Realities of Working a Service Dog: How To Prepare Yourself and Your Dog

life of the service dog can be amazing but it can also be challenging one of the most challenging Parts can be interactions with the general public and public access the stories I can tell about working out in public for over a decade would blow your mind from people insisting that I brought a wolf into the store it was a German Shepherd to more than one person trying to physically take my dog from me I've also experienced wonderful people who are accommodating and helpful and kind so today we're going to talk about what to expect when working a dog out in public and how you can prepare yourself and your dog to venture out into an unpredictable World hi I'm Laura from doggy you and I'm a certified guide dog mobility instructor service dog trainer and trick trainer and today we're going to talk all about the realities of working a service dog so let's talk first about what you're likely to encounter out in public well I've spent more time out in public than most working guide dogs and Service Dogs about 40 to 60 hours a week for the last 14 years most people will experience all of these situations to some extent over the working life of their dog it's not uncommon to be approached constantly in public many times in one outing have people ask to pet your dog have people not ask to pet your dog and try to do it anyway have children run up to your dog's face try to pull its tail have people bark or taunt your dog have people talk to your dog instead of you and have people tell you every story about their own personal dog who's the same breed or maybe not as your dog if you have a rare breed they're gonna ask what breed it is and sometimes tell you you're wrong and that that's not an Australian but it's actually a cattle dog and they know because they grew up with them oh wait is that just me and Cool Whip this is one of the fringe benefits of getting it one of the more common service dog breeds most people know what a lab is and are more likely to Peg them as a service dog and ignore them they're going to ask invasive questions about your need for a dog or your disability you're also likely to be denied access to a store at some point despite your legal right to be there look the first time I was denied access to a store was in a convenience store in Hartford Connecticut I was there with one of my first guide dogs I hadn't practiced my response to this sort of thing and it was also more than a decade ago when being denied access was much more common I got flustered left and then cried in my van for like half an hour now it's happened so many times that it rarely rattles me but it still can I was in a hotel in Rhode Island with my husband about six months ago and was getting breakfast at the hotel buffet when a woman started screaming to get my dog out of there I was calm and asserted my rights but she was making a scene in front of 30 other people and just would not stop screaming at me I ended up having to go get a manager and even after being told to stop she was still talking loudly about me from the kitchen so everyone in the restaurant can hear it was embarrassing and it just left a bad ending to a nice weekend with my husband my point is these situations can still pop up from time to time usually when you least expect them so I'm going to talk more about preparing for these situations later in the video and hey if you found this video helpful so far here's our I ask you to go down and Boop that like button doing so lets me know that I've earned your thumbs up and that you want me to keep making more videos and if you have video ideas feel free to drop them down in the comments below accidents and less than ideal days one of my clients once said when asked about training her own service dog it gets way worse before it gets better I'm not going to get into the puppy raising and training aspect here because it's beyond the scope of this video but know that raising and training your own service dog while being chronically ill or disabled is really hard and quite the roller coaster of emotions and it's really not for everyone raising a teenage dog is so hard some days you'll work with your dog that you've been training for like six months and wonder why the heck your dog is acting like they haven't been trained a day in their life but outside of the raising and training of a service dog even a fully trained dog is ultimately a dog first your dog is an animal with their own desires and motivations they can get startled surprised or overwhelmed by intense situations even well-trained dogs make mistakes feel pressure and can behave in unideal ways occasionally they can even get sick at inconvenient times like in a store all of these things can be embarrassing and depending on the situation because for restore to legally ask you to remove the dog from the store look I've been there I've been the person running out of the mall with a dog that just decided that they really need to take a poop I've also been the person with a guide dog who tried to grab a pigeon out of the air just because it landed right under its nose not my best days fortunately when you have the right dog for the job and prepare them for the unexpected this type of thing rarely happens but it does happen if you work out in public long enough so it's definitely critical that you teach your dog to expect the unexpected and train for those scenarios as well as prepare for them mentally yourself considerations dogs require a lot from us in return for their help I always say that having a service dog is a lifestyle and that lifestyle includes exercising your dog mentally stimulating them often outside of your work allowing for decompression along with General upkeeping care of the dog including feeding watering grooming and taking them to the vet not to mention the expense of all of those things it's a lot if you don't love those aspects of having a service dog which leads me to my first consideration in the questions is this more hassle than it's worth could another piece of equipment or tool do the job as effectively as a dog without drawing more attention or requiring so much of my time dogs can provide us with so much outside of just the tasks they do to help us but the amount of work they also require isn't the right fit for every lifestyle next I always encourage people to work with their medical team on their decision to get a service dog while the medical team will likely not have significant knowledge of training a service dog and should in fact recommend other resources and not opinions on the training side of things they may be able to help you decide how the dog will impact your health and what tasks might be beneficial for your disability next the big consideration does having significantly more attention and interaction with the public make my life better or worse does having the dog outweigh the challenges presented by interacting with the public and having more people in my personal space I've had several clients decide that they would keep their dog as a pet or an at-home service dog but the attention they brought out in public was caused causing heightened symptoms and more difficulty than they had expected it just wasn't for them and that's okay this can happen sometimes especially for those with invisible disabilities who were previously used to traveling through the world without someone necessarily knowing that they had a disability even the mental load of having to think about if the pavement is too hot for the dog or that the dog needs to run out for a potty break between classes or that the dog needs to be exercised before work to be able to settle for eight hours during the day or even let the dog gets hair on their pants or drools a little is a lifestyle change and commitment that isn't for everyone it's important to know these things going in and talk to and hang out with other service Dog Handlers so you can better understand the full extent of both the positive impact of a service dog but also the huge lifestyle change and responsibility it can create tips for handling the public vests while fancy vests with lots of writing are awesome for individual expression small texts lots of text or special characters draw people in closer to read them the same way as someone with lots of bumper stickers on their car makes you want to get closer and spend longer staring at and reading what they say I recommend a simple vest that says something like service dog do not distract in big bold text with high contrast that's easy to read when dealing with the public have prepared statements so you know how to handle people that come up and try to pet your dog I try to stay polite but firm as this may be an educational moment but ultimately in a service dog handler capacity I'm not obligated to educate the public so I also have no problem walking away from rude or invasive people how to prepare yourself I have an entire video on preparing yourself for Public Access conflicts that I'm going to link up here and down below in the description I highly recommend you watch it but I want to give you a few additional tips here so you can be prepared as possible out in public first train train again train against distractions teacher dog to expect the unexpected and throw variety into your training sessions every day wear silly hats and costumes proof your cues while not looking at your dog from different positions and in different environments practice working in the rain the snow and the wind practice your skills at playgrounds near a pool and at outdoor concerts and fairs the more you train and prepare yourself and your dog the more confident you'll feel handling any situation the world throws at you and if you need help preparing for Public Access or task training with your service dog join me in the doggy you community at patreon.com doggieu where you'll have access to over 125 exclusive training videos along with a live monthly q a to get your questions answered you can join for as little as three dollars and have access to three years worth of training videos and tips I hope to see you there alright let's get back to it practice your responses to various questions and situations out loud write them out if you need to and then memorize them just like you can likely easily reset your address or phone number rote memorization of responses will help you stay calm in the moment have friends or family members turn to you once you enter a store and ask you those questions you can start with practicing your response to the two legal questions an employee can ask you upon entering the store and then work up to acting out someone trying to pet your dog or asking a rude question doing these drills seems silly but ultimately they'll help you feel more comfortable and confident in the moment asserting your rights and preferences with your service dog preparation is key and the more you know about what to expect to encounter out in public and the more you practice for those things the better you'll be able to handle anything that comes your way and if you found this video helpful you're gonna want to watch this one as well so go ahead and click on it right now right now you all have an awesome day and a happy training

Channel: DOGGY•U

Views: 11,320

Keywords: dogs, dog training

Id: pgV76N9comw

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2023