I Want To Get My Dog Registered As My Therapy Dog

[shadowchaser]

. Any other interesting bits of information that dogs can be trained to do I would love to hear about. If your dog is food motivated & not toy motivated is there a way that you can train them to open a door which has a pull down handle..

Teach shake. Eventually after your dog has the shake command down move it to the door. Hold your hand over the handle and give the command. Every time the paw touches the handle give a reward and get excited. First time he pulls the lever down double treat and give your command for opening the door. Keep this up and he will be your four man in no time.

 

[shadowchaser]

A lot of people "fake" the service dog thing and it hurts everyone. I'm not saying you would ever even consider that, but there have been news stories about how unscrupulous people buy the patches off of ebay and then stick them on a dog and the dog isn't trained but may behave badly in public, etc. people do it as to be able to take their dog everywhere with no regard for how they're hurting the whole service/therapy dog system. And of course, no business owner would even think to question someone with a service dog as it would hit the six o'clock news and be a scandal.

In my area most businesses question the dog no matter how well it behaves. Some people are even still ignorant over the fact that there are more than seeing eye dogs. I always do my best to educate the businesses around me. One thing I think every business owner and service dog team should know is that even a service dog from a large school can be removed from a business if they are not minding their manners.

Examples would be
Baking, relieving indoors, non task related barking, growing at people or other service dogs, destruction of property, jumping on customers, and even if poorly groomed

There is also a list of things that are often used as reasons that are not legal reasons to remove a service dog.

Examples

Fear of dogs, allergies, not wanting the dog in areas food is stored, the size of the service dog, breed of the service dog, people with hidden disabilities are sometimes asked to remove the dog because they do not look disabled, and even sometimes because they just don't like dogs.

 

[Barberian]

There are some links in this thread https://www.myptsd.com/threads/the-advantages-disadvantages-of-service-dogs.33640/ and some more peoples experiences with them.

My experience has been mixed, but the balance has been FAR in the favor of having a service dog. Be prepared for rude and unprofessional people challenging you about the service dog. I have a complaint with the Department of Justice right now because I was refused entrance to Costco (membership warehouse store) with my service dog TWICE in one week about 4 or 5 days apart.

Expect people to try and pet, tease, scare, get the attention of your dog even when you least want it. Don't let this stop you unless you don't think you can handle it. I'm very glad I decided to train mine, and has been invaluable in helping me overcome agoraphobia and social anxiety. My dog is still young and I have a lot more training to do.

 

[JustBe]

 

[JustBe]

[DLMURL]http://dogslifetraining.net/what-are-service-dogs-and-therapy-dogs-2/455/[/DLMURL]

 

[shadowchaser]

Thanks moving. Hard to put up links on the kindle.