Postings by Guest ID 1119496

Service & Therapy Dogs > Let people pet your service dog

Member Since 07/07/2012     Barked: Wed Jan 30, '13 12:25pm PST  I trained my own service dog and one of the key components of his training was letting people pet him. One of the first things I discovered was that little kids love dogs. The first time I took Jethro to the mall I was talking to somebody about him and when I turned around and looked Jethro had a 3 year old hanging from his neck, they where both giving each other kisses. Jethro is a Dogue De Bordeaux/AmStaff mix and about 90 lbs. I learned very quickly that your better off letting the dog be social, it does not take much to teach them that work comes first. Trust me after two months of getting petted none stop they don't like it so much anymore and the problem is self correcting. This has worked so well that when we go to our normal places, the store, gym, out to eat I don't even have to put him on leash. The other bonus is when people like your service dog they will stand up for him. Last night at 24 Hour Fitness this nut went off about being allergic to dogs and told me he was going to sue and so on. The Club manager told him to go to a different location or they would refund this months dues and he could stop coming. I love 24 Hour Fitness. Plus the other guys in the locker room laid in to him when I walked out. My point here is that it seems to me that the service dog training industry is telling us a lot of lies. I trained my own dog because of what I saw when I looked at proffesionaly trained service dogs. I found out they could not be off leash, they had no social skills and they would bite when scared.As I'm writing this I can't remember the last time I had Jethro on leash. Yes the police tried and failed to make the arguments most of you are going to make. They failed because he is that good and everyone loves him. So as soon as they start in the public stands up for Jethro and they look very bad. There is a very good chance the local Mayor won't win reelection because she treated Jethro badly without first checking to see who his friends are. my posts [notify]

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