13/08/2024
Trainers dogs can struggle with things too!
Trainers dogs can have imperfections, quirks, behavioral struggles and more.
Diesel struggles with his tucking under things and getting overly excited around other dogs.
Knowing this, what do I do with the information? Well, I work on those things he struggles with. We do small sessions for them. A 10 minute session can be more beneficial than an hour session. It is the quality of the session that matters, not the length of the session.
Do these things affect Diesels working life as a service dog and could it cause him to be washed?
As for the tucking, it isn’t an automatic wash, it’s definitely dependent on what specific tucks he struggles with and if it directly impacts my lifestyle. Right now it doesn’t affect us as a team, he is able to stay out of the way and be in a safe location. It’s something we will continue to work on.
As for difficulty around other dogs, this IS something that COULD wash him from being a service dog. Though, we aren’t in a spot with his behavior in public where it’s an issue, he doesn’t bark, lunge, or cause any problems where I would pull him from public access, but it is something we are watching very closely and something we are focusing on in training sessions. I can’t say whether he will wash or not, but we will work on this and see how everything works out.
When Diesel was growing up I socialized him through 5months old with dogs, people, sounds, textures, etc. from 6-9 months old I simply let him mature and grow up, he was in the home most of the time working on heel, some tasks, recall, etc. I didn’t take him out a whole lot because I didn’t want him to get burned out, I let him be a dog and have fun. I don’t regret any of it. This is may have set us back in some areas, but I wouldn’t change it at all.
