Meet Quinn, One of the Only Narcolepsy Service Dogs in the World
Quinn is not your typical Great Dane.
With her official name being MBPIG Paquestone’s Quinn Essential ITD NTD-M, she is one of the only Great Dane 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.
Aside from her service work, Quinn also does confirmation dog shows and has already made a name for herself. In fact, she was the #1 Female Great Dane puppy in all of Canada from March to October 2022.
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:
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.
