Protectapet are pleased to announce our unique Guide Dog Healthcare Plan for Europe, exclusive to Protectapet, The European Pet Healthcare Management Organisation.
Quotes are currently being provided on an individual basis so that the Guide Dog health cover can be quickly tailored to your specific needs. Please call 0034 965756371 or contact us or request a call Back.
Protectapet were the first to introduce pet Insurance/Pet healthcare Plans in Spain. Since then, many other insurance companies have copied and tried to emulate our products without being able to offer the comprehensive and exclusive cover that we do.
Our premiums are fixed for the lifetime of your pet, you can use of any Vet of your choice, we cover any breed and age of cat or dog with up to 4 x higher levels of cover than other companies. Our clients can speak directly with us if they wish, because we offer a personal and friendly service. We are pet parents too, meet our pets in the about section on our website. We are highly trained and are specialists in Pet Healthcare!
Protectapet are not an insurance agent or insurance company. We are the only approved Pet Healthcare Company in Spain, licensed, authorised and inspected by the Spanish D.G.S.F.P.
Because we can! No Pet insurance company in Europe (at this time) offers any purpose Pet Healthcare Plans for guide dogs or assistance dogs and we thought it about time there was. We are an innovative company, which is why other insurance companies are trying to keep up with us by introducing similar products years after we have introduced them. We care about pets and their owners, and now we are providing innovative cover for those with guide dogs or assistance dogs.
Protectapet are well renowned for offering exclusive cover that other insurance companies offering the standard pet insurance policies are unable to match, including fixed premiums for life and easy monthly payments. Protectapet offer open-ended contracts that you can cancel at any time and all our own products have a full money back guarantee if you are not totally satisfied.
There is a mandate written into the laws that you are required, as handlers, to keep your dogs properly groomed and clean, in good health, visit the veterinarian annually for a physical exam, and keep your dogs free of parasites. If at any time the handler is charged with abuse, they can lose their right to an assistance dog. If at any time the dog acts aggressively or destroys property, the dog can have their certification cancelled. You won’t see people working dysplastic dogs here either – hip and elbow x-rays are a requirement for certification, as well as having your candidate spayed or neutered prior to certification.
Guide dogs wear fluorescent strips around their white harness. ... Assistance in disability dogs wear bright red. Like Canine Partners' trained dogs, they help disabled people with daily tasks but are trained up by living with their disabled owner.
Spain are not the best when it comes to providing services for those that need guide dogs or assistance dogs, particularly with regulations. With so many different autonomous regions in Spain having the capacity to create their own laws, it can be daunting to find out what each community areas rules are and how they are applied.
As you can imagine, most of the information may be technical and often not available for expats in English. Some regions in Spain only recognise guide dogs for the visually impaired, and thanks to some pressure from organisations supporting the blind and impaired, some regions have improved rules regarding assistance dogs.
For starters, for the most part our dogs are called “assistance dogs” rather than service dogs, as in most of Europe, “service dog” refers to dogs in military or police service.
The second major difference here is that assistance dogs must be certified and there are steps outlined that we must follow. For the most part, you won’t see very many owner-trained dogs here. The vast majority are program dogs; more often than not, guide dogs either trained by ONCE (the Spanish Association for the Blind) or by an American Guide Dog program.
Recent surveys have shown that over 70% of Spaniards prefer to mitigate their disabilities with typical medical equipment such as walkers, canes, wheelchairs or human assistants, rather than have to care for, feed, and train a dog to help them.
Owner-trained dogs are somewhat of a novelty here in Spain, primarily because there are only two program´s here that will aid a person with disability in evaluating and training their own dog to assist them, and guide them through the certification process.
Spain unfortunately has breed specific legislation, and any dog of a breed on the national “dangerous dog” list is automatically excluded. This means Akitas, Dobermans, Rottweilers, Pit Bulls, and a few other breeds can not be assistance dogs here.
When travelling abroad with your Assistance Dog, there are five main things you will have to get done before your canine will be allowed into the country;
Dogs can board with passengers, provided they are have a muzzle, collar and lead, at no additional cost. If the dog is travelling in the cabin, it will be placed next to the passenger in a place indicated by the crew.
We recommend you notify the airline a minimum of 48 hours in advance.
If you are travelling from a country other than Spain, your guide dog may have to travel in the hold.
As far as we are aware, there are no quarantine imposed on guide dogs for the blind if certain criteria are met. We are currently investigating the criteria and will provide that information as soon as we have verified the details.
first the dog is evaluated for suitability by an approved program trainer, and then training begins. Training consists of a minimum of 120 hours of obedience, on and off leash, privately and in groups, to ensure that the dog is exposed to as many different situations as possible. All training hours must be logged, and the trainer signs off on the logs before those are submitted for Stage Two.
Stage Two consists of a further 120 hours minimum of public access training, and can only commence once stage one is complete. logs must be completed and the trainer signs off on that to begin the final stage of training, and possibly the most important of all: task training.
Stage Three is task training. Some trainers prefer to do that separately, after obedience and public access.
In basic training, the instructors build on guide skills like stopping at curbs, travelling in a straight line, avoiding obstacles, making turns, and stopping for traffic. They also start working on new skills, such as having the dog find an empty chair.
Certification consists of an extensive task training test, public access test, and obedience test. If at any time during testing a dog shows an aggressive or fearful response, the test is immediately failed.
If you are looking for a guide dog or more information on guide dogs and assistance dogs, please contact ONCE.
Protectapet
The European Pet Healthcare Management Organisation
A registered trading name of
Plegasus Europe SL | CIF: B53888699
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03726 Benitachell,
Alicante, Spain.
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