A Good Dog Assistance Dogs is an entitiy created to do many many things.
Not the least of which is to train and educate regarding assistance dog.
We are very hard core about our beliefs in what makes a good assistance dog and what does not make a good assistance dog.
1) We believe that ADI, while a decent start, is a poor organization in that it disallows private, for profit trainers in joining. This does a serious disservice to the service dog community, as, like it or not, private-for-profit trainers are pretty much here to stay.
2) We firmly believe that all service dogs should be "TASK TRAINED" and complete rigorous training.
3) We will never sell a dog that has less than 500 hours of obedience/task training, 250 hours of public access training(which may be included with the obedience training), have Hips and elbows exrayed for dyspaysia, have hearts tested for cardiac issues, have thyroids tested for issues. Most dogs will be spayed or neutered prior to placement.
4) We seldom ever use "naturally prick eared dogs" for service dogs. We take alot of "crap" in the community(not from legitimate trainers, but from owner trainers, etc) for this stand. Over the years, most service dog/guide dog organizations have come to the conclusion that using naturally prick eared dogs(such as German Shepherds, or other herding breeds or northern breeds such as husky or malamutes) simply does not work. In the instances of herding breeds, the dogs simply become too over protective of their handlers by the time the placement is a year of age. The other breeds take too much time to train to do legitimate tasks, such as retrieving, and tend to be unreliable in obedience. Understand that we are not saying the dogs(IE, German Shepherds) are not able to the task, they are. They simply become too protective of their handler after a time, and the handler is not capable of "fixing" the problem or realizing that there is a problem until it is too late.
While there are great dogs(I have one here now), it is simply too time consuming to find the right handler for an assertive dog. SO, when there are 100 Labradors out there available and only 1 German Shepherd....Why in the name of all that is intelligent, would I consider the German Shepherd?
5) We seldom, if ever, train and place small dogs as service dogs, with the exception of hearing alert dogs. All other breeds, we believe, should be large dogs. Why? Because a Yorkie can't do brace work. I don't really care that you like yorkies. I don't really care that you like to carry your dog around with you(oh, and don't get me started on the idiots---yes, idiots, who carry their "service dogs" around in a purse or a stroller. That isn't a service dog, and how dare you smear the good names of all service dogs trying to say that it is. A real service dog walks on the floor...that is why it has 4 legs), and you will never, ever, ever, if you get a dog from me, put a dress on it, or dress it up demeaningly.
6) We require that all of the service dogs that we put out, get a Rally or Sub-Novice Obedience title. You don't do that within a year, you loose the dog and all the money that you paid for the dog.
7) We do not, under any circumstances give refunds.
8) We do not release any dog, unless all training, equipment, etc, has been paid in full. THe dog will not leave the property until we are paid.
9) We believe that all dogs should pass a rigorous public access test----not the wimpy washed down, waterdown versions that ADI and the "psychiatric service dog org" has. Those are jokes(BTW< the one that the psych dog org has is simply pirated from ADI. The only original thought that they have had is that aggressive dogs are ok to use in public and they encourage people with aggressive dogs to 'retrain' their dogs. Personally, the people involved with that group are ignorant at best, and fools at worst and are doing a serious disservice to the service dog industry. It is no wonder that real service dog users the world over laugh at them---they are a joke.)
SO, if we haven't scared you off....Let me tell you what else we believe in:
We stick with our clients for life, and we present to them a very very very well trained dog, that will pick up a dime off a tile floor and hand it back to them. We present to them a dog who is impeccable in public and will amaze everyone, and do and achieve great and wonderful things. We present to them a dog who is healthy and happy and will give them years of service.
We teach our clients more about animal and human behavior and how to change it than they would have ever have thought possible. We teach our clients how to stand up for themselves and how to advocate for themselves. We believe that all of our clients should be able to call the cops whenever necessary and to negotiate on their own when necessary.
See our "CLIENTS" page for some of the dogs we have trained and what people have to say out us.
We teach our clients more about animal and human behavior and how to change it than they would have ever have thought possible. We teach our clients how to stand up for themselves and how to advocate for themselves. We believe that all of our clients should be able to call the cops whenever necessary and to negotiate on their own when necessary.
See our "CLIENTS" page for some of the dogs we have trained and what people have to say out us.
