service dog registrations are fake - education post one

So i have not seen a whole lot of service dog content on tumblr and as a service dog handler I would like to see more so i thought i would also start typing facts about service dogs on here to help educate the public. Todays fact is that service dog registrations are fake. Now what the general public thinks of as a service dog is potentially two things. A well behaved lab or Golden wearing a guide harness and or program vest that is probably blue, red or yellow. The dog is in a heel while being feed treats for being a good dog and focusing on the owner. The second "service dog" is a small dog in a Walmart shopping cart barking at everything that does and does not move. When the Walmart employee asks about the legitimacy of this "service dog" the owner pulls out a registration card. The employee does not know that ADA laws so she allows the pet dressed up in a service dog vest to go into the store. So im going to talk about "service dog" number two. The ADA law states that a service dog is not required to show any form of proof in writing or patches that it is a service dog. This includes registrations because the ADA (Americans with disability act) does not recognize them as a valid way to prove a service dog. So if service dog registrations are a scam how do i go get a real service dog. Task one you must have a disability. No matter how severe if it impact you even a little bit and you think a service dog could help you, your on your way. A service dog must me task trained to mitigate your diability. what ddoes this mean, it means that your dog will directly be trained to help you manage your disability. Like it you have chronic pain your dog might do fmp (foward momentum pull) to help preserve your energy. or if you are diabetic your dog might alert to high and low blood sugar and retrieve a diabetic kit for you. However to sum up this post please dont just go buy a service dog vest and slap in on your pet. This cause cause trouble for the people who have real service dogs. along with the fact that it gives real service dogs a bad reputation. thank you for reading if you like this please hit the like button and go follow my Instagram @/mercy_and.me

if you would like to learn more about diability and service dogs go to ada.gov

YES YES I NEED THIS SIGN IN EVERY SINGLE PARK PLEASE

This is my daily struggle, I had so many arguments with people with off-leash dogs (in a mandatory leash area!!!). Thanks to this behavior I'm struggling with Kim being anxious/aggressive with other females as she often gets involved in unpleased interactions with free females while on leash. And every single time that I ask for the dog to be at least recalled, I'm being called names and insulted of course.

Also 9 out of 10 their dog isn't really that friendly at all.

My wife's service dog in training, Matilda, is trained to be super annoying at specific times of day. This is because my wife's executive dysfunction does not allow her to 'unfreeze' and therefore she gets 'stuck' in places/doing things long after she needs to move on to another task, room, etc. This isn't some arbitrary 'you should only play video games so long' type of thing. It's 'If unattended, my wife will not eat or sleep because moving from one thing to another is very hard'. Eating and sleeping are necessary things for survival, so moving to these tasks is necessary for survival. Matilda has therefore been taught things like 'ten pm is bedtime'. In order to help Matilda with this, her feeding schedule is on a pretty tight timeline as well--this way her internal body cues are lined up with the schedule of the day. For example, Matilda is fed between 8 and 830 pm (usually at about 810 pm, as it works out). She poops at 830 pm after dinner and she will throw a WHOLE FIT if she is not let out at this time. Daylight Savings has Happened to Matilda. She's only just a year old, so she does not remember Daylight Savings last year (she was two weeks old, roughly) and she does not remember the spring time change, either, as she was a fairly young puppy at that time and therefore not trained to a schedule like this. She is BEREFT. We're making her wait an hour for dinner. We're making her wait an hour for bedtime. She knows she needs to go out at 830, but it is not time for her to poop yet, which is BAFFLING. This poor dog. I'm sure she'll adjust in a week or two, but poor Matilda. We need to outlaw Daylight Savings. For Matilda.

Learning anything about marine mammal training will make you re-evaluate so much of your relationship with your own pets. There is so much force involved in the way we handle domestic animals. Most of it isn’t even intentional, it just stems from impatience. I’m guilty of it myself!

But with the exception of certain veterinary settings where the animal’s health is the immediate priority, why is it so important to us that animals do exactly what we want exactly when we want it? Why do we have to invent all these tools and contraptions to force them to behave?

When a whale swam away from a session, that was that. The trainer just waited for them to decide to come back. If they flat out refused to participate in behaviors, they still got their allotment of fish. Nothing bad happened. Not even when 20-30 people were assembled for a procedure, and the whale chose not to enter the medical pool. No big deal. Their choice and comfort were prioritized over human convenience.

It’s almost shocking to return to domestic animal medicine afterwards and watch owners use shock collars and chokers and whips to control their animals. It’s no wonder that positive reinforcement was pioneered by marine mammal trainers. When you literally can’t force an animal to do what you want, it changes your entire perspective.

I want to see that mindset extended to our domestic animals.

today’s episode of “i was trying to teach a back rebound but my dog did something else instead” ft. a 5 ft vertical leap

Car’s engine is running

Source: instagram.com

Well, turns out I’m working at a doggie daycare/training facility again! I’m actually running one!

This is one of the regulars. Her name is Bailey! Super sweet girl.

Expect dog pics to be posted again with regularity, very soon!

losing my entire mind at this hot take in an aggresisvely R+ Facebook trainer's post. comment section is full of people asking for sources and the poster claiming the "prey drive myth" has been debunked same as alpha theory. I can't comment because I'm not in the group but oh my god.

I will always reward my dog for good behaviour and following commands for the rest of her life, because:

a) why the hell should she work for me for free

b) it is literally the easiest thing to keep doing and takes nearly nothing out of my day

c) it helps her continue to build more positive associations even in situations where she is uncertain or even frightened as she understands the Protocol and what behaviours get the Reward.

I will never understand some dog trainers aversion to just not allowing a dog that guards resources from other dogs to interact with other dogs when having that resource. it's just so simple. or like. just closing a gate or door.

people when you tell them a pitbull is just a dog and not a mindless toddler-eating killing machine or a harmless angel incapable of so much as scratching you

He sees no point in holding a third place ribbon. But I'm still proud of him. 2/10 of his way to Rally Choice.

Didn't feel like walkies tonight so I finally started movement puzzles with all the dogs. 10/10 love it.

I wanna say Bree was the star. With her poor hearing and vision she needs a bit more guidance, but she was really rocking the bowl-to-bowl idea eventually. Haley was definitely like "ooh I know this, I go to this bowl and then this one" but uhhh Haley you gotta do the things between the bowls consistently too lol. As it started to click for Arthur he seemed to really like it. The nub wags harder the happier he is.

We only started with the bowls, then added a pop-up laundry basket to go around, then added a cushion to walk across. I love that you can just use what you have to set up the puzzle, in whatever space you have. I can use stools, boxes, laundry baskets, platforms, cushions, cones, chairs, whatever.

Dutch is 10 weeks old today :) one day he'll be able to fit into his vest

Does anyone have any good resources on dog-dog resource guarding in multi-dog households?

I'm looking for force free resources of any kind, so videos, podcasts, books, blogs, whatever, as long as it's sensible and useful. Please, and thank you!!!

Navi has always been a typical little herding dog who takes it upon herself to "enforce rules" and it was usually not problematic at all, it was moreso a quirk. However, she's tried to guard her bowl and a cardboard box (love that for her) in front of Maisie and a friend's dog in the past month. I'm pretty convinced this is linked to her being in heat, since it's been a tough one for her, but I think we'd benefit from working on this regardless. Don't want it to escalate and create conflict with other dogs and I also don't want her to feel unsafe with her food etc. I already do a lot of things to manage it, and I know how to work on resource guarding between dogs and people, but I honestly don't have that many resources on dog-dog resource guarding and how to effectively manage or solve it.