Liame and Mary McNeight with the other PAWS award winners.
Liame’s hard work over the years has paid off! On May 19th, professional positive reinforcement dog trainer Mary McNeight’s 4-year old yellow Lab walked the red carpet to receive a plaque for his outstanding service to the community at the annual PAWS of Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap Spotlight on Community Hero Pets ‘Hero Dog Awards!‘
Liame’s very existence fueled Mary’s passion for dog training, and inspired the creation of the Service Dog Academy. The all-positive reinforcement pet puppy, pet dog, and service dog training studio has helped more than 525 dogs be well-mannered, well-behaved and even lifesaving medical alert dogs. Thanks to Liame, more people with disabilities in the Pacific Northwest, and Seattle area are empowered to live more independent lives through the use of a service dog. Mary McNeight, CPDT-KA, BGS spent countless hours working toward getting her Canine Studies Degree, and went to six hours of puppy classes per week with Liame in order to become a certified professional dog trainer, and the Northwest’s leading resource for diabetic alert dog training for type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and hypoglycemia.
Through Mary’s positive reinforcement dog training methods, Liame is also a very persistent diabetic alert dog. His powerful nose has detected low blood sugar in people who didn’t even know they were hypoglycemic! His success in alerting has paved the way to make Service Dog Academy a reliable source for anyone who wants to train their own dogs for diabetic alert, seizure alert, migraine alert, and now because of Liame and Mary’s dedication to medical alert training, the world’s first narcolepsy alert program!
The theme of the the Spotlight on PAWS benefit and dinner auction at the lovely Wing Point Golf and Country Club on Bainbridge Island was “People Helping Pets and Pets Helping People.” We couldn’t agree more! Surrounded by a beautiful landscape, guests at the event had the opportunity to bid on a myriad of donated goodies from local businesses and artists, and meet the six amazing animals who, like Liame in the “service animal” category, demonstrated the strong bond of companionship between animals and their humans.
Among the winners of each category was Amber, a drug and arson detection dog who was responsible for the seizure of over 60 pieces of drug paraphernalia, and more than 1300 grams of marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine combined. Kitty, a dog who averages more than 20 hours per week visiting hospitals, prisons, troubled high school students, and the elderly, providing therapy and comfort, Romeo a search and rescue Schnauzer who helped local police track down a missing Alzheimer’s patient, and even a cat named Cheeto who acts as a decoy cat to help train search and rescue dogs to find missing find cats for the Missing Pet Partnership!
We were surrounded by animal lovers, as the event was in support of the PAWS that without any government funding advocates, educates, and provides services for the health and well-being of pets and the companionship with their people. They offer adoptions, spay/neuter assistance, lost and found, financial assistance for veterinary care, and operate programs like Pets and Loving Pals, and the Buddy Brigade.
We know about trying to run an organization without government subsidies, so we were excited to be included with PAWS and the generous donors who support them. Service Dog Academy’s low-cost medical alert dog training program wouldn’t be possible without funding from our pert dog training. Pet puppy training, and adult dog basic obedience positive reinforcement training classes are a not just a great way to train your puppy or dog with service dog training techniques for the best-behaved dog in town, but it keeps Service Dog Academy’s groundbreaking service dog training program afloat! Liame may have been the “hero” on May 19th, but the real hero is each and every one of our students who come to train at Service Dog Academy!
If you would like to experience our award winning dog training classes please visit our classes page for more info.
