Choosing a breed to raise and train as service dogs

[lizzybeth727]

Originally Posted by Saeleofu

there are no SD schools that have just ONE person doing everything.

How do you think most schools got started?? (I really try to avoid naming names, but....) Paws with a Cause in Michigan started with one trainer, a "pet dog" trainer, who decided to try to train one of his clients' dogs to alert to sounds for the client. In 20+ years that organization has grown to one of the largest and most well-respected in the industry.

[Saeleofu]

Yes, they start that way. But they don't start that way and by training tons of dogs at once. They start one or two dogs at a time. That's the point I was trying to make. Apparently it was lost. As for Paws with a Cause, I don't care for them, for personal reasons. It's not a place I'd ever want to work/intern volunteer at.

And training a service dog (or several!) is a HUGE undertaking that takes a massive daily commitment from you personally. I think it might be too much to take on your schooling, a career (you will probably work *at least* full time when you graduate) and social things, plus breeding, raising, and training, screening homes, and all of the things that come with service dog breeding small and large. Just one opinion to look at things realistically, from one big dreamer to another

On re-reading and thinking a bit, did you mean I shouldn't train any dog during the time I'm in school? Or did you tihnk I was going to try to start a program while I'm still in school? I don't plan to start until well after I graduate as I mentioned before, but as for training one dog...that's what I'm going to go to school for, and training a dog is required. Undergrads train the SDs for the Service Dog Institute (the school itself), but grad students train their own dog or someone else's dog. I will be a grad student. Therefore I need to train my own dog. I need a service dog. So why not use the dog I train in school as my own SD?


*points to her siggy*

"I'm through accepting limits 'cause someone says they're so."

[dadan]

As part of your research before you do this, I'd suggest going to as many service dog organizations as you can, and spend time with their dogs. I'm not talking about watching the training - training is the easy part! - I mean, just visit with the dogs to get a solid feel for what kind of temperment you're looking for. My organization gets all of our dogs from shelters and rescues, and we have an extensive evaluation program for both in the shelter and for several months after we start training. I talk to people in the rescue community all the time who have read about the dogs that we are looking for, but even then they have a hard time understanding until they see some of our dogs.


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