I've been disabled all my life and know many adults that are disabled since birds of a feather tend to find each other.Originally Posted by shepgirl
Many of us use service dogs in an official or less formal capacity.
Dogs chosen for service work are NOT machines. They are still capable of having bad days and good days and facing new situations with which they are not yet comfortable. Their handlers also have built in limitations which can require some unique approaches and many disabled people cannot wait two years or more for a program trained dog, so they have to train their own using adaptive techniques. Some like me, use their own dogs that show that special talent as adults, others may adopt a younger dog and hope it turns out.
We can't generalize about handicapped people, their abilities, range of motion, ability to react in a timely manner, their strengths and weaknesses ...
hey for that matter -- step back a bit.... you cannot even generalize about an able bodied person training a dog. Put 15 able bodied people into a dog training class with dogs from different breed genres, from terriers to gun dogs, to toys, herding dogs and flock guardians, and voila... you have a collection of people who have diverse levels of different strengths and abilities, as do their dogs. Tiny frail people do not necessarily want to have a tiny frail dog. Klutzy people sometimes own fast athletic dogs. Some speedy "type A" people like to have a lumbering big dog that is slow and methodical.
There ya go. They need a trainer, communication mediator sensitive enough to find the right tools to help establish a working partnership and successful communication between each pair of members in each unique team.
That is asking a lot even with able bodied people. We know many able bodied people leave a class taught by an able bodied trainer and yet they still have a dog out of control when they leave class. - Left (leash) arm longer than the right? (check) The dog believes the leash is made of rubber? (check) Dog pees at every sign post and ignores the handler? (check) The dog still leaves in a heartbeat if it sees a squirrel? (check)
Pray tell, what kind of dog trainer was that? "Politically correct" artist who paints by number? Sometimes you have to be a Picasso. You do have to blend tools and 'colors' and dirt in order to get success.
Dog trainers who are attuned to their students and the student's dogs know that each part of the team creates a potential need for a different approach and sometimes different equipment. To think otherwise is rather arrogant.
A person I know who has MS and one leg, helps to train other people with their service dogs from wheel chair (on her good days). Some of these people may be paralyzed in a limb but they need a big dog to help them with their balance to help them feel safe when they are walking alone in the inner city. Do you know how to help train them to train their dogs while they are manipulating a walker or wheelchair? What if they are having a bad day and have spasms? Remember this is a service dog that will have to work without a trainer overseeing them when the handler has a bad day. A prong collar may help a person who has wrist problems or who needs to lock their hands onto a walker.
Many disabled people who train their own dogs are quite attuned to dog language of their own dog(s). If they see their service dog yawning or averting their eyes, they know something is up and know to look to see what the dog is telling them. Some of them due to their specific limitations and even preferences, do use prong collars - I have only used it for specific situations and sometimes it is years before I dust it off again. Some use ruffled bungees to cover the collars to protect them from being harrassed by 'dog experts' who know so much better than anyone and who jump to conclusions.
I have some pics and a blog post about my service dogs here.
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