Heel is one of the most important behaviors SD's learn in our program. It teaches them to pay attention to their handler while navigating public spaces so they are ready to help at any time instead of being distracted by their surroundings. This attunement also gives the handler a sense of partnership in case they encounter triggers, but it takes a lot of training to accomplish! #servicedog #servicedogtraining #victoryservicedogs #heel #heeltraining #servicedogsofcolorado
When you see Service Dogs out in public, please ignore them! If they don't seem to be helping their person with a physical disability, it's likely that it's a Psychiatric SD, so you'd still be distracting them from their job. The unwanted attention could also stress the handler out since they'd likely rather remain incognito, in some cases people quit service dog training because too many people attempt to interact with their dogs. Please support Service Dog teams by ignoring them, unless they are wearing a sign that says "ASK TO PET".
# servicedogtraining #psychiactricservicedog #victoryservicedogs #servicedogsofco
Auditory alert training with Chiron! #VictoryServiceDogs #coloradoservicedog #tasktrainedservicedog #servicedogtraining #psychiatricservicedog
Here's a fun Monday evening class! #servicedogtraining #coloradoservicedog #psychiatricservicedog #migrainealert #deeppressuretherapy #VictoryServiceDogs
Feeling happy for Bob and Claire
Chris and Pippa Victory Service Dogs
Typical day at the office for us! Visit our website to donate to support service dogs in training like these!
#servicedogintraining #servicedogsforveterans #psychiatricservicedog #supportourveterans #victoryservicedogs
As a small nonprofit, we want to help build community relations here in Colorado Springs and surrounding areas. We rely on small dollar donations from our community, so we find it important to give back to it by educating the public on service dogs. Here one of our trainers and a Service Dog Team visited Ridgeview Elementary to teach children about how Service Dogs can help veterans and others in need. Please support our SD teams in training by visiting our website! #VictoryServiceDogs #servicedogtraining #psychiatricservicedog #mentalhealth #veteranshelpingveterans #coloradosprings
Here's a clip of a class outing to Lowe's. A major part of service dog training is ensuring the dogs are environmentally stable and can pay attention/work despite any distractions that occur when in public. When in public, SD's need to be ready to do any of their tasks (behaviors a dog does that helps their handler with their disorder/disability) which requires a lot of training! This is why it can be frustrating to service dog handlers when strangers try to interact with their SD because it's distracting them from their job. These teams are working on the basics like "heel" so over time, they don't need to focus on their dog as much and their dog is just there for support when needed.
#servicedog #servicedogtraining #VictoryServiceDogs #psychiatricservicedog #publicaccesstraining
I can’t believe this happened 4 years ago Emma and Oliver have since graduated our children’s program successfully this was the moment they first met.
Some of our amazing dogs and veterans!!
Thank you to Heuberger Subaru for hosting our Test Day on Saturday! Here's some clips of our dog teams performing Public Access Testing. Our dogs go through rigorous training to ensure they are environmentally stable and can assist their handlers despite any distractions that may pop up while out in public. Congrats to the teams that tested this weekend!
Our 2023 Graduation 🇺🇸❤️💪🏼🐶💯
Good Showing for the First Night. Tonight’s show starts at 6:30, Military Appreciation Night. Please stop by and say howdy 🤠. Steve and his Service dog Aurora will be excited to see you too 🐶🇺🇸
Please come out to Support Our Troops tonight and Saturday w/ Triple J Rodeo! We will have shirts, hats, dog gear, dog beds and other items available for donation.
This team is working on "exit" - a task behavior where the SD leads their handler out of a building. This is one of the hardest tasks to teach a service dog due to how long it takes to generalize all buildings, but this team is making wonderful progress! #servicedog #servicedogteam #servicedogs #psychiatricservicedog
The donations we're grateful to receive help us offer free service dog training to veterans, but there's another arena we need help in to continue to provide help for vets and kids in need:
VOLUNTEER FOSTER TRAINING. We're in need of volunteer trainers who are able to house & train service dog candidates for 1-4 to prepare them to help our applicants that aren't quite capable of some of the initial training due to mobility or psychiatric hindrances. This is a wonderful opportunity for those interested in becoming a dog trainer or those dog lovers who can't commit to 10+ years of owning a dog.
This opportunity will launch in the Fall, but we're looking for interested folks to reach out today!
Please contact our lead trainer at [email protected] if you're interested in helping us continue our mission to provide service dogs to those in need!
