Mobility service dogs

Since 1993, Mira has been offering service dogs to help adults and children with physical disabilities in their daily lives.

Discover the benefits of these dogs and learn more about the program’s eligibility requirements.

What is the mobility service dog program?

The mobility service dog program is designed to assist any person with a mobility impairment, an organic impairment or a neuromuscular disease. The majority of beneficiaries registered in this program use wheelchairs (manual or motorized).

Mobility service dogs help people with disabilities become autonomous because they are trained to:

Pick up objects on the ground
Serve as a support or rest
Pull a wheelchair

A learning period is required to have a service dog in your daily life. Communication between a dog and student is not established as quickly as it would be between two people.

Our program enables people who live with a physical disability to master the use of a service dog in their daily lives, in their home as well as outside.

Discover our facilities

Eligibility Criteria for the Mobility Service Dog Program

To participate in the mobility service dog program, you must:

Have permanent impaired mobility
Have a significant and persistent movement impairment
Have an up-to-date medical record (Please download the medical report and have it filled out by your doctor before proceeding with your request)
Be able to care for your dog

Déroulement du programme

Evaluation

A first meeting will be held with a physiotherapist and one of our coaches to determine the beneficiary’s capabilities and needs. This assessment lasts approximately half a day.

Training

Subsequently, the admitted person will be housed in our facilities for 3 weeks. During this period, he or she will take part in a course with at most 8 students, to learn how to use the dog’s skills in daily life.

Mira provides for all students’ housing. During his or her stay, each recipient has a private room and is offered 3 free meals a day in the residence’s dining room. For the children’s program, parents are also housed in our residence.

Follow-Up

After this training, a Mira employee will proceed to a personalized follow-up at home, to ensure that the service dog is properly integrating all instructions and that it is adapting to the beneficiary.

Application Request

Due to the high volume of requests, for ethical concern to serve the people waiting in a reasonable time and to ensure optimal service to active beneficiaries (including renewals), the service dog program no longer accepts new applications for the moment. Any changes regarding the reopening of the program will be indicated on this page.

Témoignages

Vidéo du témoignage d'une personne ayant eu recours au programme de chien d'assistance de Mira

Transcript

Chloé Séguin : « En 2015, c’est là que je suis devenue vraiment paraplégique. Paraplégique, ça prend de l’énergie. Moi je ne pensais pas et je suis quand même quelqu’un qui est fière dans la vie. Et non, je ne serai pas fatiguée et je vais être capable de tenir le coup durant mes journées... Non ! Je me suis rendue compte que je fatigue plus vite et le chien fait que je suis capable de tenir le coup dans mes journées. Sortir de chez moi, me promener, c’est compliqué. Je me rends pas loin, je viens fatiguée, mais avec le chien je peux sortir de chez nous. Je me rends compte que de sortir et de juste respirer l’air de dehors, juste de voir autre chose que les quatre murs de chez nous, ça fait du bien. Je le sais déjà qu’on va avoir une belle complicité. Ça va peut-être faire un mois en tout que je passe du temps avec lui, mais quand je feel pas, il se colle et il met sa tête sur ma cuisse. Quand il fait ça, ça met un petit plaster. Toute l’expérience Mira ça l’apporte beaucoup plus que ce que je pensais que ça allait apporter. Tout ce qui est physique, ça je m’y attendais. Qu’il fasse du bien en dedans, ça je m’y attendais pas ».