PonderEthereal

There is no central registry of service dogs. There is no company or organization or government department that you are required to register your service dog with. That said, it is polite and safe to provide your service dog with some form of public identification.

There are several companies and organizations who offer you an identification kit and ‘registration’ with their company or organization for a few hundred dollars. There are also websites who will sell you customized identification cards for your dog for anywhere from $10 to $20 apiece, with shipping. It’s tempting to think that these offer some sort of validity to the dog and that is what you are purchasing… but it doesn’t and you aren’t.

In fact, you can very easily make your OWN identification for your service dog, make it look exactly like you want it to look, make it say what you want it…

If you are considering your dog a ‘Service Dog in Training’, before you start any training, you will need to find a reliable way to log the training you do. If your dog’s status is ever called into question, having this log will prove the training regimen. Each time you do training, note the date and time and what you worked on.

Before your dog can learn more complex tasks, s/he needs the basics; sit, down, stay, come, walk on a leash, socialization with people and dogs and being accustomed to daily life outside the home (cars, noises etc). These basic tasks will facilitate success in later training. I recommend following the AKC Canine Good Citizenship testing guidelines for basic obedience as these were created to define a dog who is ‘well behaved’ and well socialized.

As for HOW you train your dog, there are as many philosophies as there are trainers.…

Previously : Deciding if a Service Dog is a Good Fit - And How

Different dog breeds have different temperaments and different dogs have different personalities. The dog you choose will be your constant companion for the next seven to ten years, at least. If you keep him or her as a companion after his/her service is over, even longer.

1) Now that you’ve got the list of tasks you need a dog for, do a once over disqualification or prequalification of particular types of dogs. Does anything in particular stick out about the task list that might speak to particular requirements in the dog? For instance, if this dog will continuously herd an autistic child back to home turf, a herding breed might be a good fit. If this dog will perform smelling tasks, a hound or other tracking dog might be a good fit. Sometimes it’s just common sense. If you…

Today, I took Cody on our first outing in public. We started with Walmart. I was a little nervous approaching the front door but Walmart staff were very respectful and I wasn’t challenged. Then Tim took off in the other direction, I got nervous and Cody got nervous. We rested for a moment and then plodded onward.

Cody was very well behaved. He focused on navigating around things, he ignored people, for the most part and ignored the stuff on the shelves and wasn’t the least bit frightened of shopping carts. And then the puddle of water happened. I didn’t see it, Cody stepped in it and his feet went out from under him and he panicked. He laid there for a long while, me comforting him before he braved it again and then he tried to do it on his toes. Have you ever seen a dog walk on it’s…

Usually, if a service trains your dog, they purchase and provide you with a vest (as well they should, for the amount they charge!). I am training my own service dog. I could purchase a vest - but why spend money on one if I don’t have to? So I made it myself.

The total cost of this DIY Service dog vest project is under $10. I’m not very good at sewing and did it by hand and it took me two hours. Someone who is good at sewing or uses a machine could cut the time considerably as well as the cost, as you are likely to have needles and such already. The outcome is a very professional looking vest.

This process is written for the smart (in retrospect, it’s written like an engineer might write a cooking recipe) but sewing inept. :) My recommendations and estimates are for an 85…

You must have a diagnosed disability to use a service dog. Once that is established, the first, maybe obvious step, in this whole process is deciding whether or not a service dog is a good fit. You can do that by giving some thought to what a service dog is capable of and whether that would make an improvement to your quality of life.

Do you Qualify For a Service Animal?

To use a service animal legally, you must have a diagnosed disability. The Justice Department has this to say about qualifying disabilities under the ADA :

To be protected by the ADA, one must have a disability or have a relationship or association with an individual with a disability. An individual with a disability is defined by the ADA as a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who…

I have Asperger’s Syndrome, which makes really simple stuff not quite so simple. When I was in my last relationship, we naturally ebbed and flowed so well together that my weaknesses were his strengths and although there were things that were annoyances to him, he always did like a girl who he could fancy weaker than himself. And so it worked.

In September, I went through a traumatic event that while did injure me physically, did more injury to me emotionally and mentally than anything else and compounded any difficulties I might have been having before that time. I was, at that point, dealing with severe depression and anxiety ALONG with Asperger’s Syndrome ALONG with PTSD. AND my main practical day to day support for the last six years, my husband, was gone.

I’ve done a lot of things to help myself recover as quickly as possible from the trauma of…