A rescue training service dogs?

Yah, Adrianne said there was none in the US and I agreed. LOL the person who asked was in Canada though, so thought I'd clear that up

I know very general, no specifics... dog must either be trained through a program (guide dogs of Canada, etc) or be trained at home with close supervision of a certified SD trainer. There are a bunch of testing the dog must go through, and at the end the dog must be tested and certified as a SD through whatever organization the trainer is from.

Though I'm fairly certain they're not all the best.... somebody I know is training her dog at home with a trainer (which I think is stupid for certain reasons in her case, but I digress) and this is the worst trained dog, let alone SD. I thought rosey was bad til I met that dog.

Okay, I had a successful night's sleep, let's give this another try. Disregard my other posts, since clearly I was not making sense:


I was agreeing with all of the points above, and clarifying my personal health standards for a mobility or guide dog vs another type of service dog.

I personally feel, because of how physically strenuous guide and mobility dogs' jobs are, they should have nothing less than perfect joints. They should have exemplary structure, as well as being in tip-top physical condition. Unfortunately, in many guide and mobility dogs I see, they're obese and health is failing. Many programs are also turning out sub-standard dogs - I live near ECAD, and I'm not terribly far away from Fidelco or GEB. I've turned around to see a "fully trained" program SD's nose up my dog's ass more than once. I've had "fully trained" program SD's try to attack my dog. It disgusts me that they think it's okay to turn these dogs out. One of the dogs that had tried to attack Em I met later at a gathering type thing - the program had decided to breed her and she was a week or so away from delivery. Still being worked in a pretty stressful environment.

As far as psych, medical alert/response, and hearing alert service dogs - I would be more lenient as to what I chose. Again, I am NOT saying that I would choose a dog with poor structure, failing joints, known health problems, etc. I'm saying that I would take a dog with "average" structure, good joints, no known health problems to do these jobs. Their jobs are still more strenuous than that of a pet's - lots of walking! They should still be in top physical condition, be mentally and physically sound, and well conditioned.

I'm hoping that made more sense than my previous posts. I'm unsure as to why we were arguing... overall, we were agreeing. A dog needs to be mentally and physically sound, well trained, and capable of working to make a good service dog.

May I ask, since you said you train exclusively rescue dogs for your SD program, how does this work? Are you adopting one dog at a time training and then placing with an appropriate handler or do you have clients approach you and then you adopt, train, and place or clients find you, adopt, and you guide them in self training their SDs? Also do you specialize and are you part of an organization?

I'm curious in regards to the exclusive rescue specification about how you decided to get there, unless I misunderstood.

Currently, I train privately - one, occasionally two at a time. I'm not in a situation where I can do more than that. I'll be in this situation for at least the next five years. In addition, I help those in the area select dogs an owner train. If someone has a dog, from a breeder or whomever, that they would like my to train - I have no problem doing so. When selecting a dog specifically to raise and train for someone else, I only select rescued dogs.

I don't specialize in any one type of service dog, though it turns out I train mostly psych dogs. I'm not part of an organization - there are none I like. I plan on founding my own, when I'm in a position to do so.

Thanks for answering, I'm always interested in how people structure their private SD programs. I've been around them since my first SD in '97. Through my first SD I started work for a woman who trained mobility support dogs which she would both owner-trained guiding and train to place. My last job had an in-house trainer who did classes and privates for helping owner-trained SDs problem solve and also organized field trips for environmental awareness.

It's an interestingly vast field.

I didn't realize so many people here had service dogs! Not happy that so many people need them, but I am happy to have others who "get it".

I don't currently utilize a SD. I do however have a retired one. Arnold, the red pit bull, is his name and I have a previously retired one named Tucker who lives with my parents now, he's a 15 year old wheaten. I retired Arnold a few years ago and occasionally bring him out if I'm having a rough day but mostly he's no longer an essential component of getting through the day.

The other half has type 1 diabetes and we've been non-essentially working with his dog on alerts but its not her full time job and its been mostly a practice run for training awareness and a back up plan.

RE: Rescue rates.

from https://www.blacktie-pittsburgh.com/photos/photoevent.cfm?id=196

Thank you for the link!