I find it a shame that folks are just waking up to the incredible roles animals can play in making our lives better. Today, service animals such as dogs are helping people with all kinds of physical and mental conditions cope with their challenges and even live fuller and happier lives. I can only imagine how much better millions of veteran’s lives would have been if they had service dogs to comfort them after coming from nightmarish war fronts. Unfortunately, while Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome had many different names over the history of warfare, most governments didn’t see it as a serious concern until recent years.
Today, there are many folks working hard to ensure that vets have more access to service dogs that are proven to help ease anxiety and promote relaxation and calm within troubled souls. However, not every dog is cut out to be a service animal, it takes special training and lots of practice for dogs to become qualified companions. One key aspect of their training is making sure that they are properly socialized. Animals who become anxious and nervous, especially in large crowds or loud environments, can’t properly serve their veterans, plus they can pose a danger to themselves and others. In this video, a service dog undergoes a very special socialization experiment as part of his training.
Image via Rumble
In the experiment, Ace, the service dog, is taken to Disneyland, where he gets to meet Pluto, who is tasked with making the pup break his stay command. Ace was in the process of training to become a service dog assisting the blind. But, as you can see, the pup has a little trouble controlling his excitement upon meeting one of the biggest doggy celebrities in the world. And who can blame him? Fortunately, Ace still had between six and nine more months of training, which is plenty of time to work out all of his star-struck tendencies.
Image via Rumble
Watch as Ace’s adorable meeting with Pluto at Disneyland in the video below.
