The Light at the End of the Tunnel, Part 2, by Ally
So, now that you’re familiar with what a service dog is, I wanted to give insight to what it is like to own and train one. I will share a bit of Apollo’s background as it is relevant to who he is as a dog and how I trained him. Apollo was owned as a puppy and put up on Craig’s List by someone who didn’t want him. The woman that saw the ad works for a rescue organization and said not to give the dog to anyone that she would meet at such and such a time and place. The man couldn’t wait for her and tied baby Apollo to a tree in a parking lot. Luckily, she rescued him and nursed him back to health. He was placed in a foster home around 9/10 months old so you can imagine how young he was when he was abandoned. September 2019, I saw him on Pet Finder and showed my mom. She agreed he was the one and about 2-3 weeks later we drove up to meet him and take him home. Apollo weighed 41 pounds and was under weight. We treated him for his ear infection and nursed him further back to health.
Right from the start he was so loving yet so afraid and anxious. He wasn’t sure about people nor the world yet as he missed his crucial socialization period as a baby. He was afraid of strangers and reactive toward people. He was a counter surfer, begged at the table, didn’t have boundaries and didn’t know how to walk on a leash. His foster family said he even broke out of his crate at their house! For me, and any potential service dog owner, this is unacceptable behavior and I knew he needed help ASAP. However, I was away at overnight dog sitting jobs for the first 2 months Apollo was with us so I wasn’t able to work with him.
Once I came home we started training and for the first 6 months he tested nearly every boundary but I was not about to be discouraged. It was frustrating at times, but give him back? Absolutely not. Giving up on him was not an option and I worked like hell to find a way of training that was best suited for us as a team. Before I knew it he was looking to me for guidance and responding well to structure and discipline. He enjoyed learning so much that I enrolled him with the American Kennel Club and started looking into AKC Trick Dog titles. I knew this would give us something fun to work towards together aside from his basic training.
Now, it isn’t great obedience that makes a service dog. Remember, these dogs are trained to mitigate a disability so they have to be task trained. Apollo started task training and service dog etiquette 6-8 months after we got him. It’s important for service dogs to be out of the way as much as possible when warranted. For example, at a restaurant he tucks under my legs and/or under the table as much as he can and sometimes the wait staff do not know he’s there.
I wanted him to achieve his Canine Good Citizenship title which is not necessary for service work but many handlers think it is an important step in the process. We worked on basic and advanced obedience as a foundation before working on his reactivity. With structured walks and daily training, his reactivity decreased significantly and I was able to work with him in pet friendly stores. I needed him to trust me to protect him and advocate for him so that he didn’t feel the need to advocate for himself. After almost a year of training him by myself I hit a road block and decided we needed some expert help.
This is where I was able to find AKC evaluators who also happened to be dog trainers who stepped in and helped.
We’ve been working with them on an as needed basis and they have played a huge role in helping us get to where we are now. With their help Apollo now has 5 AKC titles to his name and has almost completed the Trick Dog title set. They even helped get us ready for Public Access training which is crucial to a well-trained service dog. They need to be confident in any situation as well as be able to focus and work through distractions. They encouraged me to keep trying and working with him and said what a great job I had done with him thus far.
Don’t let our success so far fool you, there is and always will be work to be done as a service dog is never done training. For example, we still struggle in parking lots because of his history but not nearly as much as a year ago. Service dogs while highly trained, are not perfect and they make mistakes just like we do!
Training Apollo has been one of my greatest pleasures and has helped me improve on myself as well especially during quarantine. It has been very motivating! It is not easy to own and train a service dog. There is a lot involved with just getting ready to leave the house like checking the weather and making sure he has his booties on if he needs them, making sure our backpack is packed correctly, gearing him up etc. Not only is there a lot to remember, but a lot to maintain. These dogs are medical equipment and need to be looking and acting their best so Apollo gets bathed weekly and brushed out as well as weekly nail trims.
Our journey has had many ups and downs and trial and error but it’s only made our bond stronger. I wouldn’t trade this experience for the world because at the end of the day, he still gets to be a dog and I still get to be human. I know that he’s right there when I need him doing exactly what I trained him to do. He is my heart dog and we are a team forever.
**Remember, if you see a service dog and their handler, do not interact or distract them. Distracting a service dog can cause them to miss an alert which is dangerous and potentially life threatening to their handler. **
“Any person who intentionally interferes with … mobility impaired person's use of a guide dog or an assistance dog, including, but not limited to, any action intended to harass or annoy… the person training a dog as a guide dog or assistance dog or the guide dog or assistance dog, shall be guilty of a class C misdemeanor…” Source: https://www.animallaw.info/topic/table-state-assistance-animal-laws
For more information go to:
https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html
https://www.ada.gov/service_animals_2010.htm
**Remember, if you see a service dog and their handler, do not interact or distract them. Distracting a service dog can cause them to miss an alert which is dangerous and potentially life threatening to their handler. **
“Any person who intentionally interferes with … mobility impaired person's use of a guide dog or an assistance dog, including, but not limited to, any action intended to harass or annoy… the person training a dog as a guide dog or assistance dog or the guide dog or assistance dog, shall be guilty of a class C misdemeanor…” Source: https://www.animallaw.info/topic/table-state-assistance-animal-laws
For more information go to: