SDiT

The journey of a golden retriever pup training to be a mobility service dog for a veteran.

[psychiatric-service-dog]

Are you a Psychiatric SD/SDiT Handler?

Reblog or respond so I can follow you.

[flexing-shepherds]

[myservicedogadventure-deactivat]

Hire a Professional Trainer

Someone recently suggested that the reason I so frequently advocate owner trainers consult with a professional trainer is so that I can feel superior because I am wealthy. Let me dispel this myth through a metaphor.

Training a service dog is like building a house. Legally, I can build my own house if I want. I can go read wikihow and ask questions on forums and talk to the salesperson at Home Depot. Then I can grab a hammer and build a house.

However, if I try and do it alone, I will make many mistakes. Odds are I will even mess up so badly I have to start all over. I will waste time and money and energy messing up over and over again.

But if I hire a contractor, he can help me avoid many mistakes.

Now, even contractors hire help when they need it. They hire plumbers and electricians and other specialists to help them. Even professionals consult professionals sometimes.

There are people online who say “Look! I did it all by myself!” And point to a treehouse. This is disingenuous because the house has no electricity or running water or glass in the windows. It works for them, but won’t work for most of us. And they never reveal the structural integrity of their house. I have seen several if these metaphorical treehouses in real life.

Taking the metaphor a step further, getting a service dog from a program is not lazy. It is not being superior because we have more money (note: I received my dog free of charge). It is acknowledging that we don’t know how to build a house. And there is nothing wrong with that. I know how to do household repairs and I know how to bake and I know how to fix your wifi.

There is nothing wrong with recognizing limitations and working with them.

Hire a professional.

[girlidiotdotcom-deactivated2023]

[slytherinmattmurdock]

Before you pet a service dog, I want you to stop for a second and imagine that you’re in a wheelchair. Imagine that every day people ask you, “I’ve had a really tough day, can I sit in your chair?” Imagine people passing you, constantly trying to touch the wheels, to grab the handles, and steer you in another direction. I want you to imagine people saying in loud, uncovered whispers as they pass, “I wish I could sit down all day.” I want you to imagine people trying to guess what’s wrong with you, and coming to the conclusion that you’re faking it. I want you to imagine all of this and then tell yourself, before you pet a service dog, “service dogs are medical equipment.”

Before You Pet a Service Dog

[tomblr-in-action]

Also it's disgusting to treat living creatures like dogs as /equipment/.

I kind of agree with you, but I’m trying to pick my battles wisely, so to speak (not worth arguing with them about it IMO).

[myservicedogadventure-deactivat]

This is a common myth I would like to debunk. Legally a service dog is classified as medical equipment just as legally a pet dog is classified as property. It is often helpful to reference this classification when explaining proper service dog etiquette.

But just because a service dog is called medical equipment does not mean that the dog is *treated* like medical equipment. I call myself a dog owner. That does not mean I treat my dog the same way I treat the toaster I own. It is just recognizing the legal and practical role of my dog in my life.

Emotionally describing the role of a service dog is nearly impossible because there is no other relationship that mimics the one I have with my dog. My dog is my best friend. But, unlike a typical best friend, my dog is by my side 24/7. You could argue that my dog is like a spouse or life partner because we share a deep mutually beneficial love and are always looking out for each other. But you could also argue my dog is like my child because I am responsible for ensuring her proper care at all times. And there is no relationship at all that fully abled people experience where they are suddenly able to access the world, to explore society and participate in life, through the aid of another being. Of course, my dog is also like my purse in that I keep it close to me and consider it part of my personal space so I dislike it when strangers start touching it. Overall, It is a deeply personal kind of relationship and one that cannot be easily summarized.

Since there is no word to properly describe what our dogs are to us in an emotional sense, we chose the only term that exists. It is one that was chosen for us and that falls far short of capturing what service dogs are. But it is the best we have. Hence my dog is medical equipment.

[thedogist]

Aspen, Labrador Retriever (3 y/o), The Seeing Eye, Morristown, NJ • “Lunch is very strictly regimented here. The stereotype was that blind people couldn’t dress themselves or cut meat, so we simulated a restaurant setting for students to practice controlling their dog in that environment. It’s not appropriate for a dog to be on the table smelling food. The best compliment you can hear is that they didn’t even know there was a dog there.”

[thedognamedepic]

Dogblr Art Project Help?

So previously I did a ‘pick the dog that’s right for you’ thing which turned out pretty cool with a bunch of dogblr silhouettes.

I would like to enlarge it and have even more dogs on there, but going through all the blogs is quite time consuming, and I was hoping some people would be able to help out?

-Reblog with the tag used for your photos of your dog(s) (or any other thing that can help in locating photos with ease.

-Even if your dog was in the last one, you can still join this one. (Smart me lost the editable file for the last one).

-This will be open for a while, so no worries if you’re a late comer.

Thank you!

[aservicedogintraining]

www.aservicedogintraining.tumblr.com/tagged/puplet

[dumbpetstorecustomers]

Puppies PSA

I’m so tired of seeing people come in with 3-6 week old puppies they bought from a breeder. There’s multiple every day.

Please please please wait until 8-12 weeks to get your puppy. If a breeder is selling puppies before they are 8 weeks old, THEY ARE NOT A REPUTABLE BREEDER.

Puppies are usually weaned around 6 weeks, but they need those extra weeks to get socialization from their mother. You, your kids, or even your other dogs aren’t a substitute for that. You are setting them up for all kinds of behavioral and health problems by separating them early. Good breeders know this. Shelters and rescues know this.

Please give your future pup the best chance he or she has! :)

[aservicedogintraining]

Puppy Raising Qs

Fellow Puppy Raisers,

I am collecting data, and have some questions for you! Answer all, or one. Feel free to reblog so others can see!

1) What were the requirements/classes/things you had to learn before getting the first puppy from your organization? 2) Was there anything you felt was left out that you should have been told/instructed about in hindsight? 3) What would you consider to be key concepts that every prospective puppy raiser should understand before getting a dog?

Thanks. :)

---

(obligatory question mark: ?)

[stars-in-bits]

Do service animals understand how much I want to love them? Like do they know that I think they are doing a fantastic job but have no way of saying so? Do they?

[myservicedogadventure-deactivat]

When my service dog and I pass someone who admires her her tail sways a little more intensely (she has that golden retriever swooshy-butt and it gets more swooshy). She looks up at me and she grins.

Don’t worry, friend, she knows!

[hiro-thehealingpup]

Hiro update-Request for Advise/Encouragement So Hiro is nearly 1 year old and still in training. He should be with me already but he seems to have a lot of goofiness issues. A lot of it has to do with him still being very much a pup but a lot of it is personality too. There’s been talk between my mom and the trainer about washing him which would break my heart but at the same time, experiencing how (when he is doing what he’s supposed to be doing) drastically he is able to help me function normally, I realize I need to put my needs first because it really does make a difference. So now it’s just a matter of “do we continue training beyond what was expected and hope that his hyperactivity and goofiness goes away” (the trainer has trained several SDs from this breeder and has never had one take as long as Hiro) or “do we start over and just hope I don’t get another overly hyperactive dog”? I’ll always love him no matter what happens though.

[aservicedogintraining]

A year is really young. He’s going to act like a puppy because he is one! I’m used to large breed dogs, but I doubt even as a mini Aussie I doubt he’s fully grown at this point???

Does he have any major problems? What do you mean by ‘goofiness’ exactly? If his silliness is something that may go away as he matures, it seems really silly to wash him out before you know for sure. 

And just because I can’t help myself, if someone told me their one year dog was completely trained as a service animal with public access and all, I would be highly skeptical. 

[aservicedogintraining]

We had a surprise; our new puppy came home at the same time Puplet did! 

Even though they both look sad, they are getting along very well. They’re half siblings. :)

[aservicedogintraining]

My boy is in for his eval to determine what his job is going be! He’s been gone a week, so we have one more to go. I get to pick him up on Friday. I miss him a lot. :(

[blogofcj]

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DOG TO ALERT YOU WHEN YOUR SELF HARMING

So I made a super quick video on how I trained Bella to alert me when I self harm. It’s pretty crappy quality, sorry.

Step by step: 1. Take some treats and a plastic lid of some kind. Show your dog the treat as you put in under the lid and then present the lid to your dog.

2. Whenever your dog paws at it, use a clicker or a praise word to let them know they did a correct action.

3. After they realize pawing at the lid gets them a treat, have them associate the action with the word “alert”.

4. When they learn that the word “alert” means to paw at the lid, remove the lid and start mimicking the action of how you self harm and say “alert” as you do it. When they paw at you, reward them.

5. Finally, after lots of training, they should learn that your self harm behavior is a signal to paw at you.

Good luck!

[aservicedogintraining]

Please be careful with this!!! If there is any chance the dog could get injured in the process, do not teach it. This means if your behavior is related to sharp instruments, or any kind of burning, etc. you should proceed with caution. That doesn’t mean they can’t do it another fashion, like pawing on the door if you’re in the bathroom for too long. (If you self-harm in the bathroom, for example.)

[aservicedogintraining]

This is our second time sitting down to work on this specific subset of “tug.” He’s still new at it, so I’m using some targeting with my hand. 

[frameacloud]

Orion Scribner, Service dog. 2015, comic, ink on paper. 

Patreon. 

Transcript: 

Keep reading