How I Accidentally Trained Service Dogs
I’m a pet manners trainer.
For the past few years, I have been caring for other people’s pet dogs, as a dog/house sitter. Some of the dogs stayed at my home, as boarders. This has been a steady source of income while letting me practice my training skills.
Because of my mobility problems from MS, the first thing that I must teach any dog is how to walk with me on a leash. While maintaining slack in the leash.
This is the proverbial loose-leash walk. Loose leash walking behavior is listed as a learning objective in many pet manners class curricula.
A dog pulling forward with a leash attached to its collar or harness is normal dog behavior.
When the other end of the leash is held by a person with impaired balance, the outcome could be incredibly dangerous for the human.
This would depict Newton’s 3rd law of motion. The law states “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This law of motion can be neutralized by educating a pet dog, in the style known as “manners training.”
Which I thought I was doing.
What I was teaching the dogs to do was not simply pet manners.
The outcome I wanted to achieve was for my safety. Since I am disabled, my intentionally educating the dogs to walk at a steady pace while holding a slack leash would be considered mobility assistance work.
I needed those dogs to do something to decrease the negative effects I experience from MS.
By definition, a service dog is taught behaviors for mitigating an individual’s disability. Disability is the essential prerequisite to be a handler of a service dog.
Since the dogs didn’t have other handlers besides myself, what they learned specifically benefited me. Without me (or another disabled handler), those dogs would return to their lives as beloved family pets.
