So Tell Me Again – What Exactly Is Your Program For Training Service Dogs?

Posted on | May 26, 2010 | No Comments

I went looking a couple days ago for a detailed description of the most well-promoted ‘service dogs for veterans’ organization’s training program – couldn’t find it, which really surprised me.

Funny thing is, I was actually trying to give them a break, not pick on them. I felt like I might’ve been too tough on their program lately and wanted to find something good that’d change my mind and give me more confidence in them.

I finally gave up after 15 or 20 minutes of hard looking on their website. Only thing I could find were some vague references about training dogs to meet every individual’s requirements and training them anywhere, and I had to look hard to find those.

Now, if this was some home-grown, DIY, rinky-dink website for a small organization, it still wouldn’t be OK, but I could maybe understand it a little. But it’s not – this is a very, very slick professionally done site from a very well funded organization who definitely knows how to promote itself and does so at every opportunity, which makes the omission even more glaring.

What I expected to see (and what you need to expect from any service dog organization as well) is something EXACTLY like this: Canine Companions for Independence’s Training And Placement page. Most importantly, because of the program content – it’s the gold standard against which you should compare all assistance dog organizations’ programs – but also because it’s a well-laid-out, detailed, one-page, start-to-finish description of the two-year process AND it’s pretty easy to find – just go to cci.org -> Programs -> Training And Placement.

Make no mistake – training and placement are the core of any assistance dog program, and if you’re interested in a service dog for yourself, a family member, a friend, or someone you are professionally advising, that’s one of the very first, if not THE first, things you need to evaluate.

It’s like I told so many people at the Warrior Games a coupla weeks ago who got to see CCI grad Jason Morgan and his wonderful service dog Napal and were so impressed by them: that kind of match and a dog that great doesn’t happen by accident – it’s a two-year process and only about a third of the dogs make it all the way through. And in spite of all that swell and wonderful feelgood stuff they might’ve heard about “the dog picking the human” (like in one well-publicized recent TV special), there’s a whole lotta focused and very specific effort involved to make a lifelong assistance dog team partnership like Jason and Napal’s.

Pretty much without fail, that explanation got the classic big eyed, raised eyebrow expression of surprise from everyone I told, which confirms for me what I already knew – most people have no idea what it takes to really do it right. Which is perfectly understandable, but which also makes it all the more critical for organizations to clearly and honestly explain their training program in detail and put that explanation where you can easily find it.

They owe you that.