" in "ID coats" sporting the DSQ logo (the photographs in the brochures we have received show dogs wearing winter coats, not recognisable assistance dog ID coat as specified in the legislation).
A further cause for concern is that the federal government is considering changing the DDA to refer to each State's own assistance dog legislation. This would mean that a great number of poeple with a disability would lose the right to have their assistance dog accompany them in public, with a resultant loss of independence and mobility.
Kate Jenian, Manager
More information on the Guide, Hearing and Assistance Dogs Act.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 30 August 2010 05:22 )
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Written by Kate Jenian
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Friday, 30 July 2010 07:42 |
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We have just signed the lease on a new office, and as soon as we get the ramp installed we are moving out of our tiny one-room office in the back corner of Greencross Vet's Chermside Vet Hospital into a whole house, with five rooms and its own kitchen, bathroom and laundry!!
Apart from having more than enough space to accommodate our growing needs, it's only about 100m from our current location, so that we can keep the same phone and fax numbers and PO Box address, and remain close to everything we need.
It's quite a step up in terms of rent and responsibility (we have to remember to lock the doors ourselves!), so has been a bit nerve-wracking for me, as I've persuaded the Board that it's the right thing to do. If it all goes wrong I'll have no-one to blame but myself. But it's all fallen into place very nicely, and some spooky things have happened to make me believe it's just Meant To Be.
Our new rent is $330 per week. Not much for a 4-bedroom house in Chermside, but a lot for us. However, on the day that I paid the deposit ($330) I received a cheque in the mail from one of our clients, for her latest fundraising efforts. The cheque was for $330.
That weekend we (when I say “we” I mean two of our lovely volunteers) emptied out our storage container, moving everything into our new spacious office. As our storage rent was paid up for six months, we got a refund on the time remaining. They gave us a cheque for $330.
I see these coincidences as A Sign that we are heading in the right direction, although if I get another cheque for $330 I might just faint (although don't let that stop you if you feel the urge to donate $330 to our worthy cause!)!
Liz and I are impatiently waiting for progress on the modifications (these are done via Job Access, a government initiative to ensure workplaces are wheelchair accessible) so that we can move in and have an office-warming party (you're all invited!). Keep reading the newsletter for details of a working-bee to help us move in completely, and our office-warming Open Day to show off our new premises and let you see how our current class of puppies and learners are progressing.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 30 August 2010 05:23 )
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Patting Ourselves on the Back |
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Written by Kate Jenian
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Friday, 09 April 2010 07:36 |
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We've had some really, really good news this week: as of the 30th March 2010, Canine Helpers became the first non-profit assistance dog training organisation to be accredited under the Guide, Hearing and Assistance Dogs Act. This means that our trainers are also all fully accredited under the new legislation.
The next stage is to put all of our clients through Disability Services Queensland (DSQ)'s public access test, and then our clients will be issued with their new Handler ID cards.
Having this accreditation really underpins the efforts that we have been making to ensure that our policies and practices are of the highest quality. It also shows the general public that we are accountable for our assistance dogs, that they can rest assured that our assistance dogs are of the highest calibre, but also that there is also an avenue for dealing with any problems that might arise.
In due course we will be issued with a certificate of accreditation, and will add the Guide, Hearing and Assistance Dogs Act logo to our website and other promotional materials. These logos will start to appear on our assistance dog ID coats, once DSQ issues the handler ID cards.
Of course, we don't rest on our laurels. Canine Helpers is also looking to be internationally accredited this year, by our international governing body, Assistance Dogs International. The process for this is even more rigorous than that for DSQ accreditation, and this enormous project is being led by the association's Vice-President, Stephen Needham.
ADI accreditation costs a lot of money, however, so we need to continue our fundraising efforts while also working on refining our policies, systems and procedures to meet international guidelines. So after pausing for a little celebration of our DSQ accreditation, it's back to work!
Kate Jenian
Manager |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 30 August 2010 05:24 )
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Written by Kate Jenian
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Friday, 19 February 2010 02:22 |
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I know it's nearly the end of February, but this is the first post of the year! We enjoyed a short break over the Christmas and New Year Holidays, and have jumped back into things refreshed and energised.
Working smarter, not harder.
Last year was super-busy for us. Too busy, really, and many of us were exhausted. We had to make the decision to work within our capacity this year, not over it, as we had been last year. It's hard to do, though, as we want to help everyone, and hate to say No. But we are still 90% staffed by volunteers, and there's only so much everyone can do around their day jobs and other responsibilities. Without exploding, that is.
We also have some very big goals to kick this year. We have to get accredited by Assistance Dogs International this year, in order to retain member voting rights, as well as Disability Services Queensland, in line with the new legislation that was passed last year. We have a growing waiting list, but a finite number of puppies and dogs that we are currently able to raise and train, due to our limited staff and resources.
So we are concentrating on doing what we are capable of doing, to the very highest standards possible. We are aiming for high quality over quantity. We'll get to the quantity part eventually! This means continuing with our fundraising efforts (money is the key, unfortunately), finding the right grants to apply for, and concentrating on our current puppies and learner dogs.
Kate Jenian, Manager. |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 30 August 2010 05:24 )
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Written by Kate Jenian
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Wednesday, 25 November 2009 15:44 |
Wednesday 25th November 2009
We win some, we lose some.
Over the past two years, Canine Helpers has gone from strength to strength, building a team of dedicated staff, volunteers and supporters, increasing our volume of puppies in training, and developing income streams to underpin our collective effort to provide more assistance dogs for people with a disability.
That's the good news. The bad news is that we can't win them all, and that one of our young dogs has had to be removed from the training program. Baron is our White Swiss Shepherd puppy, donated by Maggie Smith of La Raj, and raised by Paula Edrich and her family. Baron is a stunning dog: big, beautiful and highly intelligent. Paula and her family have done a wonderful job in socialising him, and taking him through his obedience paces. In terms of assistance dog work, he was well ahead of schedule, already able to perform tasks such as opening doors and helping with laundry.
So why on earth would we take him out of the program? Well, Baron has turned out to be fairly noise-sensitive, which means he becomes very anxious in noisy and busy environments, such as when walking close to busy traffic or in a shopping centre. This sensitivity means that many of the public places he is taken cause him great stress, and it's not something that can be easily overcome. It's not impossible to desensitise a dog to these things, but it can take a lot of time and commitment, and Canine Helpers doesn't currently have the resources to attempt rehabilitation in this case.
It's been a very difficult decision to make, as we get very attached to all of our puppies and learner dogs, and Baron was about to move into the final phase of his training. However, despite our best efforts, not every dog will be suitable. The puppies and older dogs that we bring into our training program are all temperament tested by our team of dog trainers, and their puppy raisers take great care to gradually expose them to the various activities and environments that they will encounter as working assistance dogs, but occasionally, for a variety of reasons, a dog will not be suited to the public life of an assistance dog.
So, for the sake of Baron's welfare, he won't continue to train to be an assistance dog. But, as one of my favourite sayings goes, "There is no great loss without some small gain", and in this instance, our loss is Paula's gain. Baron will stay with Paula and her family as their pet dog, which I'm sure Paula's young son will be very pleased with! Paula will continue to work with Baron on his sensitivity to noise, and hopes that he will be able to be trained as a Pets As Therapy Dog, visiting people in residential facilities.
Paula has expressed an interest in puppy raising again in the future, and so Baron may well end up working for Canine Helpers after all, as a puppy raiser!
Click here for Baron's newsletter: Baron's News
Kate Jenian
Manager |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 June 2010 04:19 )
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