Swarlz Haus Service Dog Training

07/31/2022

Our clients living their best lives thanks to their dedication and the right tools!

This is the grown up Banner, puppy picture from our first lesson below on our page!

04/13/2022

I had the pleasure of working with this handsome guy named Banner last night! He is a long haired show line German Shepherd imported from the Netherlands! The first thing I work on with new puppies is teaching food luring to build the foundation for obedience training and building relationships between the owner and puppy. We also talk about the importance of proper socialization and how to appropriately manage problem behaviors like biting and chewing on things they shouldn’t as well as the best ways to potty train. Welcome Banner and family!

07/07/2021

Meet Leo! He is a 14 week old Golden Retriever whose goals include being a goodest boy. He absolutely killed it at his first lesson tonight 🤙🏻

06/13/2021

Thanks to everyone who came out today to take their CGC tests! Good job by all!

These AKC titles were earned today:

Zillah- CGCA-U
Dagger- CGCA-U
Steve- CGCU
Hawke- CGCA-U
Birdie- CGCA-U
Bruce- CGC
Enzo- CGC

And of course we can’t forget our excellent helper dog, Leilani 💜

04/28/2021

Meet Bodhi. He is a 10 week old German Shepherd service dog prospect. He did so well at his first lesson! At this age we focus on giving clients information about proper socialization, potty training, house manners and learning to engage with their puppies through food luring and fun games.
We are going to have a lot of fun together!

If you or someone you know would like information on service dog training please email us at [email protected]

04/20/2021

Please do your research BEFORE getting your dog to make sure what they were originally bred to do matches your lifestyle.

03/05/2021

This is important for every puppy, but even more so for service dog prospects!

Let’s talk about socialization

What do you think of when you hear “socialize your puppy”?

Surprisingly it does not mean to let your dog meet every dog or person that you see in public. This is actually not a good idea for several reasons.

Let’s start with the dog aspect. You don’t want to let your puppy meet other dogs in public for two main reasons. First, you don’t know which dogs are vaccinated and which aren’t, so when your puppy is not fully vaccinated, you risk their health. Second, you do not know which dogs are friendly and which aren’t. Even if the other person says their dog is friendly, they may not be reading their dog correctly and their dog could try to attack your puppy. Even if the puppy does not get hurt physically, this can traumatize them and stay with them for a long time and possibly lead to dog reactivity down the road. The third reason, which is important, but not about safety per se, is that you want your dog to think you are the coolest thing in the room. If you let your dog go up to every dog that they see, they will find dogs in the environment more exciting than you and you will have a hard time engaging with them.

There are a couple of reasons you don’t need to let your puppy say hi to everyone in public as well. First being that you do not want your puppy to ever feel forced to be pet by someone. Your puppy needs to know that you have their back and if you let people pet the puppy when they’re not ready, they will think they have to defend themselves eventually. Your dog should always know that you will never let anything bad happen to them so that they never feel the need to snap at or bite someone in order to defend themselves. The second being the same as the last thing I mentioned in the dog category- you don’t want your dog to want to engage with other humans more than they want to engage with you. Be the coolest thing in the room.

So, if socialization doesn’t mean meeting other people and dogs, what does it mean?

It means your puppy should see, hear, smell and touch as many different things in the environment as possible. This means observing (not necessarily being touched by) people with hats, sunglasses, umbrellas, beards, wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, big coats, backpacks, masks, anything they might see a person with or wearing at any given time in their lives. Also seeing people running, walking, people on bicycles, scooters, skateboards and skates. It means hearing a lot of different noises including but not limited to leaf blowers, lawn mowers, low flying airplanes, the big saws in a home improvement store, big crowds, creaking of any sort, dogs barking, sounds of chickens or livestock- whatever you can access in your particular environment. It means walking on different surfaces such as grates, solid sewer tops that clunk underneath them, shiny floors, carpet, rubber matting, concrete, flat carts at a home improvement or feed and tack store, the tactile strips at sloping curbs used to show visually impaired people that they are approaching the street and any other surface you can think of.

Get creative!

In order to accomplish this during the critical socialization period, which is 4-16 weeks (though you won’t have your puppy until at least 8 weeks) you have to make the most of the first 8 weeks you have your puppy by bringing them out and about as often as possible, but at least 4 times a week even if it’s only a 5 minute outing, at this age, shorter is usually better.

But, your puppy isn’t fully vaccinated yet, so where can you bring them that is safe?

Bring them to pet friendly locations that have low dog traffic, instead of bringing them to Petsmart bring them to a local feed and tack or home improvement store. Instead of bringing them to a dog park, which I NEVER recommend no matter what age your dog is, set up a play date at your home with a vaccinated and safe dog. Of course you should be conscious of diseases that lurk in the environment in regards to your new puppy, but as long as you are smart about where you take your puppy the pros outweigh the cons of keeping your puppy at home until they are 4 months old. Don’t let them go anywhere that a dog may have pooped, carry them into the vet office when getting vaccinations or exams, don’t bring them into high traffic dog environments like Petco or Petsmart. I’ve been involved in veterinary medicine and I have also been a professional dog trainer and here are your choices:
1). Keep your puppy at home until they are 4 months old and have all their vaccinations. BUT your puppy will have completely missed their socialization period and will be much more likely to be fearful of people, dogs and the environment and be at a bite risk out of fear.
2). Socialize your puppy in clean and safe environments with a small risk of disease- as long as you are smart as to where you take them, but a HUGE difference in how they interact with their environment as an adult and have a well balanced dog who is at a much smaller bite risk depending on their genetics.

Here is an analogy to help you understand why this process is SO vital to your puppy’s socialization. Think of every thing your puppy encounters as a file. Up until they are 16 weeks the filing cabinet is wide open and they are putting everything they encounter into their filing cabinet for later use. When they encounter something as an adult they can look in their filing cabinet and say, oh, that’s no big deal. Or, they will come up blank and choose fear or aggression to get through the situation. Once they turn 16 weeks the filing cabinet closes and you can train all you want, but you’ll never be able to create that filing cabinet for your dog. Basically, you can shove some papers underneath the door, but you’ll never have the same filing system as if they had these experiences as a young puppy.

Lastly, there is a wrong and a right way to socialize your puppy even when following these guidelines. You do not want to overload your puppy so much that they shutdown or force your puppy into something they’re terrified of or this socialization will have the opposite of the desired effect. For this reason, please contact a balanced trainer for guidance on specifics on how to interact with your puppy when you are following these socialization guidelines. If you are unsure of what trainer to contact, please let me know and I will do my best to try and help you locate someone reputable in your area.

-Morgan Quick
Owner of Swarlz Haus LLC

02/19/2021

I had the pleasure of evaluating Birdie’s trick dog titles from Trick Dog Novice (TKN) all the way up to the highest trick dog title- Trick Dog Elite Performer (TKE) within the span of January 19th-February 9th. This is a great accomplishment. This is a service dog team in training, so the handler is very well versed at training service dog tasks- which are really just helpful tricks to mitigate a disability! So proud of this team and so excited to see them keep progressing!

Siren Song Waiting For This Moment Blackbird ✨ TKE ✨
Affectionately known as Birdie 😊
Congratulations! 🎉

02/13/2021

The bond of a service dog and handler is deeper than you could possibly imagine without being a service dog handler yourself.

We put our lives into the hands of our canine partners. We are with with them usually 24/7 and they become a part of you. Not a best friend, not a soulmate dog, a literal part of yourself.

It’s an incredible bond, but it doesn’t make it okay to bring your dog with your everywhere just because you want them to be with you all the time. It’s not a fun time having a disability that you need a service dog to help you function as a normal human being, and it’s insulting to service dog handlers when people say “I wish I could bring my dog everywhere too”. It’s not fun having access issues and people constantly looking at you and talking to you or about you when you’re just trying to get through your day in one piece.

Please respect service dog laws for the people that truly need a service animal 💜

If you have any questions regarding how to treat a service dog in public when you see them, or any access questions as a handler, please comment or DM and I would be happy to help.

First picture is of a German Shepherd staring into the camera with snow on her nose and standing in a yard full of snow and the woods behind her.

Second picture is of the same German Shepherd with an orange chuck it ball in her mouth in between throws. Background is just white snow.

02/07/2021

Check out our updated “Training” tab for a slightly updated website on service dog training 😁

At Swarlz Haus German Shepherds, we raise exceptional animals in a loving and caring environment. Dedicated to following a responsible breeding program, our focus is on keeping our animals healthy and happy for when they find their new homes.

01/19/2021

This shows that our service dog training program and Public Access Test meets the MINIMUM of what International Association of Assistance Dog Partners requires.

01/11/2021

Contact us if you’d like to schedule a CGC, CGCA or CGCU test! We can also evaluate Trick Dog titles and Virtual Home Manners by video!

[email protected]

01/02/2021

Always continuing our education

12/31/2020

It’s all about perspective 💜

It’s all about perspective
Happy New Year Everyone 💜

12/23/2020

We are an evaluator for AKC for the following:
Canine Good Citizen
Canine Good Citizen Advanced/AKC Community Canine
Canine Good Citizen Urban
Trick dog titles (in person or by video)
Virtual Home Manners
AKC Temperament Test
Farm Dog Certified

Please contact us if you’d like to set up a test or send a video for a trick dog title!

[email protected]

12/17/2020

I love this girl more than anything in the world 💜 Show me your service dogs 👇🏼

12/17/2020

How much snow do you have so far? We have about 3 feet!

12/15/2020

There are many different types of service dogs. The requirements of having a service dog include: the dog performing tasks to mitigate a handler’s disability and to be trained in public access.

The most commonly known type is the guide dog. Guide dogs help visually impaired people navigate the world. It provides a bit more independence than a white cane or using a human guide.

Hearing assistance dogs alert their handlers to noises they can not hear themselves. These noises may be things such as fire alarms, a door bell, or the oven timer.

Diabetic alert dogs alert their handlers to high or low blood sugar so they can get more sugar or insulin before they get dangerously high or low.

Seizure alert and response dogs can either alert their handler to an oncoming seizure and get to a safe space before they have the seizure and/or respond to a seizure by putting themselves under their handler’s head so they don’t get a head injury, or to go get help.

Cardiac alert dogs can alert to high or low heart rates so that the handler can assess their situation and try to get their heart rate back to normal before any loss of consciousness.

Mobility assistance dogs help handlers who need help standing up or have a condition that makes their handler prone to light headed or dizziness by being sturdy enough to help the handler catch their balance. These dogs need to be larger in stature to be able to physically do the work.

Autism service dogs can prevent children with autism from bolting into dangerous situations by anchoring them by a harness on the dog and belt on the child. They also can provide a companionship that is hard for the child to achieve with humans. There have also been cases of non verbal autistic children eventually speaking because they wanted to talk to their dog.

Allergy detection dogs can help their handlers by alerting to a severe allergy such as peanuts so that the handlers doesn’t enter that area.

Psychiatric service dogs cover a wide range of work. PTSD service dogs are the most well known type. Something I would like to stress is that not all PTSD service dogs are for veterans. There are many people in the world who have PTSD that have not seen combat. Almost all programs who train PTSD service dogs do it only for veterans, so people who have PTSD for non combat related reasons are forced to try and train their own dogs. This is something I would specifically like to help with. Other types of psychiatric service dogs include helping to remind to take medications, interrupting self harm behaviors, administering Deep Pressure Therapy (DPT) in times of high anxiety and many, many more tasks.

The tasks a dog can perform to help their disabled handler are practically endless. If you can dream it, an experienced trainer can probably train your dog to do it. Dogs are incredible animals.

Also keep in mind that a service dog doesn’t have to be only one type. There are many service dog that fit in multiple categories I’ve listed here.

If you or someone you know has a disability and could benefit from having a service animal, don’t hesitate to reach out. I can either help you find a non profit organization program or help you train your own dog.

*Disclaimer- I do not train guide dogs, there are many non profit, Assistance Dog International (ADI) accredited schools who do that I can put you in touch with.

Best form of contact: [email protected]

Pictured is a Guiding Eyes black lab during his formal harness training

12/14/2020

We’ve already hit 100 likes! We strive to educate as many people as possible and help people train their service dogs. Thank you for liking our page. You can help us further by sharing our page or our posts so that as many people can know we exist as possible.

Pictured is Swarley’s first ever service dog in training (SDiT) outing to a TJMaxx 🤗

12/14/2020

What is the different between a service dog, emotional support animal and a therapy dog?

Emotional supports animals are there for emotional support for the owner only and do not necessarily need to be a dog. They do not have any public access. With a doctors note you can have an ESA live with you even when there is a no pet policy in the housing. There is no training required to be an ESA, though I would strongly encourage it (such as Canine Good Citizen training and testing) so as to not get that privilege taken away like it has been for flying on airplanes.

Therapy dogs are certified through organizations such as Therapy Dogs International (TDI) to visit places like hospitals and schools to provide support for many people.

Service dogs are highly trained dogs with tasks to mitigate their owner/handler’s disability. These dogs are legally allowed to accompany their owner/handler’s to any public area and are to be treated as medical equipment- not dogs. There is no registration or certification that is legally recognized. Though, they should be able to pass a Public Access Test to prove their training. You can find non-profit organizations that train service dogs on Assistance Dogs International (ADI). Other organizations that help owners train their own service dogs may have a certificate from International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP) to show they train to a minimum of their standards.

If you have any questions, I’d love to answer them in the comments section!

For your viewing pleasure is a picture of my retired service dog, Swarley, during his first outing with his big boy vest.

12/10/2020

For those of you who haven’t heard yet. Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) are no longer treated as anything other than pets on flights. This will help service dog owners feel safer on flights, knowing that there won’t be untrained dogs on the flight threatening their service dog’s safety. Along with this, there will be some paperwork for service dog handlers to fill out prior to flights, but we should be grateful for the oversight to ensure legitimacy. Read the article for more information. Please let me know if you have any questions, I’d be happy to talk to anyone.

The new Department of Transportation rule states a service animal must be a dog.

12/09/2020

Welcome to Swarlz Haus Service Dog Training. I am a service dog owner, handler, trainer and advocate. I’ve spent the last 7+ years dedicating myself to researching all things service dogs. Pictured below is my retired service dog (Swarley) and my active service dog (Leilani). Both hold extremely special spots on my heart. Swarley is the pup who started it all though. We have formed our business in his name because he is the original heart. Please reach out if you or someone you know needs guidance on raising and training a service dog. Slapping vests on pets to bring them everywhere will not be tolerated. Welcome.