Summit Service Dogs

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Redcliff, AB
Summit Service Dogs

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Summit Service Dogs is a qualified Service Dog Organization through the government of Alberta.

We are proud to offer fully trained service dogs, facility dogs and an owner trained program.

11/01/2026

📣 New program alert!

Introducing Our At-Home Assistance Dog Training Program:

Service dogs provide life-changing assistance, but for some individuals, the traditional path of public access might not be the right fit. We understand that having a service dog in public can sometimes bring unwanted attention, additional responsibilities, and even anxiety for the handler. Furthermore, not every dog is suited for the demands of navigating public spaces. That’s why we’re excited to introduce our new At-Home Assistance Dog Program.

Is This Program for You?
Our At-Home Assistance Dog Program is specifically designed for individuals who would benefit from a service dog's task-oriented skills within the safety and comfort of their own home, without the need for public access rights.
This program might be the perfect solution if you:
1. Benefit from Specific Tasks: You require assistance with daily tasks at home, such as retrieving items, opening doors, providing deep pressure therapy, responding to medical conditions, etc.
2. Prefer In-Home Support: You feel most comfortable receiving assistance within your familiar home environment.
3. Want to Train Your Own Dog: You already have a strong bond with your dog and want to learn how to train them for specific tasks that address your needs.
4. Are Not Seeking Public Access: You do not have the desire or need to take your dog with you into restaurants, stores, public transportation, or other non-pet-friendly locations.
5. Value Privacy: You would prefer to receive assistance without the added attention and inquiries that can often accompany a service dog in public.
6. Have a Dog Best Suited for Home Life: Your dog is intelligent, eager to learn, and calm at home, but might not possess the highly specific temperament, confidence, and focus required for navigating busy, unpredictable public environments.

What Our At-Home Assistance Dog Program Offers:
Our comprehensive program focuses on empowering you to train your dog for specific, customized tasks that enhance your independence and quality of life at home.
Expert Guidance and Training: We provide you with the knowledge, skills, and step-by-step training needed to teach your dog personalized tasks.
Customized Task Selection: We work closely with you to identify and prioritize the tasks that will have the greatest impact on your daily life.
Basic Obedience Foundation: The program includes training basic to advanced skills within the home setting, ensuring your dog is reliable and responsive.
Flexibility: We work with your schedule and will come to your home to do the training.

Important Considerations:
It is essential to understand that an at-home assistance dog trained through this program does not have public access rights. They are considered highly trained at-home assistance animals or skilled companions. Misrepresenting an at-home assistance dog as a public access service dog can have serious consequences.
This program is not about circumventing public access requirements, but about providing an option for individuals who primarily need assistance in their home environment.

Ready to Learn More?
If you believe our At-Home Assistance Dog Program could be the key to unlocking greater independence and comfort in your daily life, we invite you to take the next step. Please contact us today to request more information, schedule a phone call, or sign up today! We are excited to partner with you and your canine companion on this rewarding journey of at-home task training!

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (403) 878-4511

10/31/2026

Happy Halloween, everyone! 🎃

As ghosts, ghouls, and trick-or-treaters take to the streets tonight, Halloween brings plenty of fun, sugar, and spooky excitement. While we're all enjoying the festivities, costumes, and sweet treats, it’s also one of the busiest and most unpredictable nights of the year for our four-legged family members.

To keep your pups safe, calm, and happy while the doorbell keeps ringing, here are a few quick Halloween safety reminders:
* Keep the Candy Bowl Well Out of Reach: Chocolate, sugar-free candies containing xylitol, raisins, and wrapper foils are extremely toxic or hazardous to dogs. Keep treat bowls high up and secured.
* Create a Safe, Quiet Space: Continuous doorbells, knocking, and costumes can trigger stress. Set up an room or safe spot with a comfy bed, white noise or music, and a frozen chew or bone to keep them happily occupied away from the front door.
* Secure Doors: Distracted households and open doors create prime conditions for a dog accidentally going outside. Double-check that your dog is wearing current ID tags and microchip info, and ensure they are safely gated or secured in another room before opening the door for trick-or-treaters.
* Be Mindful of Costumes and Props: Not all dogs enjoy wearing outfits. Watch for signs of discomfort like head-dropping, frozen posture, or lip-licking, and make sure any costume doesn't restrict movement, sight, breathing, or tail communication.
* Keep Evening Walks Early and Low-Key: Try to finish evening potty breaks and exercise before dusk when costume crowds hit the sidewalks. Bright lights, inflatable decorations, and sudden noises can spook even the most confident dogs.

Wishing you and your furry companions a safe, fun, and Happy Halloween! 🍫👻🐕

10/30/2026

Which witch is which?

Some of our hard-working dogs in training have been getting into the Halloween spirit this week! They’ve been eagerly showing off their best tricks, always ready to earn a well-deserved treat.
Can you recognize who is who? Drop your best guesses in the comments below!

10/29/2026

The Weather is Changing! A Seasonal Reminder for Dog Owners 🍂❄️
1. Protect paws from ice, snow build-up, and harsh sidewalk salt. Consider switching to pet-friendly ice melt at home to keep paw pads safe.
2. Keep walks shorter on cold days. There are lots of other activities you can do to provide your dog with the proper exercise and decompression time.
3. Keep bathroom breaks short on extremely cold days and always carry a clean up kit with you.
4. Never leave your dog in the vehicle when it is too cold for them to be left alone.

Public Etiquette & Handling Tip: It may be beneficial to pack a small cloth or towel in your dog's bag when heading out into public. This makes it easy to wipe off wet or muddy paws before entering indoor public spaces, ensuring your dog stays clean, comfortable, and presentable!

10/27/2026

Taking training into the real world means facing real-world challenges! On the weekend a group class took place where the dogs tackled a busy mall filled with crowds, lots of noises, and endless distractions.

Not only did they keep their eyes locked on their handler the entire time, but they also faced a major fear for lots of dogs: the escalator! Moving metal steps can be scary, but they all stepped on and by the end you could see their confidence growing as they practised this skill.

10/25/2026

The Heart and the Harness: The Journey of a Service Dog

Every service dog’s story begins long before they take their first official step alongside their life-changing partner. It starts with a tiny, trusting puppy, a pair of oversized paws, and a dedicated community of trainers, puppy raisers, and volunteer foster families who open their hearts and homes to build something extraordinary from the ground up.

Phase 1: The Beginning — Foundations, Routines, and Early Steps
The journey starts with early socialization and basic foundation training. Whether a puppy enters a volunteer raiser’s home at ten weeks or resides with one of our trainers, the daily rhythm is the same. It’s early morning potty runs, crate training, and introducing the world one quiet experience at a time.
During these initial months, we expose young dogs to a spectrum of sights, sounds, textures, and environments—malls, busy streets, parks, transit, and quiet indoor spaces. We teach them focus amidst distractions, impulse control, and confidence. Alongside our dedicated volunteer raisers, we also house, raise, and care for these dogs in our own homes. We share the late-night wake-up calls, the teething phases, the silly breakthroughs, and the quiet moments cuddling after a long day of learning and watching them hit each milestone.

Phase 2: Advanced Training - proofing the training and learning their mitigating tasks
As puppies mature into adolescence, they transition into advanced training. Their natural strengths and aptitudes are evaluated to match specific service pathways—whether that is mobility support, medical response, psychiatric task training, autism or facility.
During this stage, training deepens into precise task work. The dogs learn complex chains of behaviours and attended more advanced outings—such as navigating airports, going to movies , and crowded public events—test and solidify their focus. It is during this phase that you begin to see the shift: the energetic, goofy puppy transforms into a focused, highly attuned professional working dog.

Phase 3: The Hardest Question — "Isn't It Hard to Let Go?"
Whenever someone learns about the process of raising or housing a service dog in training, the question inevitably comes:
“Isn’t it hard to say goodbye?”
The honest answer is simple: Yes. It is incredibly hard.
Because as trainers and raisers, we live alongside our volunteers in this experience. We don't just instruct from the sidelines; we bring these dogs into our personal lives, fall in love with their unique personalities, and build deep bonds with them. We know firsthand the quiet ache that comes with folding up their bed, packing away their favourite toys, and watching them step onto the next path without us.
The heartbreak is real. But so is the purpose.
From the very first day a dog enters our care, we go into it knowing that they do not belong to us forever. We hold them with open arms, giving them all the love, devotion, and structure they need—knowing that the ultimate goal is to pass the leash to someone whose life will be transformed by them.

Phase 4: Matching, Team Training, and Graduation
The magic of the entire journey culminates during matching and team training. This is when the dog is introduced to their partner. Watching a person gain independence, confidence, and freedom through the companionship and specialized tasks of a dog you helped raise is a feeling like no other.
The moment you see the leash transferred—when you witness a person step out into the world with the dog by their side —the ache of saying goodbye turns into profound joy.

The Full Circle
Raising and training a service dog requires an entire village: dedicated volunteer raisers, trainers, and a supportive community, the knowledge that each dog is moving on to bigger and better things—changing a life—makes every tear, every early morning, and every piece of heart poured into them worth it.

10/23/2026

When people think of puppy training, often what comes to mind is a puppy who can sit, down, and stay, but for us, week one with a new puppy is all about setting a deeper foundation!

While our puppies definitely learn those cues along the way, our main focus right now isn't basic obedience. Instead, we prioritize high-value life skills that can be much harder for a dog to learn later in life. The skills we start with are:
* Kenneling: The earlier they learn that their crate is a safe, relaxing space, and are ok to be by themselves, the better!
* Food Refusal & Impulse Control: Critical for a future service dog. Starting young builds self-control from the starts.
* Mealtime Manners: Teaching calmness and patience right from the start.
* Settling: Settling will be a huge part of our dog's life. Fostering this behaviour early in a low-distraction environment sets them up for success when it’s time to settle out in busy public spaces later on!
* Loose Leash Walking: Building strong leash habits early in controlled environments where we have full management before introducing big distractions.

So, how do we build these foundational behaviours? The methods we mainly use at the start include:
🔹 Capturing & Smart x 50: Rather than constantly telling the puppy what to do or luring them, we simply wait for them to offer desirable behaviours on their own and reward them on the spot. This encourages the puppy to think for themselves and increase the chances the puppy offers the desirable behaviour again.
🔹 No Cues Yet: You might notice we don't rush to put a verbal cue (like "sit" or "down") on a behaviour right away. In fact, we wait until the puppy is consistently offering that behaviour about 80% of the time before adding the word.
🔹 Why Wait? If you add a verbal cue too early before the dog truly understands the action, the word loses its meaning, leading to confusion and a poisoned cue. By rewarding the offered behaviour first, the pup builds a strong understanding—so when we do finally label it, they instantly make the connection! 🧠✨

Building a confident, independent thinker starts from day one! 💙🐾

10/22/2026

🎃 Halloween Prep in Progress! 👻

With Halloween right around the corner, some of our teams took on a fun challenge and attended a class at Spirit of Halloween!

From staying calm around spooky moving decorations to navigating crowded aisles, ignoring the other dogs, and practising their tasks and basic obedience, our pups handled it all very well!

Great work to all the teams who joined us! 👏🐾

10/19/2026

Not every disability is visible—and neither is every service dog task. 🐕‍🦺
Disability isn’t one-size-fits-all. For many people living with chronic illnesses, mental health conditions, neurodivergence, or hidden medical conditions, a service dog is a vital key to independence.

When you see a service dog sitting quietly in public, you’re looking at an unwavering lifeline. That steady gaze represents complete focus and instant readiness to support handlers living with chronic illnesses, mental health conditions, neurodivergence, or other hidden conditions.

During Invisible Disabilities Week, remember: support comes in many forms, and true accessibility starts with understanding

10/18/2026

Our dogs stepped back in time with a trip to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller!
Navigating big crowds, different lighting, encountering giant fossil displays, and large crowded galleries takes serious focus, and our pups proved they’re absolute rock stars (and fossil fans!)

Public access exposure in unique environments helps build confidence for when they will be navigating the world at their handler's side.

Special thank you to the team at the Royal Tyrrell Museum for welcoming us for a Jurassic-sized training day! 🦴✨

Address

Box 788
Redcliff, AB

Telephone

+14035800679

Website

http://www.summitservicedogs.com/, https://www.ccpdt.org/dog-owners/certified-dog-trainer-directory/, https://www.albert

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