KITCHENER — Rex and Scott Benett go everywhere together, from golfing and boating to attending restaurants and parties. So when Benett decided he wanted to snowboard, it was only natural that Rex would come, too.

Benett is an active 18-year-old from Cambridge. Rex, a two-year-old German shepherd, is a medical service dog from Thames Centre Service Dogs.

This winter, the pair made the most unlikely sight on the slopes at Chicopee Ski and Summer Resort in Kitchener. Benett has trained the dog to ride the chair lift with him, and run behind his snowboard as he glides down the hill.

"We'll go for about two, two and a half hours at a time. Then he's just out of juice," Benett said. "He just basically runs behind me the whole way down. It's a lot of work for him."

After training Rex on tobogganing hills, the teen brought Rex to Chicopee in late December. They did a trial run before the ski hill opened, and have been back regularly ever since.

"I emailed Chicopee on a whim. I looked, and I couldn't find anything in Canada about skiing with service dogs," Benett said.

The local ski hill told him they'd never been asked about allowing a service dog before, but figured out a way to make it work. Chicopee checked with the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, the government body that regulates ski lifts, and found there was nothing stopping a dog from riding a chair lift.

Chicopee showed Benett and Rex how to safely use the lifts, and trained its staff on how to handle a service dog on the hill.

"Chicopee was great. They said, 'We've never had anything like this, but we'll figure it out,'" said Benett, who graduated high school last year and is working toward his real estate licence.

"Their only concern was how do we do this safely. We addressed all those concerns, and they were really excited."

Rex doesn't wear much when he goes snowboarding. Just a special harness — Chicopee checked that it was strong enough in case they need to rescue him from a chair lift — and a pair of custom goggles. He also wears a special cream on his paws to protect them from the ice and snow.

Rex took to the ski hill like a natural, although the chair lift took some getting used to.

"The first, day we just practised sitting on the chairlift, jumping up and down, getting him used to the rocking motion," Benett said. "The next time we were out we actually ran the chairlift. I just gave him lots of food and treats to get him comfortable on it."

The dog has since gotten the hang of it nicely, he said. Benett hopes to slowly move Rex up to the larger chair lifts.

Benett commands Rex with a series of hand signals. The dog follows about three metres behind him as he snowboards down the hill. If Benett falls, the dog knows to stop.

Crowds at Chicopee have been curious to see a dog on the slopes, but Benett is quick to explain Rex is a service dog and not a pet. It's more than just a novelty. Staff at Chicopee think they may be the first ski hill anywhere to allow a service dog to use a lift.

"We checked, and it seems we're one of the first ski resorts, if not the first, to do this," said Chicopee executive director Bill Creighton.

Liz Wadeson, Chicopee's director of guest experience, said the ski hill asked other resorts for policies on service dogs using their slopes, but none existed. So they had to develop their own, and sort out all the logistics.

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All it took was a local teenager to force the issue.

"Scott is really a pioneer. It's pretty unique, and it was brand new to us," Wadeson said.

"People who live with visible and invisible disabilities, I think they just want to be a part of everything that's going on. So when you get a person like Scott who challenges barriers, we'll see this more and more."

Now that he knows Rex can handle the challenge of snowboarding, Benett says he's just looking forward to getting out on the hill more often.

"When we got down to the bottom of the hill, after that first try, it was just great to know this could work," he said. "He's a good boy."

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