Last night I had the opportunity to talk to another member of the program who’ll be training my SD for me. It’s amazing the kind of communication that Facebook allows! I am feeling more and more confident without our decision to work together. One of the women breeds German Shepherds, another trains dogs, and the third uses a SD herself. Between the three of them, we’ll pick a good dog for my needs and have him (her?) trained to assist me in no time.
In reality, we are looking at 12-18 months’ training time, and that’s after a SD candidate is chosen. In the world of service dogs, that is actually quite fast. Typically it takes two years from the birth of a puppy to it graduating as a ready-to-work SD. My program places dogs who are 18 months to three years old at the time of placement with a handler, and I find that to be a reasonable age.
I’m told there’s a pair of Golden Retriever puppies, littermates, who are being looked into. I’m very excited to hear the results of their assessment!
Sunshine on Four Feet 