Genevieve was diagnosed with chronic, but not terminal, epileptic seizures. From the time that she was 3 years and 11 months, Genevieve had experienced her first seizure. At one point, she was suffering from nearly 100 seizures a day, it was so intense that even if little Genevieve tried to take a step, it would cause a seizure. So, her mother, Paula Blake, being a teacher, carried her little girl around with her. It was during this time that Genevieve was misdiagnosed with chronic terminal epileptic seizures. The Doctors essentially wanted to shutdown half of little 6 year old Genevieve’s brain and essentially treat her like a stroke victim in order to rehabilitate her hopefully back to health. Her family couldn’t accept it and that was when they learned that she had been misdiagnosed. Desperate to find a way to help her daughter, Paula began looking into getting her daughter a service dog.

Due to Genevieve’s condition, Paula reached out to the Epilepsy Foundation in hopes of gaining assistance in attaining a service dog for her Genevieve. Unfortunately, that hope was soon dissolved when Paula learned that the Epilepsy Foundation and many others had a wait list of 5 years for anyone to get a service dog. This was a mother on a mission and she would not be swayed, so she moved onward to the next avenue which was looking for a service dog trainer. Paula had looked at and I do mean looked at, dozens of service dog trainer’s until she fell upon three that she was seriously considering. After months of correspondence and communication between Paula and the trainer, she finally settled on a price of $3,000.00 dollars to have a service dog trained for little Genevieve. It took Paula and her family a year of begging and asking friends and family for help to pull the $3,000.00 dollars together and with joy and hope in their hearts they went to the trainer to sign the contract.

Upon arrival to his establishment the dog trainer requested an additional $5,000.00 dollars. Their renewed joy and hopes were shattered. It had taken them a year of begging and scrounging in attempts to simply come up with the $3,000.00 dollars, there was just no way they could pull together an additional $5,000.000 dollars. Defeated, Paula was about to give up on all hopes on getting her daughter a service dog trainer, when at that moment, Robert Tucker from Canine Companions USA happened to contact her and essentially answered her prayers. Having gone through the wringer in the past, Paula was not taking any chances and Mr. Tucker was more than happy to oblige.

They had several correspondences, discussed allergy concerns, regarding dog fur and pet dander, size of dog to meet the needs of both a child and then a young lady as they grow together. Everything was explained in great detail. Between the months of September and October of 2013 was when Paula actually met Mr. Tucker at the breeders’ home, and after Robert helped with selecting the perfect candidate for the long road ahead. The family was able to take home a Labradoodle puppy that Genevieve has since named Cocoa. At the age of 4 months, just shortly after being brought home to Genevieve, Cocoa alerted Paula that Genevieve was about to have a seizure, even though Genevieve was 3 rooms behind closed doors. Cocoa had yet to be trained in regards to alerting or identifying seizures. The dog somehow knew instinctively that Genevieve was in distress. Canine Companion’s utilized this innate ability the dog already had to form and mold an alert warning of oncoming episodes or the immanent onset of a seizure. Cocoa provides comfort and stability and will not leave her side until Genevieve is once again stable. Cocoa is now being taught to warn and retrieve other family members of such an occurrence as well.

With everything that both she and Genevieve have overcome, when asked, what is the best thing about the Canine Companions USA program ? With a bit of a tear, a large smile and a heavy sigh of relief Paula stated ” I can finally relax, I can sleep at night knowing that she is going to be alright, I don’t have to watch her 24 hours a day 7 days a week for fear something may happen, she can go to the swing set and she can go to Sunday School with Cocoa and I know she will be alright”.

Along with the Peace of mind, there is a lot of work and commitment that goes into training a Service dog. A lot of their training is biased off of Consistency and knowing your pace as the Alpha. Within Paula’s family it was especially difficult between training and hospital visits 3 times a week, as well as a lot of hands on. All in all, between the bonding and the learning, training is progressing perfectly and between Cocoa and Genevieve, well both were made for one another.