Paquestone’s Quinn Essential | Great Dane Narcolepsy Service Dog

Meet Quinn, One of the Only Narcolepsy Service Dogs in the World

Quinn is not your typical Great Dane.

With her official name being BOSS GCh Paquestone’s Quinn Essential CGN NTD-M ITD, she is one of the only narcolepsy service dogs in the world. Her handler (and mom!), Michelle Weger, is owner of Venture Creative Collective, a well regarded business advisory, automation, and website development company. 

Outside of her service work, Quinn competes in conformation dog shows. She earned her Canadian Grand Champion title before she turned 2 years old. In addition, as a puppy she was ranked as the #1 Female Great Dane puppy in all of Canada for the majority of 2022.

Paquestones Quinn Essential Narcolepsy Service Dog
Quinn on The National
Quinn on CBC Marketplace
quinn in bathtub postcard

Despite all of her achievements, when she isn’t working, Quinn is just like any other dog and loves playing frisbee and going on adventures with her family.  

What makes Quinn truly special are her talents, which include scent detection, agility, and using buttons to communicate. These skills were honed during her training with Maximus, Michelle’s first narcolepsy service dog. When Quinn was fully trained, Maximus retired from service work and Quinn took over as Michelle’s day-to-day service dog. Unfortunately, Maximus passed away in December 2022 at the age of 12.

Quinn is a popular figure on social media with her very own Instagram account. Join Quinn and her family as they continue to break barriers and raise awareness for narcolepsy service dogs.

You can follow her journey and see her in action on IG:

Quinn's Instagram
Quinn FAQ

Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that causes excessive daytime sleepiness and sudden sleep attacks, as well as other symptoms such as cataplexy, sleep paralysis, and hallucinations. It is believed to be caused by a deficiency of the chemical hypocretin in the brain. There is no cure for narcolepsy.

  • Trained to notice the small changes that take place when a person with narcolepsy is about to have cataplexy + nudge them to alert to it. She will escalate the intensity of the alerts if not listened to. This helps to prevent the handler from falling or getting hurt from cataplexy.
  • Waking the owner up if they sleep through the alarm clock.
  • Fetch medication or other objects.
  • Reminding the person to take medicine.
Quinn weighs 115lbs currently, but she is still growing! Quinn is expected to be closer to 130lbs by age 3 when she finishes growing.
Quinn eats 4lbs of raw food each day.
Quinn was born June 20th 2021. Her little had 4 puppies; 2 girls and 2 boys.
Yes! Quinn has flown on 15 individual flights as of February 27th 2023. She sits in the foot space of her handler’s feet. You’d be surprised how small such a big dog can get!
michelle with quinn outside blue sky
michelle nabil quinn 40 under 40 tl
quinn winning award outside