Do you already have the foundation work done on your dog, but now need to train their task? Or do you already have a trained service dog, but need to polish up your skills or need to add a new scent for them to alert you too? We have you covered with our different package options. Rayanne is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed, an Accredited Dog Trainer through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, a Family Dog Mediator, and a Professional Member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers. She has worked as a Veterinary Technician and is an accomplished service dog trainer. Rayanne has worked professionally with service dogs and their handlers for over 3 years. She has helped train for several different tasks including: Type 1 diabetic alert, anxiety interruption, deep pressure therapy, retrieval, and some hearing alerts. She has worked with puppies who are service dogs in training until they are fully trained adult dogs, and helped already trained adult service dogs fine tune or add on additional tasks. Service dogs can greatly improve the lives of their handlers and Rayanne loves helping them become great, working teams. We tailor our virtual sessions to your needs. The best part is you get a recording to refer back too! Learn more about our certified trainer Rayanne by clicking the link below. All training is done remotely so you can learn how to train your dog. This is most impactful, as dogs are relationship based.
What is the ideal process for self training a service dog?
We always recommend following the LEGS model for selection, which stands for:
Learning
Environment
Genetics and
Self
( Credit to the acronym Kim Brophy)
Fowardword: we are not saying a rescue dog would not make a great service dog in this model, what we are saying is, even breeding programs for this work have a high career reassignment rate. We are recommending the best way to stack the deck so to speak. If you got your dog elsewhere please follow the same process.
Recommendations for dog selection: Find a breeder that focus on LEGS- keeping low maternal stress while pups are developing in utero, as well as raise the puppies in with puppy culture or Avidog protocols. This means puppies are learning new = good! This also feeds into the E of environment for enriching, clean and well thought out. Then we get to Genetics, is the line of these dogs healthly? Do they have solid temperments? What titles or work do these lines consistently enjoy and importantly excell at? Finally we get to Self does the dog enjoy this work and have you considered doing cognitive testing on the puppy or dog to determine if they have the ideal profile for service work? Once all these are met we recommend ensuring the L meaning Learning is done through positive reinforcement training. Here is the process if you are local to us in Sioux Falls:
Our suggested processes is your puppy or dog should have plenty of experience in group classes working around and ignoring other dogs. ( this depends on your dog or puppies age):
- Puppy Class
- Beginners Class
- Intermediate Class
- Advanced Class
- CGC Class
- Finishing up your task training through one one coaching with Rayanne: Learn more here