Yeti the Jet-Setting Service Dog
Joins Austral Education Group Program
Written by Annie Merkley
As you’re getting ready for an arduous international flight, what’s the one thing you can’t leave home without? Your passport? Your beloved travel pillow? Your large, fluffy, four-legged service animal that is vital to your health?
For globe-trotting Alexandra Laxmi Iyer (recent Austral Education Group academic program participant) and her 2 year-old service dog Yeti, there is always an enormous amount of leg work leading up to international flights. Preparation for going through customs can be daunting in this ever-changing, post-pandemic world even without traveling with a service animal. However, Alexandra is learning to take it in stride, as her work calls for her to travel extensively. Having Yeti by her side makes it so that she can manage her mental health at home and on the go.
Alexandra is the Director of Global Engagement for Salesforce.org—the part of Salesforce dedicated to nonprofits and educational institutions. “I love my company and the work that they do!” she said with an infectious laugh. As a marketing professional, Alexandra’s devotion to her goal to make the world a better place is palpable when you talk to her. You immediately know that she’s the real deal. She wants to help get Salesforce in the hands of those who can implement the platform for organizing their locally beneficial programs on a global scale. The sky is the limit for Alexandra’s passion for what she does.
As a do-good go-getter, Alexandra wanted to harness her full potential without the side effects of medication making her feel groggy. She was diagnosed with mental health conditions that led to the use of prescriptions. When she told her psychiatrist about her desire for a medication-free lifestyle, the idea of a service animal landed in her lap.
Admittedly, in hindsight Alexandra went about the process of getting a service animal a bit backwards. She made a bunch of calls and found a breeder through the AKC (American Kennel Club). “Both of Yeti’s parents had been known to be therapy dogs, like they go and visit vets and hospitals and things like that. And I said, well, that makes sense. You know, that these parents will make a service animal baby, you know? So, when I first hooked up with my trainer, they were like, I hope this works!” Alexandra said, it’s recommended to get a service animal after completing training, as it takes very specific disposition and abilities to transition from pet to working animal, and it’s expensive.
Luckily Yeti was able to paw up to the plate and learn the necessary services to assist Alexandra, “go on about each day and with full strength and willpower to get out into the world.” He retrieves medication, or a cell phone on command in critical moments. However, “His biggest service that he provides is preventing panic attacks. He can anticipate when I’m stressed, he can even tell people to stay away from me…He gives me hugs. He puts pressure on me…he will come up and lean up against me so that I can start breathing.”
Yeti’s first trip was in February of this year when he was a service animal in training, and he took to the skies like a pro. The pair has since been to California, Texas, New York, Georgia, Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam, and Santiago, Chile. Lisbon was their first foray out of the USA “That was tough. I’m not gonna lie. There are not the same understandings of what a service animal is in Europe,” said Alexandra. In Portugal she learned when traveling abroad, she needed to know how to say in the local language, “This dog is working. Please don’t touch.”
This past September when Alexandra and Yeti came to Santiago on an Austral Group trip with her Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business MBA program, she made a badge for him that said, “No tocar” or don’t touch in Spanish.
Carolina Olhagaray, Austral Group Program Manager based in Santiago, said that even though Chile’s laws are quite progressive and on par with international standards, it’s different knowing the law and how it is on the ground. Service animals are not a common sight in Santiago, so Carolina went the extra mile to be sure that Alexandra and Yeti felt welcomed during their time in Chile.
Alexandra said it appeared as though people in Santiago were used to service animals. However, she now realizes that Austral Education Group did “a lot of heavy lifting to explain the rules” to the hotel, drivers, speakers, offices etc. prior to their arrival. “One of the things I am grateful for what [Austral Education Group] did is how Carolina printed out the laws as a PDF and highlighted it out for me. Like, here are the areas that you can show to someone if you’re having a problem.”
Aside from having an issue with access to a restaurant and some over-excited mall goers that didn’t understand they shouldn’t pet a working dog with his vest on, Alexandra said her time with Austral Group went off without a hitch. “I have nothing but great things to say,” she exclaimed, saying that she wanted to sing Austral Group’s praises.
As Austral Group aspires to inspire the future leaders of tomorrow, Alexandra and Yeti’s tale is one that showcases how important inclusivity is.
Yeti has been getting recognition online with almost 18,000 followers on TikTok. Alexandra said she is driven to share her story in an effort to help break down the stigma around mental health and would like to “have more education out there on the services animals can provide people and also help people know how to appropriately interact with a person that has a service animal.”
Yeti the Jet-Setting Service Dog
Joins Austral Education Group Program
Written by Annie Merkley
As you’re getting ready for an arduous international flight, what’s the one thing you can’t leave home without? Your passport? Your beloved travel pillow? Your large, fluffy, four-legged service animal that is vital to your health?
For globe-trotting Alexandra Laxmi Iyer (recent Austral Education Group academic program participant) and her 2 year-old service dog Yeti, there is always an enormous amount of leg work leading up to international flights. Preparation for going through customs can be daunting in this ever-changing, post-pandemic world even without traveling with a service animal. However, Alexandra is learning to take it in stride, as her work calls for her to travel extensively. Having Yeti by her side makes it so that she can manage her mental health at home and on the go.
Alexandra is the Director of Global Engagement for Salesforce.org—the part of Salesforce dedicated to nonprofits and educational institutions. “I love my company! I totally drank the Kool-Aid,” she said with an infectious laugh. As a marketing professional, Alexandra’s devotion to her goal to make the world a better place is palpable when you talk to her. You immediately know that she’s the real deal. She wants to help get Salesforce in the hands of those who can implement the platform for organizing their locally beneficial programs on a global scale. The sky is the limit for Alexandra’s passion for what she does.
As a do-good go-getter, Alexandra wanted to harness her full potential without the side effects of medication making her feel groggy. She was diagnosed with mental health conditions that led to the use of prescriptions. When she told her psychiatrist about her desire for a medication-free lifestyle, the idea of a service animal landed in her lap.
Admittedly, in hindsight Alexandra went about the process of getting a service animal a bit backwards. She made a bunch of calls and found a breeder through the AKC (American Kennel Club). “Both of Yeti’s parents had been known to be therapy dogs, like they go and visit vets and hospitals and things like that. And I said, well, that makes sense. You know, that these parents will make a service animal baby, you know? So, when I first hooked up with my trainer, they were like, I hope this works!” Alexandra said, it’s recommended to get a service animal after completing training, as it takes very specific disposition and abilities to transition from pet to working animal, and it’s expensive.
Luckily Yeti was able to paw up to the plate and learn the necessary services to assist Alexandra, “go on about each day and with full strength and willpower to get out into the world.” He retrieves medication, or a cell phone on command in critical moments. However, “His biggest service that he provides is preventing panic attacks. He can anticipate when I’m stressed, he can even tell people to stay away from me…He gives me hugs. He puts pressure on me…he will come up and lean up against me so that I can start breathing.”
Yeti’s first trip was in February of this year when he was a service animal in training, and he took to the skies like a pro. The pair has since been to California, Texas, New York, Georgia, Lisbon, Paris, Amsterdam, and Santiago, Chile. Lisbon was their first foray out of the USA “That was tough. I’m not gonna lie. There are not the same understandings of what a service animal is in Europe,” said Alexandra. In Portugal she learned when traveling abroad, she needed to know how to say in the local language, “This dog is working. Please don’t touch.”
This past September when Alexandra and Yeti came to Santiago on an Austral Group trip with her Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business MBA program, she made a badge for him that said, “No tocar” or don’t touch in Spanish.
Carolina Olhagaray, Austral Group Program Manager based in Santiago, said that even though Chile’s laws are quite progressive and on par with international standards, it’s different knowing the law and how it is on the ground. Service animals are not a common sight in Santiago, so Carolina went the extra mile to be sure that Alexandra and Yeti felt welcomed during their time in Chile.
Alexandra said it appeared as though people in Santiago were used to service animals. However, she now realizes that Austral Education Group did “a lot of heavy lifting to explain the rules” to the hotel, drivers, speakers, offices etc. prior to their arrival. “One of the things I am grateful for what [Austral Education Group] did is how Carolina printed out the laws as a PDF and highlighted it out for me. Like, here are the areas that you can show to someone if you’re having a problem.”
Aside from having an issue with access to a restaurant and some over-excited mall goers that didn’t understand they shouldn’t pet a working dog with his vest on, Alexandra said her time with Austral Group went off without a hitch. “I have nothing but great things to say,” she exclaimed, saying that she wanted to sing Austral Group’s praises.
As Austral Group aspires to inspire the future leaders of tomorrow, Alexandra and Yeti’s tale is one that showcases how important inclusivity is.
Yeti has been getting recognition online with almost 18,000 followers on TikTok. Alexandra said she is driven to share her story in an effort to help break down the stigma around mental health and would like to “have more education out there on the services animals can provide people and also help people know how to appropriately interact with a person that has a service animal.”
