It's November! November, for those of you new to our page or new to CRPS life, is the official awareness month for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The awareness color is either orange or a fire gradient of red-orange-yellow. Every year, I honor CRPS month by sharing training tips, facts about CRPS, facts about CPRS Service Dogs, or some other way to educate people about this life. This year, I'll be posting every day on Facebook (I will try to match on Instagram), 30 different abilities and changes which have only been made possible in my life by working with a service dog for my CRPS. Some will be things made possible simply by training my own SD, because the truth is, change happens before they're doing task work. 

Preview of Fundamental Retrieve - essential for service dogs in training, beneficial for dogs with zero toy drive to learn how to play fetch

Preview of Puppy Paw Camp - essential for new puppy owners, starting with a puppy as a service dog prospect, or puppy owners who want their pup to start off on the right paw

Preview of Beginner Paw Camp - for dogs 7 months & older, who will be new to joining your household, or an essential starter package for new dog owners. Includes sessions BEFORE bringing your dog home to help you prepare

Did you know that when you commit to training your dog, you're also signing up to learn a brand new language with that dog?

​A language that will be the basis of your relationship, will create a reliable connection for listening & learning between the two of you, and that will make it possible for your team to do other activities together such as going on relaxing walks, competing in agility, working a job, and more. It's a language that may look very similar to other dog-owner teams, but every teams has their own unique aspects that make it like a secret language between BFFs. After all, haven't you always wanted to be able to talk to your dog, have them understand, & be able to understand them as well?

Is it cheaper to train your own service dog instead of going through a service dog program or private board & train program? 

You tell me. 

​Any avenue you choose to go about obtaining a service dog partner will be expensive in some way. Of that I can almost guarantee. There is no such thing as a free service dog. Not really. To help illustrate this for you, I've broken down a few prominent costs involved with owner-training a service dog, based on my own experiences.

Socialization and building a reliable dog doesn't have a perfect rule book of instructions for the simple reason that every dog is different. There are guidelines, but no "one-size-fits-all" approach. What one dog finds distracting, another dog can work around without issue. What one dog is afraid of, another dog barely notices. What one dog is confident around, another dog can barely take the first step.

​The key to overcoming this training challenge is learning what your dog considers to be of little distraction, moderate distraction, and high distraction. The level of distraction directly affects how much your dog has to overcome in order to pay attention to you and be responsive when you ask them to do things. In this post, I want to delve specifically into how distractions change when you take a country dog into the city for a training session, and vice versa if you're wanting to take a city dog out into the countryside for a fun weekend or longer vacation. Thought and time should be given to any dog - working or companion - to allow them chances to be exposed to various differences between city/town and country/wide open spaces. 

Socialization training is a part of dog training that involves exposing your dog to various sight, sounds, and smells in a positive or neutral manner so that they do not develop an aversion or fear to it. The goal with socialization training in the beginning isn't to interact, but rather to simply learn how to experience a stimuli or event without developing an averse reaction. All socialization training begins at home, then your neighborhood, and is expanded to more places as your dog becomes ready. In this post, I'll explain why desensitization/socialization training is important for either a service dog or a companion dog, and 10 tips to help you introduce your dog to the world around them without accidentally overwhelming them or creating negative connections. 

Rushing training will get you nowhere. Training a service dog takes 1 - 2 years, because there is so much material for both the dog and handler to learn. Taking shortcuts will cause problems later on, like your dog struggling to heel through crowds, being unsure of new situations, not being able to be out of sight from you, and the list goes on. Training will be boring at times, but going slowly through everything to be sure that both you and your dog are capable at each level is vital to your success as a team one day, and their ability to do their important job day after day, under any circumstances. Tasks, especially, are very complicated actions for a dog to learn how to do, and that takes time. 

Not all dogs have the drive to help people, or the energy to be on alert for several hours during the day. A service dog not only needs to have the desire to please their person, but also be capable of focusing in high distraction zones, lay on uncomfortable surfaces, ignore temptations like food or other people's attention, be on their feet moving several times a day, or go to work and be on duty in a strange place for 2 - 8 hours in a day. Some dogs just want to romp in the yard and snuggle on the couch, and that is okay! What isn't okay, though, would be trying to force the snuggler into a rigorous life of working when they don't have the heart for it. When looking into dogs, you want a dog with medium to high energy, and a desire to be with people or their person. Checking out specific working breeds is a good idea. 

Recently disabled/diagnosed? Give yourself a year or so to acclimatize to what life as a disabled individual is like, before adding a service dog to the mix. Besides - if you're new to being disabled, it may take you some time to figure out how you need a dog to help you. 

Moving soon/new baby coming soon/getting married soon? Wait for the big life change to happen, for life to smooth out a little, and then talk about bringing a service dog into the mix, especially if you want to owner-train. Adjusting to always needing to account for your service dog's presence, their needs, and how they help you, into your daily routines can be a challenge in itself at first. Working with a service dog is a big life change. You don't want to stack big life changes if you can stagger them. 

Medical condition in a constant state of turmoil? Be prepared for owner-training to feel like you're being road hauled until you find your feet. Trying to force yourself out of bed to train, play with, feed, and exercise your service dog in training will be a hefty task for yourself several times a day, every single day for 1 - 2 years. There are no days off from taking care of your dog. Days off from training, yes. Days off from giving them structure, playtime, feeding, and general care are not a thing. Once your dog learns how to help you, your condition will likely stabilize, and things get easier with your dog's care and your interests/hobbies. Until then, you need to have a way to drive yourself into action to give your service dog's training and care everything you got. 

Many things go into creating a good service dog, but age is one of the most crucial. There is a good reason why programs start with puppies bred from reputable parents, and why most owner-trainers search for puppies from a breeder or younger dogs from a  rescue. Youth is paramount for this task. In this post, I'll discuss the service dog timeline, the importance of puppies, and advantages of starting young vs the disadvantages of starting with an older dog. ​