Colarado co. selling untrained SDs??

[ILGHAUS]

Heidi Hemmat Investigative Reporter
KDVR
Dever, CO

Colorado company accused of selling untrained service dogs

Quotes from the newpaper article:

Tina Rivero owns “Noelle’s Dogs Four Hope,” in Colorado Springs. She sells peanut-sniffing dogs and seizure response dogs across the country. ...

She did agree to have her handlers demonstrate her dog’s skills. Seizure dog, Alice, would not fetch medicine even when it was thrown on the ground like a ball.

And then there’s Gunner, a peanut-sniffing dog that could not locate the peanut products strategically throughout a room. ...

There is no regulation on service dog companies, so experts say you should do your homework, talk to other service dog owners and get the training credentials of the person who will teach your dog.


http://www.kdvr.com/news/kdvr-colorado-company-accused-of-se-110910,0,7407967.story

[KZoppa]

finally she's getting bad press. She's been doing this for years. Been in and out of the news for the last couple years for the same problems. only now instead of snippets, she's getting a full segment of bad press. I'm sorry, if i'm spending 7K on a dog thats supposed to do a specific task or a set of tasks, they had BETTER do it!!!

[ILGHAUS]

She did agree to have her handlers demonstrate her dog’s skills. Seizure dog, Alice, would not fetch medicine even when it was thrown on the ground like a ball.

For $7,000. you would at least expect the dog to do a nice "fetch".

The most that I ever received for working with a SDIT on retrieving an item was the grateful handler gave me a gallon of fresh milk from his small herd and told me to come back anytime for some more. Guess a dog that can not only retrieve but also place the item in the handler's lap should be then considered a $10,000. dog. Humm.... I should have held out for a gallon of chocolate milk.

[ILGHAUS]

A report from a 2nd source /quote:

In Your Corner 4
Scott Hines
Thursday November 11

So far...our investigation has turned up complaints in Colorado, California, and Nevada. The family from Nevada even sent its peanut sniffing service dog back to Rivero after it ate peanuts...putting their allergic child at risk. To this point...Rivero has stayed mum on the matter... refusing to comment specifically on any of the complaints. She told a reporter with our sister station in Denver that she's wrongly accused and ALL of her service dogs are properly trained...with the exception of those dogs that are still in training...like the Matlack's dog. Trust me...this story is far from over.

In Your Corner 4

[ILGHAUS]

http://www.theledger.com/article/20100805/NEWS/8055058
By Gary White
THE LEDGER

Published: Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 12:28 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 12:28 a.m.

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or at 863-802-7518.
This story appeared in print on page A1
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.

And as for my daughters name or using any of her info....it may have been public, but the places that used the stories both had PERMISSION to say what they said...this forum however...does NOT.

[Debbicia]

OK...first and foremost...whoever felt the need to post ANYTHING about my MINOR daughter without consent needs to remove it IMMEDIATELY before I contact an attorney.
Second...maybe you should do a bit more checking into things before jumping to conclusions about this company or their dogs.
Yes...my daughter is Tabitha Cooke. Yes...she received a dog (puppy) from Noelle's Dogs four Hope. Anything you felt the need to assume and therefore bash this company about is wrong or missing pertinent information.
You want to know???? Here goes. Tabitha received Kiara (yes....it's a Disney name and my daughter absolutely loved the fact that she was able to pick the name from Disney names) back in October. Kiara was partially obedience trained....she was and is still a puppy. She was 3 months old when we got her. Was she a service dog? Nope...not yet.....Did she alert to Tab's seizures when we got her??? Nope...but has not only alerted to Tab's but to another man's seizures that she didn't even know. Did Noelle's train her for that??? Nope...and neither did we. NO company can train a dog to EVER do that. They (any company) cannot guarantee that the service dog that is paired with the person will even learn to do it. It's got nothing to do with the breed...it's all up to the dog. We are thrilled that Kiara has begun alerting at such an early age. Does that make her a service dog???? Still nope. But she will be making another trip back to Colorado for her service dog training. Then....and ONLY THEN....will she be a service dog....and since she is also alerting...she will have earned the title of SAD. If she was a German Shepherd she still may not ever alert.
The people that are sooooo unhappy with their dogs...for some strange reason thought that their puppy (which the reason they are sent as puppies is so they can have a stronger bond with their person...which can hopefully bring about a better chance of seizure alerting) was already a service dog which is completely ludicrous. Did they not read ANYTHING that they signed????? I think the issue here is that these unhappy people just weren't into the whole puppy thing....and used the BS as an excuse to bail. Can a puppy that is GOING to be trained as a peanut sniffing dog, already sniff them out? Of course not. Will it EAT a peanut??? Of course. It's a puppy. They will eat ANYTHING that is food. Since it hasn't been taught that peanuts are bad...why would it NOT eat it??? Is there anyone out there with half a brain to see this???
Oh...and you stated the different dogs Tab had her choice of...you quoted from the newspaper...and conveniently left out the part where she was also offered a GERMAN SHEPHERD....but she didn't choose that breed after just dealing with the heartbreak of a different organization making promises...straight to HER...not to me....and then breaking ALL of those promises to my child.
As for the $7500....first of all, you do get a choice....if you don't want to train the PUPPY using the training workbook, than they will do it. If you choose, however, to do it yourself, than $1000 is knocked off the $7500 bringing it to $6500...which if you did ANY homework before posting your BS you would know is A LOT less expensive than the other places. I found the cheapest other one at about $18,000. And I know one person who got their dog from that place and it wasn't even fixed...so they had a female dog supposedly doing it's service dog thing...while in heat...and everyone knows that no matter how well trained a dog is....if it's in heat and a male approaches...all training goes out the window.
I've also encountered places where the dogs went for $25,000-$32,000. I did come across one place that offered them free...as long as you were willing to get rid of any other animals that you may have and sign an agreement to NEVER have any.
I'm sorry....I am very happy with Noelle's Angel Dogs Four Hope. I am also happy with both Tina and Noelle Rivero. They have ALWAYS been available to answer any questions that Tabbee or I have had and have helped us through any rough puppy spots. It is an awesome company and family that has kept their word on everything they said...which is more than I can say about a different one that we dealt with.
Kiara and Tabbee are both bonding very well and Kiara will be going away for a bit for her training....we are both going to miss her terribly..but have every bit of faith that when she comes back to us she will be a full fledged service/seizure alert dog. Until then....she is Tabitha's baby....and she is loved for what she is. A service dog/puppy IN TRAINING!!!!!

And for the record I am forwarding this reply as well as the
whole thread to Noelle's Dog's Four Hopes attorney's.

[Dr89]

There is a thousand things wrong with the above post, so much that I don't know where to begin.

I guess I'll just take the easy route and say that a 3 month old goldendoodle isn't a service dog (a goldendoodle isn't even a breed, so wherever she got it just contributed to the onslaught of BYB's and the downfall of so many breeds, but thats a whole other topic), and I have no idea why you would pay that amount of money for one. You could rescue a GSD, lab, golden, or mix of some kind for like 75 bucks, and then take it to a good trainer, or even board it, for around 500 bucks, give or take...and have like 3 times the dog?

As for mentioning you're daughters name, perhaps it wasn't necessary, but if it was in the public press then it definitely wasn't illegal...so I don't know what you're attorney has to do with anything.

[Debbicia]

Did you not read what I wrote??? She isn't a service dog. She will BE a service dog. She is in training....I don't have an issue with it...why do you? And as for my daughters name or using any of her info....it may have been public, but the places that used the stories both had PERMISSION to say what they said...this forum however...does NOT. I will not have anything negative associated with her name. You did NOT contact me for permission to use it, it was NOT approved by me. Remove it.

[krystyne73]

actually once you have consented to any publication which is internet accessible (public record) it can therefore be used for reproduction.

[Debbicia]

As for her breed...why don't you do a little reading on them before making your negative comments. She is the pup of a purebred standard poodle and a purebred golden retriever which results in an F1 Goldendoodle.
I just don't get why you would make such comments without doing any research at all.