Training mistakes happen to the best of trainers. I'm always learning how to be a better trainer, with Robbie's guidance and plentiful lessons for me. The spring of 2018, I made a mistake out in public because I was more preoccupied with outside perception of my team and trying to make Robbie feel better than by being his leader & teacher. As a result, I learned a very valuable lesson in stress management, and we got to turn the clock back on restaurant socialization. I wanted to write about my experience with this training stumble because I feel it's important to be honest about what it's really like to train your own service dog, and I want others to learn from my mistakes so that they can hopefully not repeat them with their own teams. Being an owner-trainer is hard, and mistakes will happen no matter how far along you are, because there is always more to learn and opportunities for you to grow.
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2018 was an interesting year for us. We had a setback or two, celebrated new milestones, and made new memories. I have a few goals in mind for 2019, but before I dive into that, I want to share a review of this year with you all.
We are drowning in a plethora of misinformation about service dogs and emotional support animals. Every week a new article about a fake service dog or an ESA on an airline gone wrong finds its way into the media. These stories tell one side of the story, while the truth remains invisible, working in silence, working without drawing attention, because that's how trained dogs are supposed to behave. That's how real teams are supposed to operate. Up until last night, I thought the worst side effects to this plague of misinformation & entitlement were the actual risks of an untrained dog hurting a person or a real working team, the unintended damage done to a pet who isn't properly prepared for handling the stress of being in public, and the increase in frequency of real service dog teams or real ESAs being turned away from accommodations based on previous bad experiences with fakes. Last night, I realized there's one more piece that adds to this conversation. As the ridiculousness smothers the real, the real is being lumped alongside the fake, and everyone becomes a punchline. Real teams, real people who need their dogs for medical assistance are becoming jokes, and that's not ok. This morning, scrolling through articles online, I stumbled upon an article about another service dog team being harassed by someone who thinks they have a natural born right to pet every dog they meet, no matter what the handler says, what kind of dog it is - pet or service dog, what the dog's body language is saying, or what else is going on at the same time. Behavior like this is irritating and sadly, far too prevalent. More and more, people are speaking out, pet owners, dog trainers, and service dog teams alike. We want to be able to socialize our dogs to the world without having to worry about some stranger invading our dog's personal space or ours, demanding things that they have no right to ask.
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My Name is Sally...I have a condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. This blog is about my journey training Robbie, a dog who helped me regain independence, confidence, and achieve the impossible in the face of my disability. It continues on with the training of Austin, Robbie's successor. Check Out... - "More than a Dog" was published on a site called The Mighty Categories
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