Girls With Fainting Disorder Asks If She's Wrong For Not Wanting To Train Her Current Dog To Be Her Service Dog

She doesn't want to put more stress on her current dog which already has a break in her back leg.

Liezel

• Published in Animal Stories
• October 27, 2022

Service dogs deserve a special spot in heaven. They work all their lives to help make other people's lives easier, safer, and more fulfilling despite the sicknesses or disabilities that they have.

Training a service dog is not easy, however. There are many requirements before a pup can be qualified to work as a service dog.

Usually, there are only a few breeds that have the temperament to become great service dogs. Then, in addition to their nature, they have to be trained for years starting when they're just a few months old to make them fit for the job.

This training also doesn't end when they're handed off to the human they're supposed to care for. It's a constant cycle of training every single day to make sure that they do their job properly.

That's why getting one isn't such an easy decision. Redditor icrymyselftosleep5 has been faced with such a decision and when she finally decided to get one, her family suggested she has her current retriever dog trained.

The only problem is that her retriever is already more than a year old and has a break in her leg that causes her pain and discomfort. Because of that, OP wants to train and adopt another dog, however, her family is strongly against it.

And now, she's wondering if she's making the right decision. Here's the whole story.

OP asks:

To help her manage her illness, OP has been thinking about getting a service dog

While they do have a retriever she could train, she thinks the dog is way past the best training period and she doesn't want to put stress on the dog too much

OP also thinks her current dog doesn't have the right focus to work with her needs

Her family also has biases on the kind of dog she can adopt to be her SD

Having the kind of illness that can disrupt your daily life as OP does is not easy. It would be great for them to have help in managing their days and a service dog is a perfect help.

However, of course, there are many different requirements for a dog to become a service dog. And many of the people in the comments do agree with OP about her feelings toward her current dog.

Some people even gave her great advice on how to move forward. Here are some of the best comments.

1. This person suggests for OP to look more into training programs and certifications in their area to help with their decision

These organizations do around the clock training to make sure the dog is fully trained

As this person said, most of the time, SD dogs are selected for training based on behavioral assessments

2. OP can also work with a private trainer for a dog of their own choice and if not, the trainer can help them select a great dog for the program

3. Apparently, OP can also self-train with the help of a trainer, of course

4. There's no harm in getting an already trained service dog

5. This person thinks OP might have unrealistic expectations about the service dog

Training a service dog will take time before they can perfectly respond to the needs of their owner

They also remind OP that if they're going for the German Shepherd, they'd need a lot of exercise

They also said that for most service dog's, the work is actually not fun and not "work"

They also reminded OP that even if they're trained, they're just dogs and will be dogs

6. Training is never ending and is a constant everyday cycle

7. It's never too late to train a dog as long as it's done right

There are also several factors OP has to consider to find a good match

8. For OP's case, she needs a medical alert dog and for that, smaller breeds are more known to be effective at it

9. This person agrees with OP about not placing the burden on the family pet

Most SDs come from bloodlines that have been bred and trained for that purpose

These pets are taught to bond with their person and can't be distracted by anyone or anything else

As this person said, pets and service dogs are not one and the same

10. This person agrees with OP but recommend a poodle instead of a German

Training a service dog is one long process that involved tedious work with the dog to make sure they respond to the right things and aren't distracted by anything. That's what makes them such great helpers.

Hopefully, OP does find the service dog that is perfect for her, and hopefully, her family could understand her reasoning behind adopting another dog to become her SD.

Liezel