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How I Earned My Service Dog’s Trust
As with any relationship, building and maintaining a trusting relationship requires vulnerability, patience and persistence, and that goes for relationships with dogs, too! Click here to read about Matthew Lafleur’s initial attempts to bond with his new service dog.
Matt is now living an adventure with his new fury friend! Do you have a service dog? If so, what were you first few months together like? Did you bond immediately or did it take some time until you became best friends?
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2 Replies
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I plan to have a dog in our family later this year. Here’s the deets, yo:
1. Ultimately, he’ll belong to my son Leo. He’s been begging for one for a while. But before he has that responsibility, Leo’s got about 6 more months to prove he can consistently handle smaller responsibilities. Right now, he takes care of two tarantulas and a snake. Everyday. It’s amazing how gentle and compassionate he is with them. A real animal lover. Like his mom. Not me, though. I just tolerate animals and feign interest.
2. My wife Gabe is a serious dog nerd. She used to train schutzhund commands to German Shepherds. In fact, that’s the breed she wants Leo to get. We both want Leo’s dog to be trained not just for obedience and assistance but as a personal protection animal. And I want Leo to do the training. Basically, I’ll hire a professional dog trainer (or recruit a volunteer) to teach Leo how to train his dog. THIS IS WHAT WILL FORM A TIGHT BOND and build a sense of leadership in the boy. And when the two of ’em overcome dangerous situations together, THIS WILL BUILD ABSOLUTE TRUST.
3. Most of this will be costly, but investing in my son’s character development is a priority in my life. Besides, I have ways to minimize cost. With a doctor’s prescription that reads “poor Jonathan needs a service dog,” I can get reimbursed via health benefits from my former employer. So no real worries on that front.
I’m not looking forward to all the shedding because I crawl a bit on the floor. Well…actually, it means Leo’s gonna vacuum more often. So, good.
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Do you know of any organization like you are looking for?
I really recommend Canine Companions for Independence, since they provide the dogs for free (and they have a region in FL, but that may not be hat you are looking for?
Also, what does “train schutzhund commands” mean?
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We’re not looking for an organization with pre-trained dogs because that undermines my purpose which is my son’s development. We found a local breeder. The dog will be raised and trained beginning about 8 weeks of age.
https://www.mittelwest.com/about/schutzhund-training-commands-for-german-shepherds/
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