heavenscentpaws

Written by Abi's mom:
My 15 yo daughter went thru Heaven Scent Paws (HSP). We
attended the 3 week class in February. we worked hard to raise
approximately $7,500 for HSP. We mailed in scent items for
dog training and were so anxious to attend class and receive our
'highly trained diabetic alert dog' (as per the HSP website, which
has since been changed!) needless to say, we did NOT return
home with a 'highly trained diabetic alert dog'. While there, our
dog's strange behavior was explained away as 'trust issues' and
we were told not to allow anyone to pet the dog. hmmm - I now
know why we were told not to have anyone pet the dog: the dog
had SERIOUS fear and aggression issues. Shortly after arriving
home and being overwhelmed with the issues we were having
with our dog, we were cut off from the HSP support blog - well,
we were told that it was a 'glitch' in the system; however, this
same 'glitch' just happened to occur to several others who were
having similar problems with their dogs (5 out of 12 from the Feb
class had problems with their dogs!!!) We were told that the
'glitch' would be fixed soon - I'm still waiting!!

So, being cut off from the group and not getting satisfactory help
from HSP, we had our dog evaluated by 2 highly credentialed K-9
scent experts. We were told that our dog had NO recognition of the
'target odor' (my daughter's low BG scent) and that the dog was not
properly trained as a service animal. The dog growled at me, at other
members of our family, at friends and at strangers. The dog even had
to be muzzled by a vet for a routine check up!! This dog was definitely
NOT service dog quality to say the least - she was too scared of
everything and everybody, except my daughter. Letting her go back
to HSP, was none-the-less excruciatingly painful, because the 2 of
them had bonded all-the-more tightly because of her 'trust issues'.
Before sending
her back, two different vets also examined her and were outraged that
such a dog would be marketed as a 'service animal'. I could go on and
on - and I will happily answer any questions that anyone would like to
ask .

..the bottom line is that we contributed $7,500 to HSP and we have NO
dog, NO refund and a lot of pain.

in "defense" of HSP, I must say that they STATE that they are
selecting another dog for my daughter. However, in light of our
broken trust in that company, I made several requests which were
denied: I requested
video of standard temperament testing on the new dog for us to view.
Request denied.
I also requested that an outside source, a credentialed and
experienced K-9 trainer in scent detection be present when HSP
delivered our new dog (at my own expense) I reasoned that this would
be like a "2nd opinion" that any
reputable professional would welcome. I just wanted to verify that the
new dog could actually recognize the
target odor.
Request denied.

The first dog cost us a lot of pain and expense. There were
incomplete vet records, so we had a LOT of expense in the
dog after we got home - to update standard boosters of
which there were no records. I did NOT want to put our
family thru all of that without a few 'reassurances'

in short, I could not recommend Heaven Scent Paws to
ANYONE!!!

***note that there are currently 28 (twenty-eight) complaints filed
with the Missouri Attorney General's Office
http://www.consumer.ago.mo.gov/searc...aintSearch.cgi -
you will have to search, "Heaven Scent Paws".***