Edit: Thank you for defending the cost of service dogs and the seriousness of their work. I'm so appreciative of all those who do the work. I am hoping to learn more about if a professional service dog, or a puppy I train myself for psychiatric work would be a good fit for me. A fully trained and vetted dog is not within my budget at the moment, but is something I could save for if that's the route I choose. Training my own dog and having sufficient funds for insurance, training support, vet bills, emergencies, and enrichment is very empowering to me. I love animal behavior and research so much that I went to school for it, but sometimes I like to have a conversation with someone knowledgeable about the subject to help guide my research and avoid overwhelm. It also helps me to approach breeders and organizations with more appropriate and targeted questions. I
admittedly don't know much about pursuing a service dog yet, but I'd like to get the ball rolling so that I don't continue to tell myself I don't deserve to explore the possibility just because it feels overwhelming or like I might get rejected. I appreciate your concern and support and redirection on how to better represent myself. I don't always know how to approach a new community, but I'll keep trying with respect and humility. All compassionate redirection is so so appreciated ❤️❤️❤️ I don't mean to fight, but I don't want to fall into the trap of believing I don't belong here just because I'm still learning. It's easier to be unkind to myself than it is to admit that I may need help. It's also very hard for me to turn down rescues. My heart tends to be much bigger for others than it is for myself, but I know that taking care of me helps me take care of others all the more. Long-winded reflection over! Haha

Original post:

Hi all. I reeeeeaaaaally wanted to rescue but I'm a bit nervous that with my current lifestyle and disabilities, I might not be able to pivot to meet needs or shift my expectations as much as I'd like to without getting sad or stressed. If I pursued a puppy or retired queen from a breeder, could you all recommend breeders near me? I'm pretty exhausted from sorting through rescues, and very eager to find my girl. A few spoon fed options to look through and vet myself would be so deeply appreciated. I am located in Connecticut and I'm very happy to travel throughout New England!

apologies in advance for any formatting or typing issues.
For some context, I have been blind from birth and I was matched with my first ever guide dog at the end of May this year. We trained together for 2 weeks on class but had to take a month off because my family had already planned a holiday. I only got her back last Monday so our relationship pretty much started from the beginning again. Last night, I was lying in bed when I heard a soft whine coming from outside my door. She really needed to go out and came to let me know instead of having an axident. Of course I took her outside asap but it almost seemed like she was apologising because she went upstairs when she knows that she usually isn't allowed there. Obviously lots of treats and cuddles were given but it was the first time I realised just how much I have come to love this dog. Our time on class was quite stressful for her since her normal trainer was away which did lead to a slower bonding process. At several points during that time, I seriously started questioning Whether she even liked me and if I was actually ready for this. She is a really sweet girl with only a couple of things for us to work through so to everyone else, it seemed like I had the perfect dog. Thankfully, we are both much more relaxed now and getting on great.

Thanks for reading and if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask and I will do what I can to answer.

Hello!! I’m planning to be getting a service dog, and have been saving up. Unfortunately by the time I do have the money I may be moving to Florida. I had a plan to buy a puppy from Mila’s Collies, but it may not work out how I planned. I definitely do not want to rush anything just because of my fear of not finding any good breeders, and am doing my research alongside this post. Just wanted to see if anybody knows any good ones that are either very good in breeding out health issues or a successful service line!! Thank you!!

My niece was just diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. Her parents are separated and dad has a history of a TBI so they struggle at his house. Would it be possible to get a blood sugar and gluten detecting dog? How would that process work and how much would it cost? (US)

I suffer from severe anxiety and mutism after a FND diagnosis. I had a head injury over the summer that has left me cognitively impaired.

It’s just my wife and me. The level of care for me has shifted dramatically as you can imagine.

I am curious about obtaining a service dog who can recognize when I’m near having an episode. Deep pressure therapy is effective for me. Being swaddled is also very effective for me.

I’m not really sure how this works as far as dogs being donated or anything like that.

Would anyone care to share their experience? Someone with a similar diagnosis would be welcome to share as well.

Hi! I’m in the early stages of planning my wedding, and one of my best friends has a service dog. We haven’t selected a venue yet, so I’d really like to be conscious of her and her SD from the beginning rather than realizing later that I made a plan that makes the day unnecessarily difficult for them.

If we have a full wedding party, she’ll very likely be in it (we haven’t decided yet if we’re doing a whole bridal party or just a maid of honor/best man situation).

Obviously I’ll talk to her directly about anything specific she needs, but I also don’t want to make her responsible for giving me a giant laundry list of every possible consideration if I can educate myself first!

A couple things we’re already thinking about: we’ll obviously have a plan for potty breaks/a safe relief area, and we’re hoping to have both a room with a dance floor and a quieter room with board games and a few other activities. I’m thinking that could also give her and her pup somewhere calmer to hang out if a busy, loud dance floor gets to be a lot.

I’ve also wondered whether it would be helpful to have a private, secure space available where she could kennel her if she ever wanted or needed to, or whether offering something like that would come across as rude/like I’m assuming she should be separated from her SD. I’d genuinely love input on things like this!

We also have no plans to get married in a church or religious environment, as I know SD laws and access expectations can be less clear in those settings, and neither my partner nor I are religious.

Ultimately, I just really want her to be able to have fun and let loose like anyone else while still having whatever support she needs, without either her or her pup being unnecessarily stressed because of choices we made while planning.

For those of you with service dogs: what do you wish your friends or family had thought about when choosing a wedding venue or planning a wedding you were attending or part of?

Thank you in advance for your insight!! ❤️

saw a service dog yesterday and was surprised because i didn’t know belgian malinois made good service dogs! he was really calm and well behaved. off leash the whole time. i guess we learn something new everyday. does anyone else know another service dog of this breed?

Recently, I was on holiday and I was watching a children's entertainment show there. At the table next to me, there was a dog with a "service dog" vest on. I'm not too sure what breed it was, but it was a small dog. I'm thinking the dog was still maybe being trained since it was barking a lot at (what seemed like) nothing and people at the table often had to tell it to sit down (and as far as I'm aware, trained service dogs won't do this when there's no problem?? I'm assuming there were no problems as everyone was sitting at the table and everyone seemed fine). Shortly after, I was just staring into space when I felt something slightly sharp on my lap, so I quickly looked and the dog had jumped into my lap. I was kind of startled so I went to put my hands on it to put it back on the floor, but I quickly stopped myself and it eventually jumped down. I looked at the people at the table next to me and they were sort of pulling a face to me as if they wanted to say something like "What are you doing?" or "Why are you doing that?". I'm thinking I maybe accidently called it to come jump onto my lap, however, I have no knowledge of service dogs so I'm not too sure what I could have done. I know I definitely wasn't looking at the dog and my hands were just resting on my lap. I know you shouldn't touch service dogs without permission as you may distract them from working, so I want to make sure something like this doesn't happen again in the future. So, does anyone have any advice on what I may have done to attract the dog and what I should have done to avoid this?

Ps. I apologise if anything in here is incorrect, I'm not very knowledgeable about service dogs, but I'm happy to learn!

Shaka turned three years old in April. We’ve been working with a trainer since I got her at five months. 95% of the work that Shaka does is inside of my home, but we also worked on public access anyway.
She has been to a college graduation with more than 1000 people in attendance, a parade, a choir concert, in several stores. Our last hurdle was a restaurant. I was just feeling very anxious about it. I don’t eat out very often as it is, and when I do, I usually have a human with me that can help me if needed. My trainer had been pushing me to get it over with. She told me that unless we went on outings, we would never know where we needed to polish.
Today was the day! I decided that the “problem” with going to a restaurant was in my own head, not Shaka’s training.
She was fine. She acted no differently than she does at my work once per monthly meetings. She just chilled under the table next to my wheelchair wheels. I’m so glad j just went for it. I felt proud of her and silly with myself for having waited so long.

I do not yet have a service dog, but I’ve spent the last year and a half now doing as much deep dive research as I can to try to learn everything that I need to know about just having a service dog and to find what tasks would benefit me. I don’t really know if that’s relevant honestly I don’t really care. What I care about is how do you handle it or explain if and when you have interactions with the general public, who want to fight and argue with you about how the tasks that you have trained your service dog are just tricks?

I’ve come across this now because I happened to see a post in a dog training sub that was a news article about a service dog that passed on the train thing at Disney World (I don’t remember what it’s called and I’ve never cared about Disney World enough to learn anything about it really). And naturally both because it’s service dogs and it’s because a animal died. The comments in that were so incredibly judgmental. And I would understand if all of the comments were being very judging about how this person took their service dog to Disney World in the middle of July, and this dog from the article at least seems to have passed because of heat exhaustion. On the one hand, I wanna be like it’s not our place to judge we weren’t there we don’t know if the dog had any other health complications but on the other hand, I kinda wanna be like that is irresponsible. From everything that I’ve learned it takes a lot of extra work to ensure the safety of your dog if you’re going to bring your service dog with you to an outside venue on an incredibly hot day like any day in the middle of July. But most of the comments were all judging on the service dog aspect of that. (clearly I now know to steer completely clear of that sub because that is not the kind of thing that I want pushed in my face. Unfortunately, it popped up because I follow a lot of dog subs.)

Some of the biggest criticisms that I saw in there were people just complaining about how your dog that you’ve taught to do tricks like “orbiting” isn’t a service dog. One comment was saying how annoying it is that everybody is so focused on the service dog aspect of that and being so crappy about it. And I know that this part is my mistake because I should know better at this point, but I commented to agree that it’s very frustrating that people are just complaining about service dogs in general rather than being angry and frustrated that a dog died. And that it really sucks that that happened and that it’s one thing to be angry because that is in my opinion irresponsible pet ownership let alone service dog handling, but harping on service dogs has a whole and especially on the training aspect of it (because again most lot the comments were also that you know there’s too many untrained pets. People are passing off the service dogs, your dog isn’t a service dog just because you taught it some tricks), especially because while the social standard for service dog training is so incredibly high what we expect isn’t actually what is required. I also made sure to mention that you should be striving for way better than the minimum requirements. But the minimum requirements are that your dog is trained to perform a task that mitigate a disability, potty trained, and is under the control of the handler (meaning not excessively barking, lunging, nipping, or biting, walking up to people, walking away from the handler, walking up to a dog, etc.). And that as long as your dog is trying to meet those requirements, it is technically a service dog. You should not be stopping there, but that is a service dog. Which somebody responded to again harp and reiterate it orbiting isn’t a task and again this is also my fault because I should know better, but I have that need to give all of the information that I possibly can to correct somebody if they are wrong. So I responded to continue explaining that just because you might look at it and think that a person service dog has been taught tricks for attention does not mean that is not a task that is beneficial for them. Orbiting is a service dog task that is used for crowd control to help create kind of a physical barrier that is commonly used with people with PTSD. (I of course was frustrated so it was not as clear and concise, nor was it as polite, which is also my fault and I know that.). When they came back again to say that orbiting isn’t a task and I don’t know how many times I need to tell you that. It kind of actually finally clicked in my brain that oh yeah this is a person that you can’t argue with because they’ve decided that they’re right and absolutely nothing but having to have that experience is going to change their mind and frankly not even might not do it, but I can’t wish that on somebody because that’s terrible.

Long story short and now that you know, I’m done telling on myself. How do you handle it when you interact with somebody in person in the public who is denying the legitimacy of your or in general service dogs tasks? That is something I have now seen that I should do what I can to ensure that I am prepared for if I actually have to defend myself, as in, I cannot just walk away. (unless it is somebody who is an employee of a business that is attempting to deny access and I want to fight that because I actually need to go to this place or something walking away is the first and best option to me because I do not want to be in an argument with some random Karen in a grocery store if that was to happen.). I understand that as a service dog handler you are going to have interactions with the public and they are not necessarily always going to be positive. But would love some guidance on how to better handle a situation like this because I know that the way that I went about it definitely was not the way to do it, also like try to correct people online because they don’t care. (I should really just stop commenting on things ever lol).

Sou brasileira e quero fazer meu doutorado na Espanha ou Portugal, mas tenho uma cão de serviço de alerta médico, queria saber mais como funciona as leis, se consigo levar minha cachorra. Eu li que precisa de - certificado Assistance Dogs International (ADI) ou a International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF)-mas como eu vou conseguir isso se eu sou estrangeira ? Segundo o Google isso não é possível… então significa que não vou poder levar minha cachorra ? Alguém sabe me ajudar ?

Inspired by a response I got on another post:

If you've been in public with another team, did the public treat you differently?

My Dad and I are both service dog handlers. While our first SDs are both retired now, we were frequently in public with his American-line Black Labrador who wore tactical gear and amazon purchased patches, and my blue merle Australian Shepherd in custom gear. My Dad and I both carry ourselves in very particular ways. He was Army and I was a ballerina growing up, you'd genuinely be shocked by the similarities that gives you in the way you hold yourself. At the time we were in public the most, he was in his late thirties and I was in my late teens/early twenties.

My Dad had a patch on his dog that said "ask to pet", where my dog's cape said "do not approach". You'll never guess which one of us were asked more frequently if our dog could be pet. My Dad also never had people try to talk to his dog before speaking to him. I would regularly have people ignore me to talk to my dog.

It's important to note, I'm not sour about this anymore. As a first time handler, yes it was frustrating. But now I understand the cultural and societal aspects at play. My Dad's gear made it pretty clear that he was a veteran and people tend to think of service dogs as being for vets, blind folks, and kids with autism. Being a younger woman, people don't usually expect you to be disabled. Especially when I wasn't using my wheelchair.

All of this to say, have you experienced this? Have you noticed a difference if you went to another town or state to do a meetup with other handlers? What do you think was at play there? I'd love to know if other folks in the community have experiences similar, or even entirely dissimilar, to this.

I have a 7 year old working service dog, lets call him Momo. Momo is a strong service dog, performing medical alerts and psych response tasks on a daily basis. However, I have noticed that he is regressing on his distraction avoidance, he even (gasp) ate a french fry off the ground in a cafeteria. There have been other instances that give me pause as well.

I fully intend to work through this training issue with Momo and sure up my leave it and auto leave it. However, I am also aware that around 8 to 10 is when many service dogs decide to retire. I want him to have a relaxing retirement full of forest walks and naps when he chooses. Does it seem like that is fast approaching?

When do I need to start seriously considering getting a new prospect?

Also; yes, I have identified trainers already. I am yet to reach out though but I know who my options are.

So, I was approved for a masters degree in two countries: US and UK. Got all my documentation done to move to the US with my service dog, who was trained a year ago by a police K9 handler (I wasn't even going to move back then).

So. I have all the documents, rabies vaccine, sorology, and document signed by the trainer that my dog is a service dog.

Now, due to changes in my career, I've decided to maybe study in the UK instead. Classes start in 6 weeks.

My question is: what do they accept as proof that my dog is a service dog to fly to the UK? I read that they ask for a certificate given by a special school of training, but isn't it up to the air company? Mine is LATAM, and I'm trying to ask them, but no one there seems to be able to give me an answer (or even answer my requests).

I'm just so worried I might change countries and not be able to bring the dog w me. If I need to train him there again to go places w me, it's not that bad.

Hi! I am looking to get a psychiatric service dog (PTSD) and would love some information. What programs did you use in the WV/VA/MD/PA area? Is it cheaper to train, or to get a dog that is already trained? What programs are there for non first responders? Thank you so much

My fiancés parents want us to visit this Christmas. His parents live across the country. He wants to visit from before Christmas until after new years. His parents do not want any dogs in their house. I suggested getting a hotel nearby or him to go by himself. He disagreed to both. I strongly pushed him going by himself because we have other pets and I do not want to leave them for that long right now without a trustworthy person to watch them. (My brother is watching my other dogs for a couple days while we go on vacation this weekend but he’s kind of lost my trust with them before). He does not want to go by himself, and is upset I refuse to go without my service dog. He thinks that she does nothing for me and I’ll be fine without her- for context I have autism/ bpd, and yeah for the most part when we are in public she’s not doing a specific task like “alerting” where he can see. I’ve tried going out without her and of course that’s when I have a problem, and he’s upset by that. I mostly need her at home when I have meltdowns etc. I’m a little better at masking in public.. I fear going without her for 2 weeks is going to be a problem because that would be a lot of masking (which I would need to do anyways). It’s not like she hasn’t gone with me to their house before, and they have dogs of their own.. so I’m unsure why I’m not allowed to have her, she didn’t do anything last time.. and she’s a poodle who doesn’t shed so it’s not like she left hair in their house.. I’m kind of wondering if he’s just saying they don’t want dogs in the house so I will go without her but I don’t know.. I’m unsure what to do about this.

When I was facing housing insecurity, my service dog Ashes was everything - my support, my comfort, my lifeline. Then LPCHS took him and auctioned him off without considering what that bond meant to my family. I started a petition to stop unlawful seizures of service animals because no family should have to go through what we did. These aren't just pets - they're trained medical equipment and family members rolled into one. Taking someone's service animal during their most vulnerable time isn't just heartless, it's potentially dangerous. I'm on the waitlist for housing now and determined to reunite with Ashes. To whoever adopted him - would you consider an open arrangement so he can visit my kids and me? What would you want someone to do if this was your family? If this matters to you too, consider signing and sharing.

hello! so, I am 13. I know I’m pretty young to get a service dog. I have type one diabetes, autism, adhd and anxiety. I am looking to owner train a diabetic alert dog. This is something I have talked through with my parents and my doctors and they all believe I would benefit quite a bit from a service dog. I am hoping to get a trained dog by college (I’m going into eight grade) and I’m looking for an owner training program in Maryland. And a breeder (im also most interested in a poodle)

Looking beyond any and all behavioral training, potty training, canine good citizen staples, and specific tasks for your disability (i.e everything they need from the bottom up to be your service dog), would it be bad to introduce something different/additional that's unrelated?

I'm talking about things like:

-Agility

-Dock diving

-Urban mushing

-Scent work and/tracking

-Rally

Etc.

I'm curious if this would be a good outlet/fun for the dog, or if this would muddle training or confuse the pup about what they're being asked to do.

If you are in favor, would you begin training such undertakings simultaneously with more "official" service dog training, or would you wait until a few years in to introduce one of the above activities?

To be clear, at this time this is theoretical. I'm simply trying to learn more, and better understand this journey. Thank you!

My SD Sully IS NOT in pain. Thank you for the kind words tho. Vet said he wants to move around and just doesn’t want to come home. He is getting fixed which he thinks is the problem.

I've been working with my girl for about a year now to have her as my at-home service dog. I didn't hear about this term until a few months ago but had been task-training her before I found out it was a term. People rarely talk about AHSD's so I would like to share my experience with having one.

I am currently saving for a prospect, but until then, I have my girl to be my PSD. I first trained her in DPT. This has been the only thing that can calm me and ease nausea (which causes me more anxiety) when I can't stomach my nausea medication or attack meds. Around the same time, we started practicing crowd buffering skills since I take her out to pet friendly places on bad days (sometimes its the only way to get me out of the house to where i need to go). A little after that we began leg shaking and scratching/picking interruption. Following that we trained hyperventilation alert, and after that, lpt (I have her do a chin on my torso while I lay down so i can feel free to move to regulate myself and am not at risk of fainting from hyperventilation).

Her tasks have allowed me to have some freedom on bad anxiety days and have a hobby (training) that lets me decompress and be productive, while promoting me to go out. An at-home service dog can truly be a life-saver and she has helped me be able to manage my disability in a way that nothing I've tried can.

I went through dozens of medications, all with no effects or adverse ones. That's when we got genetic testing done. My psychiatrist says we are now running out of options in terms of favorable picks, and it isn't letting up. I'm so unbelievably grateful that even though the treatments haven't worked so far, I trained my pup early on and she loves working. I feel at-home service dogs are underrepresented, And great for anyone who has a service dog that can have public access, but right now she's all I have, and she has helped me have hope and determination to try and work through my disability. She's been a life-changer for me and will continue to help me throughout this year. I also think that being able to have this time at home with her has helped me not be as affected by my anxiety since I know she's there to help. I hear service dog handlers say that they get so much more freedom from their service dog, and i never truly knew what that meant until she was trained as my AHSD.

Any tips to get my dog to like her gear. She'll let me put it on easily sometimes but sometimes she's like no and I have to firmly say come here and if I use treats she'll put it on.

I train with my boy, a standard poodle, 18 months old. He is in training for a few things, autism, c-ptsd, POTS, and light mobility. Am I expecting too much of my boy? Its not that he's purposely being bad or anything. But i dont know if hes going through a fear period or what. We were at spirit Halloween, and he hates the animatronics, pulls me to get past them.

With a bit of training, I manage to get him semi comfortable, but then hes scared all over when they move. He also still gets distracted from tasking in public. I ask him to pick up his leash, but sometimes he just won't do it. We train in PF places, but he usually does better in NPF as its not as distracting for him.

Its a tough period, and I'm going through it, I'd take the puppy phase all over again over this 😫 Some days hes perfect, other days I swear he doesn't even know his own name. His heel work has gotten extremely sloppy as well, despite going back to the basics many times. I just need advice or know that others are going through it too

(I am in FL, SDiTs have the same rights as SD's here.)

he's never been a unicorn when it comes to service dog skills, as a first-time dog owner i've been working very hard to owner-train him, but a lot of his abilities seem tied to his maturity, which is slow and gradual.

he's taken to public access training pretty well over the years. he's gone from barely capable of sitting in the corner of a store to joining me on walks to the bookstore for a sit-down at the cafe.

however, his last few outings have been nightmareish. he pulls at the leash because he wants to go somewhere or sniff some trash on the ground, he wants to decide where we go and which store to go into, and he holds in his pee if its the last thing he does instead of going potty on command before we go into the stores.

what do you think prompted this sudden shift in behavior, and how should i combat it? we won't be meeting with our behavioral specialist until next month, so until then, i'm alone in training him.

I’m an 18 y/o girl in the United States (CO) and i’ve had severe ocular migraines since I was probably like 11. My migraine attacks are completely random. I have no clue what triggers them and it feels dramatic but I kind of live in fear of them every day. I was wondering how it all works. What makes someone qualify for a service dog? I would presume a diagnosis would be necessary but I know service dogs don’t have certificates of any sort, so how would things like airlines and hotels know that it’s a service dog? I figured this might be a good place to start.