Anyone Seriously Interested in Training Their Own Psychiatric Service Dog?

PLEASE FORWARD AND SHARE THIS POST: Are you or someone you know seriously interested in obtaining and training a psychiatric service dog?  A contact of ours has identified a couple of four-month-old black standard poodle puppies who are good candidates to do this work.  Since finding a puppy with better than average chance of success is one of the hardest parts of obtaining and training a service dog, this is a great opportunity for the right person.


Please note:  We don't want to discuss details in public (i.e., on my blog, Facebook page, or website).  Please use a Facebook message to Joanne Shortell (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=739553508) or the Contact Us page on my website (http://www.servicepoodle.com/contact-us) or e-mail to send your contact information, comments, or questions.

Here are some answers to some of the questions I anticipate you may have:

• Yes, the candidate must have a psychiatric disability. 
• Cost of the dog:  to be determined.  Don't let that stop you from contacting us, we may be able to help you find financial help and/or to reduce the cost of the dog if necessary.
• What do I mean by "seriously interested"?  At a minimum you should have considered:
• Pros and cons of dogs and service dogs for people with psychiatric disabilities and what psychiatric service dogs can be trained to do (please click on this link and read it all -- it's not too long)
• What it's like to be connected to a service dog every minute of your life when you're not at home.  Joanne will be happy to discuss with you what it's really like.
• Whether you are ready to invest a LOT of your time, every day, for a long period of time (maybe two years), training your service dog.
• How you will take care of the dog when you will not be at home (when you're working, shopping, etc.) before it is sufficiently trained for public access.Whether you are ready to learn positive training techniques.  We won't get into the discussion of whether domination and/or forceful training methods are appropriate for dogs in general, but they are NOT recommended when training a psychiatric service dog.
• These puppies would not be appropriate for a young child or any other person who would not be able to control an excited, medium-size dog without assistance.