BREEDERS FEW AND FAR BETWEEN?

Lately I have been reading on a number of lists that good breeders are few and far between.  People are lamenting the lack of breeders who keep stable structure and temperament in mind when they breed.  I am seeing more and more finger pointing at breeders as the source of ill tempered dogs, with poor structure.  It is true that poorly bred dogs are being produced by someone, but there is a second party in the equation.  You.  The consumer.  The person who purchases the ill tempered, poorly structured puppy is in part to blame.  When consumers start to be more discriminating in their choices of breeders fewer ill tempered dogs with poor structure will be bred. 

There is a problem that relates to this premise.  The problem is that many pet buyers and in fact even many veterinarians don’t recognize a good breeder.  I mentor a number of vet students each year.  And each year at least one of these students tells me that breeders are bad.  Vets don’t get sent out to dog shows to learn about the dogs that people are carefully breeding and they don’t learn about the way that good choices are made when breeding dogs.  Your average pet owner doesn’t know how to find a great breeder and the main person they would go to ask for information is usually at least as uninformed as they are.

Baby D'fer!  He came from Amy and John Dahl of Oakhill Kennels in North Carolina.  Definately breeders who know what they are breeding and why!

Trainers are a better source of contact for good breeders, but even in the training world where we deeply care about what pup comes into our homes, many trainers are not getting their dogs from good breeders believing that they can make a bigger difference by rescuing a dog.  Never the less, trainers are more closely tied into the world of breeders than many veterinarians because we have behavioural expectations of our dogs and we know a variety of people who also have behavioural expectations of their dogs and our network can help to lead you to the right dog to fit your life.  

Possibly the best place to go to get information about good breeders is a breed club if you are looking for a purebred.  If you are looking for a mixed breed, Rally and Agility clubs are great places to look for contacts for good breeders.  The problem is, if you don’t look, you won’t find the great match to fit your life.  If you just want a dog, and you don’t care if it is a slug who lies on the couch all day, or if it is an exercise-o-holic, then you can randomly choose any dog at all.  If you have any expectations at all of the dog who will live with you, you need to find a good way of culling out the dogs who don’t fit your needs, and until consumers demand better, they are going to keep getting mediocre.  Until consumers start to get picky about the dogs they choose to live with, they are going to continue to create and support breeders who don’t breed well tempered, good structured dogs.

So how can you tell if you have a good breeder who is doing his or her best to produce great dogs?  There are some hallmarks to look for.  With a few notable exceptions, great breeders don’t live so far off the grid that the only way to find them is to pack a lunch and paddle your canoe to get to them.  Great breeders have great reputations.  At one point I was looking for a standard poodle for a service dog program.  I went to a dog show and I watched the poodles being groomed.  I introduced myself and started to talk to the people grooming the poodles and told them about the dog I wanted.  I asked them who they would recommend.  One kennel name kept coming up over and over again.  I spoke to about five different handlers and they all said the same thing;-“if you want those characteristics in a dog, this is the kennel you want”.  I went to a second different show and talked up several more people in the poodle group and asked again, and again that same kennel kept coming up.  One handler suggested another kennel and then said “but they get all their breeding stock from this other kennel.”  The kennel I had been referred to over and over again.  That kennel, Dawin, in Ontario, had exactly the kind of dog I wanted.  Had I been looking for something else, I am sure the handlers would all have recommended a different kennel.  Handlers at dog shows are the world’s best kept secret in terms of finding the dog that you want.

The second thing about great breeders is that they are aware of what their dog’s faults are.  When I first got involved with dogs, I bought a breed book with all the breeds that were then recognized in Canada.  I read the whole book, cover to cover, even the breeds I knew I didn’t want.  That was perhaps one of the best exercises I could have done.  I learned a lot about dog breeds, traits and characteristics and temperament.  I learned that a correct temperament for a Kuvaz is aloof.  I learned that the correct temperament for a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is friendly.  I learned that some breeds of pointers should naturally exhibit pointing behaviour.  I also learned about which breeds I wanted to live with and which ones I did not.  I narrowed the choice down to two; the Chesapeake Bay Retriever and the German Shepherd.  And then I went to a dog show to meet the breeds.  All the chessie people told me about the drawbacks to their breed, and what I should consider when getting a chessie.  Many of them told me that I should consider them as a second dog, but get an easier dog first.  The German Shepherd people all told me that shepherds were great dogs.  Knowing what I know now, and looking back, the chessie would have been a better choice, in part because the breeders were upfront with the drawbacks to the breed.  There are a lot of drawbacks to my beloved German Shepherds and I would have been better served had I known those drawbacks up front.

The third thing I like to ask a breeder is “what are you breeding for?”  If they respond “good temperament and great structure!” I know we need to dig a little deeper.  A good temperament in a German Shepherd is not a good temperament in a Golden Retriever and vice versa.  If I am visiting a lab breeder and they tell me that they breed for a deep chest and a strong back, with a stout otter like tail, who is willing and eager to work with people and carry things around, who tolerates a high level of noise and activity without distress, and whose ancestors had good health into their early teens, then I know I am talking to someone who has thought about what it means to breed a good Labrador retriever.  If I talk to a lab breeder who tells me that they want to breed dogs with good structure and temperament, then I know I need to keep looking for another breeder.

Finally, I like to get to know the breeders I am buying from.  The last three dogs I purchased were all from training colleagues.  The first, Amy Dahl was someone I got to know well through a variety of interactions in the training world and on line.  She and I had collaborated on a couple of projects and I had consulted with her on a behaviour problem in a dog she knew.  The second was Robin Winter of Narnia Kennel who had competed against me in a number of dog shows.  I also met several dogs she had breed and I really liked them.  The third is a trainer Mel Wooley of Stahlworth Kennel who has presented at our Service Dog Seminar.  She has an incredible dog, Divah, who I really like, and when the chance came to get a Diva puppy, I jumped at the opportunity.  10 years later, I am still in touch with Amy from time to time, 6 years later I am still in touch with Robin sporadically, and 18 months later, I am in regular contact with Mel.  I would consider all my breeders to be good friends and I know that if any of my dogs had any issues, I could turn to them for help.  If you really like the dogs, but you just cannot stand the people who breed them, consider that if the paperwork doesn't come through or if the dog has a congenital issue that pops up years later, these are the same people you will have to work with.  If you cannot work with them when the going is good, you aren't likely going to be able to work with them when the going is tough.

The bottom line is that until consumers start asking for better dogs we are going to keep getting second rate animals.  If we were to treat the car industry the way we treat the dog industry we would buy cars that just fell apart and we would accept that as not only normal but as desirable.  We need to demand better minimum standards and when we do, the world of breeders will turn around.  Breeders breed what sells, and if it doesn't matter to you what dog ends up in your home, it won't matter to the breeder either.

So You Would Like A Service Dog

D'fer!  My constant partner for the past 8 years or so.  So many things I would not have been able to do were made possible by this incredible dog.

Every week we get multiple requests from people who would like to train a dog to be a service dog.  The people contacting us are quite varied, but there are common threads of information that they are looking for.  Regardless of if you are a person with a disability, a person who knows someone with a disability and would like to train a dog to help a friend, someone who is just starting out in dog training who would like to consider working in the field of training dogs to help the disabled or someone without a disability who would like to take a pet out in public with them, you all need to know the same information.

At Dogs in the Park we are unable to help everyone who wants to train a service dog through our classes.  There are too many issues that surround service dogs that take up time in a regular training class and too few people locally to support a class specifically for service dogs.  There is enough demand however to support an annual seminar and we have now been offering such a seminar for over five years.  These annual seminars offer information both for those who are beginning their journey and those who have been training for many, many years.  We include information on access, laws, how to train your dog and tasks that your dog can do.  For this reason, we have developed this article to help people who want to train their dogs to assist them.  We are happy to respond to emailed questions on this topic but please read through the following questions and answers before emailing us and if you have a question that is not addressed then please feel free to contact us.  If you phone the office, please leave an email where we can reach you to respond to you.

Do you or the person you want to train for have a disability?

This question is the first question you need to answer before you can move forward.  In most jurisdictions, you cannot use a service dog in public unless you have a disability.  In each legal jurisdiction there is a specific definition of what a disability is.  In general, you are considered disabled if you live with a condition that limits your ability to carry out the activities of daily living.  Usually, The activities of daily living means you cannot go to school or work, or you cannot shop for your groceries, get yourself to your doctor or cook or clean.  This does not mean that you could do it, but you don’t like to, but rather that you are unable to do it.  If you do not have a disability, in North America, there is no way for you to legally take your pet with you out in public.

Do you have a condition that is best helped with a dog?

D'fer alerting.

Dogs have been used to help people with a very wide variety of problems, from autism to diabetes to mobility issues to psychiatric illness and beyond, but in every case the dog has to DO something.  In some cases having a dog who can interpret the environment for the handler and the handler can determine if they are seeing something real helps a handler determine when they are experiencing hallucinations and when they are seeing real things.  This is a filter that the person can take everywhere with them, but it is something the dog does; it is not just something that happens.  If you cannot think of what you do will DO, but only that you would like him to be with you, then your dog is not normally permitted to be out in public with you.  If you can think of something that can be done with a dog but that can be better done with technology, technology may be a better alternative for you to consider.

Do you have a suitable dog?

This sheltie is not a common breed used for service work, but he does a really good job!

The work of a service dog is challenging and often quite difficult.  Your dog must be able to enjoy changes of environment and footing, must be able to tolerate unexpected pats from strangers and accept grocery carts bumping into them.  They work in places that are not meant for dogs to go to, and they must do it without complaining, startling or becoming frightened.  If you have a dog who startles and becomes frightened when a truck backfires, or who barks at things like people who walk by while wearing a funny hat, then your dog is the wrong dog for the job, and you will spend more of your time addressing your dog’s needs instead of him helping you.  It is important to have someone to help you to determine if your dog is actually appropriate for the work-having a second pair of eyes to look carefully at your dog’s suitability is important.  A huge variety of breeds have been used for service work, from tiny Yorkshire Terriers through giant English Mastiffs, as well as a wide variety of mixed breeds, but each individual must be considered on his own merit.  You cannot simply say that you have had a dog of a certain breed who was perfect for service work and then randomly choose another dog of the same breed and expect to be successful.  Choosing the wrong dog is not fair to the dog and makes your job of training much more difficult than necessary.

Did your dog have appropriate early socialization?

This young dog is learning that she is safe on a tile floor in a public atrium, before she is 5 months old.

Most dogs cannot overcome a lack of socialization and go on to become confident, happy working service dogs.  Socialization for service dog puppies means the careful exposure of the puppy to everyone and everything you expect him to cope with as an adult and it happens before the puppy is 16 weeks of age.  If your pup was rescued out of a barn at 20 weeks, you might be able to teach him to cope with the world you want him to work within, but it will not be a fast or easy job.  If your dog missed early socialization, you must realize that you will need to spend more time and energy teaching him to accept the world than you may have the energy to commit.  If you have a puppy under 16 weeks, you really should be in a good puppy socialization class.

Does your dog have the appropriate training to help you?

Leash manners are important skills to have!  Training takes time, effort and patience and is often costly.

Service dog training can be divided neatly into two categories; public access and task training.  Public access training is all about leash manners and the ability to not touch things that your dog will encounter in public.  I like to think about service dogs as conspicuously invisible.  They must never bark at people or animals or things that startle them, or pick up food off the floor or solicit attention from the people he encounters when he is working in public.  Then your dog must also have the skills needed to help you; alerts for medical conditions, picking up items if you cannot or opening doors to let you through for instance.  It generally takes between ten months and two years to train all the behaviours that your dog will need, and until that training has occurred, your dog is not going to be helping you.

Do you require certification to take your dog out in public?

Certification is not required in most places, but you must know the laws of your community!

This question depends entirely on where you are.  You need to know the law where you are at any given time.  If you live in North Carolina and you visit Ontario, you would be covered by the laws in the community you are in at any given time, not by the laws of where you are from.  It is important for you to know the laws where you are living, but also the laws where you are going!

If you live in the United States, then you will not need certification for your service dog, but you may not have the right to bring your service dog in training with you as he learns.  The right to be accompanied by a service dog is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but the right to bring service dogs in training is covered individually by each state.  You can find information about service dog in the Americans with Disabilities Act here:  http://www.ada.gov/

If you live in Ontario, where Dogs in the Park operates, you will need to know the information that is contained within Ontario Regulation 429/07 under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, Accessibility Standards for Customer Service,  found at http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2007/elaws_src_regs_r07429_e.htm

If you live somewhere else, you will be governed by the local laws.  It is not the intent of this article to provide an exhaustive list of links to laws around the world, so you will have to look up your own laws locally and become familiar with them.

I have heard that my dog must be certified to have public access.  Is this true?

Please reread the above section on the law; it is going to depend on where you are and what the laws are relative to where you are.  Be aware though of organizations that will sell you certifications for your dog; most of these organizations are willing to take your money and print out a piece of paper.  You can do that yourself for the price of a little time and a piece of paper through your printer.

Where can I go to train to be a service dog trainer?

At the moment there are a few private programs that train people to be service dog trainers, but the truth is that most service dog trainers for programs come up through the ranks, working first in the kennels and then learning to train service dogs within the organization they are working for.  Other people begin privately training dogs for others based on their abilities as a dog trainer. 

Where can I send my dog to be trained as a service dog?

There are a wide variety of private programs that train your dog to be a service dog, but check your references carefully and be aware of programs that claim they can train your dog in under six months.  Training a dog properly requires that dogs be allowed the time to obtain and integrate the information that they are being asked to learn.

 Does my dog have to be able to do three demonstrable tasks to be considered a service dog?

D'fer will pick up items such as his leash for me if I am unable to bend over due to my disability.

 

No.  That is the criteria that the organization Assistance Dogs International (ADI, found at http://www.assistancedogsinternational.org/) has established for its member organizations.  ADI is a coalition of not for profit assistance dog organisations and has nothing to do with owners who train their own service dogs.  On the other hand, you dog must be able to do something that helps you and in many jurisdictions you may be asked to demonstrate that your dog is trained to assist you.  If you are just bringing your dog along because you like to do that or because you think it will be fun, that is not a service dog.

Will you train a dog to assist me at Dogs in the Park?

A dog in training at Dogs in the Park

We occasionally take clients on after they have attended our annual service dog seminar.  If you attend a seminar with us and you would like us to train a dog for you, we will consider taking you on as a client.  We choose the dogs we train for our clients; if you already have a dog we will not train that dog for you.  If you would like to take private lessons with us, you can do that with the objective of training your dog as a service dog, but we will not be doing the training in that case; we will be acting as consultants only.

How much does it cost to purchase, raise and train a dog from puppy hood to adulthood?

It can cost a LOT of money to prepare for, select and train a service dog.

This question depends entirely on how you go about doing that.  If you wanted us to train a dog for you from start to finish, including attending our conference, you might be looking at as much as forty thousand dollars USD.  If you are an experienced dog trainer with access to the right dog to start with, you can expect to spend as much as you might on a sport dog by the time they attain their second level of title (the equivalent of training a dog through his CDX or RX title). 

My school or employer won’t allow me to bring my dog to their establishment, or a hotel wants to charge me extra for having my dog with me.  Can you help?

We cannot provide legal advice.

Sorry, no.  You need to speak with a human rights lawyer in your area.  We do not keep a list of human rights lawyers; you will need to do your own research about that.

I need to know something that isn’t listed on this page.  Can you help me?

Yes!  If you have not found the answer you need here, please email me at sue@dogsinthepark.ca with your question.  If you call my office leave an email address so that I can get in touch with you.  If you wish to speak with me on the phone, I will be happy to do so for a fee; please email me for details.

ADDENDUM:
Recently a few people are very persistent in wanting to come visit me and speak with me in person about their service dog projects.  I take on very few service dog clients each year, and I only take clients who have been to my service dog seminar.  If you want to discuss your service dog project with me in person there are two ways to go about that.  You can EMAIL me and I will provide you with details about my professional fees to discuss your project on the phone or in person, or you can EMAIL me and outline specific questions which I will respond to at no cost if the specifics of your question are not addressed in this article.  I will respond to what I consider a reasonable number of questions at no charge by email.  I will not discuss service dog projects by phone or in person until I have been paid to do so. 

Over the past fifteen years, I have spent thousands of hours sharing my knowledge and understanding of service dogs with others via email and over the phone and in person.  I cannot do this any longer as I must make a living if I am going to continue to do service dog work at all.  I am able to help you with my blog and in a limited way by email, and I still contribute to a variety of email lists, yahoo groups and Facebook pages, but I can no longer spend hours on end on the phone or in person helping people for no fee.  While I appreciate how difficult it is to wade through the large picture of developing a service dog, I hope that you the reader will appreciate how I must limit my participation in your project at no charge.  I just cannot afford to do that any longer. 

If Only Cooper Could Talk

Cooper!

          

Cooper, the three-ish year old Welsh Terrier who visited us for two months this fall, is an opinionated, intense and extremely funny little guy.  He grew up in Guelph, attended puppy classes at Dogs in the Park, moved on to our Levels program and spent a good deal of his time training his person to be the best she could be.  He taught her for instance that Welsh Terriers don’t like cuddling.  They like scheduled, short periods of affection, in private, quietly, at a predictable time.  He taught her that Welsh Terriers DO like hunting and ratting, but that toads taste bad and should not be disturbed.  He also began teaching her about ratio strain, schedules of reinforcement and many of the vagaries of operant conditioning, but then she moved him to the United States and they started on her advanced education.

In the US, Cooper could not find a training school that fully met his needs.  He did find an agility class that was kind of fun, where he taught the instructor that luring is lame and shaping rocks and rolls.  He taught another instructor the value of the one hour sit stare.  That is when the dog doesn’t like what is happening in class and sits.  And stares.  For an hour.  He taught his person the value of a scale of reinforcers and that sometimes you need a variety of reinforcers to keep a Welsh Terrier in the game.  Cooper took great pains to teach his person that the more you spend on Rally-O trial fees the more likely it is that you are going to be embarrassed by your dog.  When I visited, Cooper was so pleased he took a hour out of his precious day to demonstrate to me all the Rally moves he had learned successfully, but since I wasn’t at the trial, he took the opportunity to show his person new ways to do the Halt-Stand-Walk Around that included Halt-Stand-Pee on the Rally Sign while your person is on the wrong side of you.

Cooper teaching dog training

Along the way, Cooper’s person had a very good job and settled into her new life until a calamity occurred, and then Cooper needed temporary accommodation for two months.  Here at our farm, life is quite different than it was at home for Cooper.  Here Cooper lives a very structured life in our kennel with regular house time and training time and long country walks, but that doesn’t include things like “watching your person get ready for work” or “tolerate snoogling on the couch”.  At our house, Cooper spent every night in his crate.  He got yard time several times a day in the company of a very wide variety of dogs-sometimes as many as twenty different dogs in a week.  At least five days a week Cooper got to go to class, and some days he got to do class twice and had some private sessions with a variety of trainers in training.  Cooper was fed twice a day in his bowl at predictable times, with the rule of if you don’t eat, you can have dinner in class for training treats, and if you don’t want dinner as treats, then you probably aren’t terribly hungry (and yes, we kept track of how much the little dude got each day, so that he never actually missed a meal-sometimes he just got more training opportunities).  Cooper taught us the true meaning of a schedule nerd; he loves his schedule!

When his person came to pick Cooper up, he was delighted to see her and showed her a bunch of cool things that he had learned and then asked to go back to the kennel.  Three times that afternoon he came up for short visits and asked to go back to the kennel.  He was happy to see his person, delighted in fact, but he also was very clear that there were aspects of his life here that suited him just fine.  One of those things was a lot more down time than most pets get.  For whatever reason, Cooper likes to spend time in his crate.  By himself.  And he likes to spend time with his dog friends, unencumbered by the responsibility of always training his person.  

On the first evening, his person brought him upstairs to sleep in her room.  After an hour, he asked to go down to the kennel.  First vaguely, by being restless ,and then firmly by sitting and staring at the bedroom door.  We have long known that Cooper is a dog who likes his sleep, and prefers to sleep long and hard each night.  In the morning, Cooper was thrilled to have some training time, some attention and some scritches by his person, but again, he wanted to go back to the kennel.

Cooper’s person has struggled in classes in the states, and not because she doesn’t do her homework or because she has lacked for good coaching.  Part of the problem lies in the philosophy of training that Cooper espouses.  Cooper does not “get” trained.  He participates in it.  Cooper teaches his person as much as his person teaches him.  Cooper will accept nothing short of a 50-50 partnership.  Not only does he want to learn tricks and skills, but he expects his trainer to be actively learning too.  In our classes, with vet students and our staff working with him, with John and me participating in training, Cooper worked willingly for an hour or longer at a time, where at home, he would often quit on his person and give up in disgust after short periods of time.  If the trainer isn’t learning, Cooper isn’t interested in learning either.

I have often thought about what Cooper might say if he could talk.  The first thing that I think Cooper might tell us is that he is an intensely private little guy, and somewhat of an introvert.  Cooper would not tell you about his birthplace or the puppies he met in puppy class, because I think for Cooper, that is private information.  Cooper would also tell us that he likes his sleep.  Lots of it, in private, without disturbances.  On the other hand, Cooper is a responsible little guy, and he will tell you when the new neighbours upstairs get home from work at one in the morning.  Or when the person in the next hotel room gets up and goes down the hall for ice in the middle of the night.  Those are activities Cooper thinks you should know about.

I think Cooper would tell you that if you cannot think up a way to make the game meaningful to both of you, he isn’t interested in playing it.  Cooper is very interested in what makes people tick, and he manages to hit the nail on the head reliably time after time.  Cooper isn’t interested in being pandered to, and if you are not at least equally interested in what he is interested in, then he isn’t interested in playing whatever game you want to play.  

 

When Cooper is working with a vet student who is at Dogs in the Park to learn about training, he decides when they are ready to move to a variable schedule of reinforcement, and stops giving them cued behaviours the first time they ask.  Sound weird?  Yup!  Just when the student begins to grasp a one to one behaviour to reinforcement ratio, Cooper will start embellishing the system, adding bits and pieces, taking bits away and challenging the student to fine tune his or her skills.  He reinforces good timing with desired behaviours, but when the student is sloppy with his timing or cues, Coop throws nonsensical behaviours to make the student back up and start fresh.  He knows exactly when to apply the pressure of a lack of interest and participation to give the student just what is needed in terms of a learning experience.

Cooper has needs...and is most co operative when his needs are met

Cooper would also tell you that a doggy social life is essential to his well being.  Without social time, Cooper is a sad little puppy, and he will impose his view of this matter on you by dragging towards dogs he wants to meet.  Cooper isn’t unreasonable.  He will work off leash, in the presence of food on the floor and other dogs in the room, provided his needs have first been met.  From Cooper’s point of view, fair is fair, and if you aren’t going to be fair in letting him have social time, he will take care of that matter himself.

Cooper is a unique, highly communicative dog.  He is a fascinating fellow and I am fortunate to have worked with him for the past two months.  I think if Cooper could talk, he would have a lot to tell us, but the real lesson to learn from Cooper is that training is a partnership.  When you meet all of your partner’s needs, and you are willing to learn from your partner, you can both achieve great things.  I think Coop can teach us a lot about training not being about skill acquisition, but rather about meaningful activities that you do together, or more simply, about your relationship.  A good relationship is a careful weaving of needs of both parties and boundaries you each need to feel fulfilled.  It is a blend of common goals and activities and give and take on both sides, and Cooper is a dog who is unwilling to accept anything less than his fair share of the relationship.  Cooper is perhaps the best trainer, dog, horse or human, that I have ever met.

Thank you Cooper for an instructive two months.