Help a fellow Autie get her Service Dog trained, please?

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I hope this is allowed, and I'm in the right spot.

I cannot work due to delicate health, but I'm trying to get my SD prospect trained. Can anyone help me out?


I can't seem to share the link.

Can you explain what an "SD prospect" is?

Service Dog...a dog to help me with health and sensory issues.

I know there are a few members here with SD's here , hopefully they'll chime in.

I hope you don't mind but I changed the title so it has a better chance of being picked up.

OP, I hope this is not a solicitation for monetary donations. I'm pretty sure that's not an allowed activity.

What exactly are you looking for?
Advice, money,or something else?

Hard to help without knowing anything about your targets and about the dog. Not all dogs are the same way. There are differences not only in race but also in age, character, intelligence and self-confidence.

_________________
I am as I am. Life has to be an adventure!

A "Service Dog prospect" is an unofficial term in the Service Dog community that refers to a dog that will hopefully be a good candidate and potentially be trained as a Service Dog to mitigate their handler's disability.

Each Service Dog prospect should be tested for good health and good temperament to see if they will even be able to handle the work. Many do not pass these.

Those that do pass, become Service Dogs in Training. Service Dogs in Training train for 2 to 3 years on extensive socialization, advanced obedience, public access training, and of course task training (the training to perform actions to mitigate the handlers disability).

Many do not complete training. But if a dog does complete the training, it becomes a Service Dog.



But before any of this happens, before the person even gets a dog, they should do a lot of research.
*In what areas of accommodation will the person need help? Housing? Employment? Public? This will affect which laws the person needs to know. Even if the person gets help with everything from programs, they will need to vet those programs first.
*What does the person struggle with due to their disability? This will affect what tasks will need to be trained, how much professional help they will need, and even the breed of dog.
*How much experience does the person have with training Service Dogs and how much work is the person able to put into training the dog? This will affect how much professional help they will need. Hint: the answer is never 0% or 100%. Even professional Service Dog trainers work with other trainers to "check their work" and help with unfamiliar issues. Even handlers that get their Service Dogs fully trained by a program will need to maintain that training.
What are the local laws on public access for training? While the federal laws in the United States recognize Service Dogs trained by their owners, only individual states allow access in non pet friendly businesses for the purpose of training. Some states allow all trainers; others only allow program trainers; others do not allow any.

_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.

Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-­Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)

"I am silently correcting your grammar."

I was hoping you'd notice this thread Knofskia

Is the issue that you don't know how to do it or that you don't have the resources? And are you wanting to train your own dog, or have someone else do it? There may be a program in your area that can work with you, I know that there are at least two in my town. Try Googling "service dog training (town name)." They may have financial aid programs if that's what you need. Also, here's a website with a list of programs by state (the two in my area aren't on here so I'm sure it doesn't list every one, but it could be a place to start): https://usaservicedogregistration.com/s ... -training/

Also there's Canine Companions for Independence (http://www.cci.org/). They provide free service dogs to people who are financially needy, although this might not be right for you since it sounds like you already have one that you would like to train.

I would caution you against using this site:
https://usaservicedogregistration.com/s ... -training/
It is a scam website, trying to make money on the fact that not everyone knows that there is no federally recognized registration for Service Dogs in the United States.

A better website would be:
https://assistancedogsinternational.org/
But I would still vet each program personally.

_________________
31st of July, 2013
Diagnosed: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Auditory-Verbal Processing Speed Disorder, and Visual-Motor Processing Speed Disorder.

Weak Emerging Social Communicator (The Social Thinking-­Social Communication Profile by Michelle Garcia Winner, Pamela Crooke and Stephanie Madrigal)

"I am silently correcting your grammar."