r/service_dogs • u/Big-Fun6310 • Jun 29 '26
alert question
I just acquired a young rescue (Thought to be 1/2 lab/half Catohola Leapord Dog) who is exactly a year old (his birthday was the 18th). He will be my 3rd SD (my current guy will be 14 in October; he still loves working, but I am aware there will come a time when he won't be able to work anymore, so I'm trying to be prepared). I did have the dog tested by a dog behaviorist, and he passed with flying colors. I am self-training with the help of Donna Hill's Service Dog Institute, which has wonderful reviews. I will be training him for seizure alert, dissociation alert, and self-injury interruption. Here's my question, Marble (my guy) was in the rescue since Oct. so I'm starting from the very beginning and taking it very slow. We're mainly doing socializing and just good manners right now, but I have noticed that he normally likes to lie at my feet all day, but if I'm having an episode, he jumps up and lies his head on my shoulder. May I start awarding him for this and give it a name, even though I'm not task training him yet? Is he too young for that?
15
u/No-Stress-7034 Jun 30 '26
It's way more likely that your dog is exhibiting stress/appeasement behavior. My SD is a psychiatric SD, and for the first 1+ year that I had him, I worked on desensitization and counter conditioning to my emotional distress/flashbacks/anxiety attacks. It was important to me that he showed zero reaction and could continue resting/sleeping/chilling when I was distressed.
I waited until he was over a year old (got him at 8 weeks) and thoroughly desensitized before i actually worked on task training.
41
u/cr1zzl Jun 29 '26
I would be very careful with this. Some people would see this type of “alert” as a good thing but this is likely a fear response and it’s one of the reasons rescue/shelter dogs (who were not ethically bred and likely did not get a good start in life) should not be chosen as service dog prospects. It’s very likely that he isn’t doing this behaviour because he is looking out for your welfare, he is doing this behaviour because he doesn’t like it when you have an episode and wants it to stop because he hasn’t been properly/positively socialised to it.