Bleu, a service dog trained by Leah Thye for Canine Companions for Independence.
By Eleanor Guinan
Service dog trainers are responsible for making sure the dogs they train are able to help disabled people with certain tasks. Richard Kelley, owner of The Disciplined Dog and service dog trainer, said service dogs need to start their training around 10-16 weeks old.
“It helps develop the right attitude in the dog,” Kelley said. “Ten to sixteen weeks in is considered the impression period in dogs. You can greatly affect their attitude and temperament for the rest of their lives with what you do and don’t do with them at that time.”
Engagement is the first step of the training process and the trainer must be the most important element in their lives, he said.
“You’re their source of food, you’re their source of play, you’re their source of companionship, you’re their source of safety,” Kelley said. “Essentially, you are their God, you are in charge of everything positive in their life.”
Service dogs must have the right temperament when they are being trained, he said. However, some dogs do not have what it takes to be a service dog.
“It’s hard to make everyone understand that not every dog is absolutely cut out to be a service dog,” Kelley said. “Just like every person is not made out to be a policeman or a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist or a football player. I mean, we’re all made out for different things in life and that’s the same for dogs.”
The most common breeds for service dogs are Labradors and Labrador mixes, golden retrievers and standard poodles. German shepherds are sometimes trained as service animals, though they sometimes make the worst service dogs because their temperament varies, Kelley said.
Leah Thye, a junior companion and animal science major from Bedford, Texas, is a volunteer for Canine Companions for Independence. CCI is a national organization that provides assistance dogs to five different groups: for people with disabilities, post-traumatic stress disorder dogs for military veterans, facility dogs for people in education or health settings, scope companion dogs for kids with special needs and hearing dogs for deaf people.
CCI only trains Labradors, golden retrievers and Labrador-golden mixes, she said. The organization’s Texas chapter is based out of Irving, Texas.
“The main thing we’re trying to promote out here is puppy raising and getting people to puppy raise a dog,” Thye said while looking down at Bleu, who slept nearby. “You’ll raise it for about eighteen months.”
Leah Thye, a puppy raiser for Canine Companions for Independence with Bleu.
Thye is currently training Bleu, a one-year-old Labrador-golden retriever mix. Thye has had Bleu since Oct. 2018 and said she and Bleu will go back to Irving in May for training.
As a puppy raiser for CCI, Thye is responsible for taking dogs into the public to familiarize them with social settings.
“Then they’ll go back to professional training for about another six months and then they’ll graduate and become a service dog,” she said.
The trainers must ease the dogs into public outings, Thye said. When dogs get to be one-year-old, they can go everywhere with their trainer.
“What we do is once they’re five or six months old we can start to take them on short public outings,” Thye said. “Obviously nothing crazy, it’s more like coffee shops, a quiet bookstore, a Lowe’s or a Home Depot type places. Then once they’re older, like Bleu, she pretty much comes everywhere with me now.”
Taking the dogs into public helps them socialize and prove the commands, Thye said. However, if a dog is slower to learn their commands, the trainer keeps them for an extra month, or the dog is used for a less responsible role.
Thye said the biggest obstacle is having Bleu in public and having people pet her without asking. However, some people know to ask but it is up to Thye if they can pet Bleu.
“A lot of people don’t know that they are service dogs in training,” Thye said. “So, people ask to pet them and if she’s being good, I’ll say, ‘Yeah, sure’ and have her sit and they can pet her and ask questions. Or, if she’s being Bleu I’ll be like, ‘Oh, not right now, she’s training.’ One of the main things is people will come rush up and pet her and I’ll have to explain to them, ‘Oh she’s in training you have to ask first.’”
Bleu is the first dog Thye has trained, and she said it will be hard to give her to the professional trainers.
Thye shaking Bleu’s paw during training.
“It’ll be hard, but I keep telling myself that she’s going to be going to someone that needs her,” Thye said. “They’ll need her more than I do, and I’ll just get another one and start the process over.”
Hannah Alexander, a freshman musical therapy major at West Texas A&M University wrote a research paper over service animals. Alexander said a person qualifies to have a service dog if they have a disorder that requires assistance.
“A lot of people with epilepsy will have service animals because they can sense when a seizure is coming and they can tell (their handler),” Alexander said. “A lot of people that pass out and have heart disorders, the dogs can sense that and alert them to it.”
Service dogs are a big breakthrough in the health world, Alexander said. For example, service dogs can be used to help special needs children in school.
“I have a supervisor that is a deaf and special needs counselor (and) teacher,” Alexander said. “She has trained two dogs to be therapy dogs that she has taken in with her problematic children in the school system and it helps them cope and learn, ‘Hey if I do my work, then I can go and play with (the dogs).’ It helps them release emotions they can’t otherwise.”
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