The making of a service dog

When she walks into a room, Jessie Bianca immediately strikes you as the silent type.

She sashays without a sound. If it weren’t for the red bow with white polka dots that sweeps the long hair from her eyes or the pink-and-white-striped sweater that hugs her torso, you might miss her.

But that’s all right. Service dogs are supposed to be unnoticeable.

And while a 7-pound Maltese isn’t normally thought of as a service animal, pocket-sized Jessie is proving you can teach an old dog new tricks.

She is one of eight dogs being transformed from mere pets into working service dogs through a training program at Polite Paws in Bluffton. Since April, dog trainer Robin Walter has prepared the canines to assist their longtime owners: persons with disabilities who didn’t want to get new service dogs to tackle duties that might alleviate their masters’ health issues. The dog owners wanted to instruct their own Fidos to help out instead.

Walter said class participants include people with autism, mobility impairments and diabetes. Students must go through at least 120 hours of training with their pooches, and the dogs must pass a public access skills test, a canine good citizen test and a test covering the specific tasks they must handle to ease their masters’ particular health conditions.

Jessie is the first canine in Walter’s class to near certification as a service dog.

The once unruly pup has morphed into owner Claude Boyle’s quiescent worker bee, thanks to 150 hours of training at Walter’s Bluffton dog training studio and at Boyle’s Hilton Head Island home.

The 3-and-a-half-year-old canine can now alert her keeper to situations that might trigger stress. Since training Jessie to be a service dog, activities that are often naturally taxing, such as traveling long distances, no longer strain Boyle’s health.

Since starting Walter’s program, Boyle has been to Epcot in Orlando, the Louvre in Paris and a cruise to the Bahamas — all with the white-haired Maltese by her side. Boyle said she also has been able to take less medication since Jessie began her new job.

Boyle was skeptical when doctors suggested she try using a service dog to address some of her health concerns. She didn’t think her compact canine would qualify for the duty.

“I knew a service dog was a black Lab, a golden retriever or a Doberman,” Boyle said. But a Maltese?

Sure, said Walter. Boyle already had contacted Walter about the trainer’s other programs, so she decided to ask if the Polite Paws owner could prep her current pet to be a service animal.

After evaluating Jessie, Walter said it was possible. But first the dog trainer required verification from Boyle’s doctors that a service dog would help the island resident’s well-being.

“It’s such a new application of service dog training, I decided I needed to be part of a team,” Walter said.

After picking up basic skills — such as learning to toddle within touching distance of Boyle, or being able to sit still underneath a table at a restaurant — Jessie was trained to do distinct tasks that could offer Boyle some relief.

When the doggy intuits her master’s stress level might be rising, she will playfully grab Boyle’s attention by tapping her paws on her owner’s legs or climbing into her lap. Those distractions alone can soothe Boyle — but also can alert the owner to conditions that might trigger a stressful reaction.

For example, this summer, when Boyle was undergoing a dental procedure, Jessie began prodding her keeper until the dentist paused the treatment. Boyle’s blood pressure had escalated as a secondary reaction to the anesthesia, and Jessie, Boyle said, knew it.

“She is very attentive to me,” Boyle said. “She is very aware of my needs.”

Louis, Boyle’s husband, called Jessie a “7-pound medical alert bracelet.”

“She’s very smart,” Louis said of Jessie. “She proactively alerts.”

Walter cautioned that not every pet has the makings of a service dog. For one thing, the transition requires owners to stop thinking of their dogs as pets and start considering them working animals. Renegotiating that relationship isn’t for every dog and master.

“That’s a tough thing to get your head around if you’re just used to looking at Fido as this sweet little thing,” Walter said.

But, she added, Jessie was a successful case because she was an adult dog with an owner who was highly committed to the training.

Jessie proves that an atypical breed can work as a service dog, Walter continued. And while guide dogs are popularly identified as service animals, pups in Walter’s program also demonstrate service dogs can assist persons with disabilities that aren’t visible, the trainer said.

Still, becoming a service dog is no walk in the park for the pet. According to Walter, the animal must be capable of paying attention to another human being for most of the day — a task difficult enough for people, much less dogs.

“This is a very stressful experience for the dog,” said Walter, who said her program is the only one of its kind in the Lowcountry and possibly the East Coast. “They have to be able to handle it.”

It’s a role that Jessie seems to relish. Trotting alongside Boyle in the Bluffton Walgreens last week, the dog’s long hair on her legs swished like bell-bottoms as she kept a protective watch on her jovial owner. Passersby let out an “awww” as they spied Jessie’s face. It’s a common reaction to the Maltese, Boyle said, but her dog serves a purpose above and beyond looking cute.

“She’s more than adorable to me,” Boyle said. “She is my life.”