Janine Fugere has been training her dog, Kiah, a Blue Heeler Australian Cattle Dog, since summer 2010, to become an ideal Psychiatric Support Service Dog.

Kiah is now 12 years old and, in April 2021 finally became officially certified as Janine’s P.S.D. Service Dog! Kiah and Janine are both available to provide home service visits to help others, at no cost. Kiah is happy to serve for nothing but love in return. She lives to help others, and when there is more than one who needs help, her “herding instincts” kick in and her mission is “keep the herd together. That “cattle dog” intuitive trait Kiah possessed would become very important in Janine’s life….

By Summer 2019, Kiah proved she could help meet Janine’s needs as a PSD Service Dog in Training, as part of Grow Strong with Different Abilities and Grow Strong with Service Dogs.

These training experiences not only prepared Kiah for certification, they helped keep outdoor adventures, travel, and other outings accessible to Janine, despite having been through great trauma in her life. Kiah helped Janine through the grief of several traumatic deaths of loved ones over a short period of time, and the dog’s care likely saved Janine’s life at that time.

Kiah also has, on an ongoing basis, helped Janine cope with anxiety, insomnia, depression, sensory overload, and symptoms on the autism spectrum, well before those traumas occurred. Kiah was not yet formally certified, but she had been in “on-the-job-training” serving Janine in this manner for years and was likely already qualified for certification as Janine’s PSD.

This photo, taken in Summer 2019, was at a time it became clear that Kiah has the capacity to help more than one individual at a time, as a Service Dog. We will never recall this camping outing when Kiah proved she could simultaneously help meet the needs both Janine, her owner and primary “charge to serve” but also help Paul, Janine’s life partner and Grow Strong, LLC business partner.

On this camping trip, in Golden Gate Canyon State Park, where great stressors that could have led to trauma and medical emergency came up, Kiah both served to meet Janine’s P.S.D. Service Dog needs, but was also very attuned to Paul having bad diabetes-related blood sugar fluctuations and very serious altitude sickness. The dog’s care in a capacity that merits skills performed by Service Dogs, for both Janine and Paul, helped prevent a camping outing from becoming a tragedy. It led to successful camping trips in the future and added to Janine’s conviction that anyone with mental health or medical needs which could benefit from a Service Dog should be able to have one with them, so they can fully enjoy life with more ease, wellbeing and safety.

Kiah was on her way to Janine finding out the process to train her well enough to qualify her for certification.