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Maverick, the four-year-old bull terrier, is a medical alert and response assistance dog for his owner, Dariah Porter. Maverick officially began his role as a fully trained Assistance Dog at two and a half years old.
Although not originally assigned as an assistance dog, training Maverick for his assistance role required lots of dedication and hard work.
“Maverick was 15 months old and gone through a couple of owners that didn’t know much about the breed, and although they very dearly loved him, they were in way over their heads.”, Dariah said.
“I had a 15-month dog that had no training at all and it was absolute chaos.”
In typical bull terrier fashion, Maverick was great with children despite not having much training at the time.
Dariah lives with several complex medical conditions like:
POTS is the main condition Maverick assist Dariah with, and she explains how it’s basically like being allergic to gravity.
“When you stand up the capillaries through your legs constrict mine don't so to compensate my heart just beats really fast.”
“It can cause a lot of issues but there are a lot of other symptoms with it as well and he can alert that before anything happens.”, said Dariah.
Maverick alerts when Dariah is having cluster headaches and blood sugar and cardiac issues before any symptoms.
The value of Maverick’s work is undeniable as there are no medical devices that can do what he does.
“If it’s Cardiac related he will paw at and or guide me, if it's blood sugar he will jump at me, if it’s blood glucose he will tap me with his nose.”
Maverick is also trained in guide work helping Dariah navigate during episodes of dizziness, disorientation, or vision disturbances along with retrieving dropped items, carrying objects, and assisting with non-weight-bearing balance.
Utilising a dog’s strong sense of smell, scent training is used to teach a dog to alert their owners to medical conditions.
“Training is done through scent training using saliva or sweat with something semi-absorbent, and you wait until the condition flares to get a sample.”
“You then shape the behaviour you want it's no different to teaching tricks.”
Dariah was surprised how quickly Maverick learnt things, just in time to step up to the role with Dariah’s previous assistance dog retiring.
Maverick is classed as a legitimate assistance dog under the Australian Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA), specifically under Section 9(2)(c), which defines an assistance animal as ‘one that is trained to assist a person with a disability to alleviate the effects of that disability.’
Laws regarding assistance animals are generally determined on a federal level and then followed by state laws which may be different in each state.
“The federal law is like an umbrella and then state laws under it, in Queensland they have the GHAD that mandates pat assessments yet the federal law doesn't.”
Recently Tasmania have just had laws passed in parliament with Dariah and Maverick taking part in media coverage to help their state laws represent the federal laws.
Some common ways to train up assistance dogs is through organisations like Guide Dogs and Assistance Dogs Australia who train and assign dogs or individuals can take up the journey of training their own dogs like Dariah has.
“You then sit a pat assessment to get the organisation jacket with the most common being MindDog, although these options are not mandatory as owners training themselves under 9(2)(c) have the same legal protections.”
“All training must be documented and proof of your disability and your dog’s health when out and about.”, said Dariah.”
The five restricted breeds in Australia are the American Pitbull Terrier, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Tosa Inu and the Presa Canario. Any or all forms of these breeds cannot work as an assistance animal. Any form of wolfdog is also prohibited. If your dog's a registered dangerous dog cannot be an assistance animal. Dingoes cannot be assistance dogs even if it's legal in a state as federally, it's restricted.
Having Maverick by her side has helped Dariah on an emotional level.
“Living with over 36 medical conditions it takes its toll so having psychological support makes a big difference, and just simply knowing if anything happens, I'm going to know and not experience what I had to before.”
“Having Maverick is the difference between isolation and participation, vulnerability and security, risk and reliability, he is not only my medical safety net, he is my lifeline.”
Being a purebred Bull Terrier, behaviours, traits, instincts and physical characteristics are predictable.
“This predictability allows for a better understanding of how the dog is likely to behave, respond to training, and adapt to different environments or stressors.”
“It also means that Maverick comes from a known lineage, which gives valuable insight into his genetic background, health history, temperament, and physical soundness all critical factors for selecting and training an assistance dog.”
“Bull Terriers aren’t common in these roles as they are known for their strong-willed and somewhat stubborn nature, however with proper guidance they can excel they are very loyal, emotionally intuitive, bond deeply with their humans, intelligent, alert, and eager to please when properly guided”.
“Before Maverick was trained, he would come inside and do parkour up the couch and that's how he behaved because he didn't have that outlet. Yet now he has proper drive, focus and a purpose he absolutely incredible.”
“They do have genetic predispositions to not being as tolerant to certain things, to say otherwise is just silly.”
“As someone who's had backyard and poorly bred dogs, I didn't want to go down that path and risk a dog retiring early, I didn’t want those preventable health issues.”
"Maverick’s brother is just like him, very stable, doesn't have those massive temperament issues that my non-dogs Australia dogs had.”
Thinking about the future Dariah is looking at getting her next dog again from a Dogs Australia breeder.
"Getting a dog and knowing what to expect and knowing that my money is not being wasted on something that I don't know what's going happen. It's invaluable, really."
Dogs Australia is a not-for-profit organisation advocating for the preservation of purebred dogs through ethical breeding.
It champions the highest standard of animal welfare through education and fostering dog-loving communities.
Internationally recognised and established in 1958 as the Australian National Kennel Council (ANKC),
the organisation promotes responsible dog ownership; maintains the ORCHID* heritable canine diseases database;
funds research into canine diseases; and supports state and territory-based member bodies.
Dogs Australia promotes breed conformation shows and community sports for dogs that fulfil a breed’s natural instincts.
