do not metaphor me

I thought it was a great idea.  I thought it was going to be easy. After all, I’ve had dogs all my life.  Most of them were outside dogs, but for ten years I had three inside dogs.  So how hard could it be to train my own psychiatric service dog?

I looked at videos on YouTube.  I read articles.  It looked and sounded simple enough.  I’m good at following directions.  Sure, I hadn’t trained a dog beyond sit and lay down.  Sure, my inside dogs were two miniature schnauzers and one teacup.  But a dog is a dog, right?

Oh, how wrong I was.  There were so many things I didn’t take into consideration.

First of all, when it comes to dog’s size does matter.  When that little teacup cutie ran in the house, it was barely the pace of a walk.  When those loveable, needy miniature dogs jumped up on the sofa and plopped on your lap, it was practically imperceptible.  However, when you are talking about a bernedoodle that is the size of a small lab, those two things are very much a problem.  A problem you must train out of them.  And that is not an easy, overnight task.  Patience has to be your best friend.

I wasn’t failing at the job.  I wasn’t yelling or losing my cool.  But I wasn’t making any progress either.  It was like I wasn’t doing anything at all.  I got her to sit and lay, but other than that – nothing.  So, I got a trainer number one.

She helped me with her running across the sofas like they were elevated sidewalks.  She also taught me how to keep her from jumping on my lap and plopping down like I was her own personal chair.  But then we hit a wall.

 Trainer number one didn’t work with service dogs.  Therefore, she couldn’t teach me any service work task.  So, she helped me find trainer number two.  It took a few months, but surprisingly she took to her task like a duck to water.  She can smell and alert me to my mood changes without fail.  But then came problem number three, which was the biggest problem of all, public access.

Harper (service dog) is horrible in public.  She truly believes every person she sees is there for her.  She draws attention to herself to get to anyone to pet her.  And despite her vest that clearly said, “Service Dog in Training” “Do Not Pet” people walk up to her and oblige. 

It doesn’t matter how many times I say, “Please don’t.” 

They say, “Oh, I don’t mind.  She is so cute.” 

To which I respond onto deaf ears, “But I do.” 

It is infuriating and makes the problem oh so much worse, for me and for Harper.  Eventually the problem got large enough that trainer number two, who lives out of town and we work together over FaceTime, agreed it was time to contact trainer number one again and see if she was willing to help.  Thankfully trainer one agreed.  And we are making progress.  But we have a long way to go.

Now I’m paying for two trainers, one for behavioral and one for service dog work.  And all that money I was going to save by training my own service dog is a distant memory.  It is costing me as much or even possibly more to train Harper myself verses paying for a trained service dog.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love Harper.  At home she is  the calmest and best dog I could ask for.  But out in public…

I know she will eventually get there.  Both trainers have said she will be around two and a half to three years old, which is exactly about how long a waiting list to buy a service dog. 

With all of that said, the only question you truly need to ask yourself when deciding to buy or train your own service dog is, can I emotionally handle training?  Because the cost and time between the buying or training are practically the same.  At least that has been the case with me.