For the past week, I've been working on my presentations for the upcoming Service Dog Seminar hosted by Dogs in the Park in Guelph, Ontario, May 31-June 2. By way of a quick endorsement, this is the terrific event! We've been attending since the beginning (6 years now); not only are the sessions very helpful but it's a great opportunity to meet other service dog users/trainers and to practice behaviors around other service dogs! Additionally, I know of only one other such seminar (in Washington state) and I understand that Dogs in the Park is not planning to host a seminar next year.
I do an "Introduction to Service Dogs" presentation each year which I update based on personal experience and feedback from the previous years. This year, based on our experience finding out about Hardy's heart issue, I am adding a section on what to do when things don't go as planned. The interesting thing is that I thought a lot about what I would do if that happened but until now, didn't really include that in my presentation. In my opinion, that was a big oversight on my part!
As an owner-trainer service dog handler, considering what you will do if things don't go as planned is, I believe, a critical part of the process of deciding whether you can or should owner-train your own service dog. Prior to getting Laurel, I spent about a year researching the possibilities for getting a program SD or owner-training one. I joined several service dog lists on Yahoo and one thing that surprised me was how many people there were with multiple dogs (4 +) because one was their current service dog in training and the rest were washouts. That observation coupled with the pretty grim statistics regarding the large percentage of dogs that washout from the biggest, well-respected service dogs programs that breed their own puppies made me recognize what a serious task I was considering undertaking. It also made me realize that I needed to consider what I would do if my service dog candidate failed to work out for whatever reason: behavior, temperament, medical, or physical.
When we decide to owner-train, we all think we're going to have a successful outcome. Hence, I also thought it was important to stack the deck in my favor so I decided to get an appropriate puppy from a breeder. I know some people are committed to rescue and/or have decided that they can't raise a young puppy. I am sure that it is possible to get an appropriate dog from rescue given the expertise to choose one, time and patience. With the recent economic downturn, with people getting evicted from their homes, dogs were turned into humane societies and rescues because their owners couldn't keep them in their new place. However, the fact remains that most dogs at the APL or rescue are not appropriate for service dog work. They are generally rehab projects and service dog training is difficult enough with a physically and temperamentally sound puppy/dog with adequate socialization. That is still not likely to be the puppy/dog you find at a shelter or a rescue.
Sometimes, though, no matter how careful you are, things don't go the way you planned and you either have to wash out a service dog prospect or candidate, retire a service dog early or consider getting another candidate earlier than planned. I'm in that position right now. I absolutely believe that having two working dogs is important for me because mine do three medical alerts - they are aware of me at all times, wake me at night and only take time off because there are two of them. Laurel will be 7 on June 2nd and although Hardy is doing very well, his future is less certain that we would like. I talked to his cardiologist and she said that getting another puppy was probably a good idea. My husband and I talked about it - we really weren't keen to have three dogs right now but decided to go ahead since Laurel would be 9 when a puppy from this summer would be old enough to work and although Hardy can still do service/therapy/crisis response work, we aren't certain about his future.
I reviewed the preparation questionnaires I created to see if anything had changed in my needs or wants, lifestyle, finances etc. I determined that I wanted to get another Labrador and that I wanted to get one from Hardy's breeder, Donna. She knows us and she knows Laurel and Hardy. She's considered one of the top breeders of Labradors; not just for the show ring but primarily as performance dogs: guide & service dogs, SAR, drug dogs, police dogs, therapy dogs as well as for various dog sports. I talked with her in early spring and asked her to look at her upcoming litters with me in mind. She has a yellow litter born April 15th - 4 girls and 3 boys that she thought might include my puppy. I've contacted a certified CARAT evaluator from Chicago who will come and temperatment test the litter for me and if there is an appropriate puppy, she/he will come home with us June 10th. If I don't find a puppy, I'll wait until the next litter Donna thinks might work out for me. In the meantime, I'm reading all the puppy books again and working on a training plan. It's an exciting/terrifying thought!
I'll be chronicling my journey with my 3rd service dog prospect beginning now with the plans and preparations that went into our decision as well as photos from the first litter I'll be considering (5 weeks, 2 days old) at: frompuppytopublicaccessonceagain.blogspot.com
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