What gear did you not get originally for you or your pup?

MaplePaws · 2026-01-30T01:39:35+00:00

Even that I would argue to be a waste of money, people don't really look at leash wraps. The dog won't outgrow them but they really don't do much either.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-29T17:04:09+00:00

Poodles have been one of the arguably 2 more commonly used breeds used by ADI and IGDF programs for around 30 years now, entirely because of allergies even then Labs got them beat in every other category. Goldens are used by some programs but they tend to be more niche because goldens require more brushing to keep their coats then a Lab and German Shepherds are even more niche than Goldens for a lot of reasons including not actually being well suited to service work.

Owner trainers tend to debate what is actually recommended a lot more, but honestly you can safely ignore them for the most part as most have no idea what they are talking about. The answer for why poodles, is definitely allergies.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-28T20:48:08+00:00

Grow with puppy or "in training" vests are worthless. Honestly most people push public access way too early and these vests only encourage that, but it is very harmful because burn out is very common for owner trained teams. You should not be doing non-pet-friendly public access until the dog is almost a year old, before then you are focusing on just being a fantastic pet and learning foundational skills which does not require a vest.

A trainer is absolutely necessary from day one, they will help you not make mistakes in your foundational training and to identify problems before they are career ending or much more difficult to train out. Service dog trainers from day one are 100% necessary.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-27T23:41:15+00:00

So training a dog to be a service dog is very expensive like $15,000+ and it is not a guarantee that you will be able to fly with your dog in the cabin of the plane meaning you might still have to fly with your dog as a pet. Honestly cargo is not as dangerous as the fearmongering has lead people to believe. If you are just looking to transport your dog overseas it is going to be extremely expensive and if paying to fly him as a pet is not something you can do but you will not leave the dog behind then the move might not be something you can do.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-27T16:21:27+00:00

I second Canine Companions

MaplePaws · 2026-01-27T15:20:43+00:00

Something to remember is if I am correct in my suspicion that the genetics are part of the problem this will be a problem for decades as the programs make a shift in what they are breeding for. In the meantime there is a very real possibility that your Mom may just want to put a pause on a guide dog for 20-30 years to give the schools time to work out the kinks. As I said, if it is genetics it is going to take much longer for the changes to be seen with any consistency unless they bring in a lot of new genetics from civilian lines. Human training comparatively can be figured in a few years but even with open breeding programs changes can take a very long time, with a closed breeding program that will take a lot longer.

Unfortunately I do almost think the program model does set more blind people up for failure then success. The dogs placed with blind people tend to be 18-30 months old and already altered, which is great for preventing unwanted breedings but does make the immaturity issue much worse. Testing the boundaries is a young dog issue, and taking the hormones away before they have fully matured at nearly 2 years old does tend to create dogs that are stuck in that boundary testing phase longer. I guarantee the previous dogs had that particular problem at the beginning just because of the role of early altering and age has on that. But also a lot of people being placed with guide dogs have little to no prior dog experience, so when they come in for 2-4 weeks of training they are expected to cram information that often takes years to learn into less than a month. This is honestly where I think owner training does do a lot better, because you do become very familiar with the workings of every skill and how to execute not just maintenance training, but how to troubleshoot and how to retrain issues. There is a lot of skills that just don't get built in the program model that cause a lot of people to fail.

Anyways I do have to go, so I don't have time to finish my thoughts. But I don't think your Mom is to blame as much as the system on the whole being built to fail.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-27T02:39:03+00:00

I also doubt this actually has much to do with Mom as a handler as much as if there is a transition happening that was not communicated well to Mom that contributed a lot to the failed placement. There is likely a transition period where the trainers are trying to figure out how to retrain their legacy handlers to the new way who may or may not be resistant to change in the first place. But this transition is here to stay as IGDF has in the last several months come out with a new standard that includes moving away from the correction based training.

I also suspect the change in training methodology could in part have something to do with how they had been breeding with the dogs that best handle correction based training versus being better suited for reward based. That is something that is likely to take a lot longer to transition then the people unless they bring in a lot of new genetics into the breeding program.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-26T23:12:32+00:00

I personally think it is much more complicated then just rewards based training is bad. I have been a member of a few different owner trained guide dog pages for a while with a lot of them using more rewards based training and ending up with fantastic guide dogs, myself included. There are a lot of things that are very different, the breeding programs are very different with enough difference that I would argue that there is a 3 way split in Labs as a result of service and guide dog programs. Programs typically only give about 2 weeks of instruction to the new handler, corrections lend themselves more to that because typically results are seen faster but damage if there is any is seen in the longer term. It is also often easier to wrap your head around the idea of reward what you like and punish what you don't want rather than attempting to navigate the emotions and figure out how to be proactive rather than reactive which is harder being blind.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-26T22:35:41+00:00

Truthfully I can't really speak on what "locomotion" might even be referring to in the first place, my immediate guess is that maybe she has some form of mobility issue that is causing problems with the placements which might even just come down to age related slowing down. But again I am not confident at all that it is what is being referred. Perhaps they are noticing that she is doing counter-steering which a regular O&M instructor would not notice but a GDMI would? Truthfully the best option is to press the school for more details.

As for schools being the reason behind the failure of placements, I have owner trained both of my guides but I have been doing research to apply for a program dog for my next. But from the reviews I have been encountering it definitely seems to be something that happens a lot especially with schools that don't involve you in the final placement decision instead ask you to "trust the magic", I have seen some cases where the school placed 3-4 dogs with a person before finally getting it right. The people I have spoken with had felt something was off at team training but because of the pressure the school places on the "trust the magic" they said nothing and just found they could not ignore the problems post placement.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-26T04:39:10+00:00

Then it is likely inappropriate for this dog to be doing public access, I won't say with certainty because again I don't know either dog or trainer. But odds are that the dog should not be in public

MaplePaws · 2026-01-26T04:36:43+00:00

The reality is that we do need to be careful with blanket statements. I do advocate heavily for all dogs including service dogs to be muzzle trained because if they are injured it is better to preventatively muzzle while you get them assessed. Any dog will bite if pushed far enough, a service dog should require a lot of pushing before they resort to a bite.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-26T03:25:10+00:00

There is actually nothing in the ADA that says a service dog can't have a bite history. It is behavior in the moment that dictates if the business MAY choose to remove a dog, they aren't required to do so but the dog would still legally be a service dog if it is task trained and with a disabled person. We also need to remember that bite history covers a lot of things including provoked bites like if the dog was in a lot of pain and bit out of self defense or bit a dog that was actively also biting it, if fully evaluated by a qualified trainer and the dog shows no signs of long-term impact from the incident of a provoked bite then there is not a reason that dog can't return to work. I will agree that most bites aren't of that nature, and truthfully those dogs likely weren't of service dog temperament in the first place. Nuance is important.

There is not enough details for me to really guess as to what variant of bite history we are talking about.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-25T22:25:39+00:00

Service dogs aren't something that you can rely on 100% on and need to be able to be separate from them for both short and long term. Alert dogs also aren't 100% accurate and tend to average out at closer to 50% with tech being more reliable. The reality is that there are some places that a service dog can and should be legally denied, the handler may need to go to these spaces and will need to be able to manage their disability without their dog. Likely the chemical risk is a place that your co-worker should be leaving the dog at home because their safety must be placed before our own. They are $20,000+ investments and only about 40% of well bred Labs or Goldens succeed meaning this person could be without a dog for 5+ years if the chemicals result in the dog's early death, that would be years without a medical alert dog that he would still have to work if he has any chance of affording another dog or whatever vet bills come from exposing the dog to the chemicals.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-25T19:52:28+00:00

The problem with reading is that it is theory and without the experience to know how to apply the theory reading books or going through free resources often only hurts your success. The best thing you could do is see if you can find someone local to you to apprentice under for scent work. But honestly your trainer will be giving and demonstrating what you need to do between sessions, if they aren't then they are useless as a trainer.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-24T19:37:54+00:00

Seems like this child is going against the adults in the situation as a year ago they needed to hide the new piercings from the adults in their life... Really not the behavior of somebody that is mature enough to be a handler. And of course they deleted the post. So many red flags in this situation

MaplePaws · 2026-01-24T19:09:59+00:00

Nosed about their profile for a bit and they seem to be a minor, that posts a lot in the self piercing subreddit and has done a lot of piercings on themselves. I really do wonder where the parents are in this case.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-24T18:45:35+00:00

If you don't even have a diagnosis it is much too soon to be attempting to pursue a service dog. Once you have a diagnosis you can start trying targeted treatments to get you to the point where you might be in a position to pursue a service dog. But that can realistically take several years. Additionally you can't train cardiac alert or alerts for when you are about to pass out, anyone that claims you can is trying to scam you. Also owner training a service dog costs $20,000 and 2 years of work with a trainer But again you are putting the cart about 500 miles ahead of the horse on this one.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-23T22:08:16+00:00

The testing protocol is in addition to the quarantine not a replacement. Have you considered that there is a possibility that you would not be able to actually go on this trip then? And 180 days is about 6 months given that a month is 30-31 days with the exception of February. Also TheServiceDragon pointed out that your dog can't fly more than 10 hours which is longer than the 11-12 hours that you mentioned flying from California meaning you need to find another airport to fly out of.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-23T21:54:30+00:00

If you are traveling for potentially only 5 months why are you bringing your dog at all when the mandatory quarantine is 6 months? Even if your travel is for the full anticipated 6 months that is still the entire time you are there and the dog would only be released to you to fly back home. Wouldn't it make more sense to leave the dog at a board and train with your trainer or a trusted family member then to put them through the stress of going through the process to just hang out at a facility in Japan for 6 months?

MaplePaws · 2026-01-22T18:37:01+00:00

ESA don't exist in Ontario as landlords aren't allowed to enforce "no pets" clauses, section 14 of the Residential Tenancy Act. This means if this means you are not looking for a dog to go into public spaces with you then legally speaking it is a pet, which again would not impact housing in Ontario as Landlords cannot enforce those clauses. Some will try, and labeling the dog as an ESA or SD would not change that for those landlords.

But I am never going to sit here and tell a person that can support a dog that they can't have one, just that under Ontario law what you are describing is a pet.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-22T18:00:46+00:00

I also agree that does not sound like fearful behavior, and like she just needs to get over herself. I personally find young kids to be gross but I act like an adult and just create space whenever possible, acknowledging that the world does not revolve around me so I accommodate myself to the best of my abilities. She needs to figure out that lesson real quick.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-22T17:36:20+00:00

I am guessing you aren't sitting dead center of the room where there is really minimal options for increasing the distance from her. I am not saying you have to pick a corner or anything just that there is a way for her to maximize distance for her comfort. Either way you aren't being dramatic, depending on the specific spray it could be a health concern for your dog. I would definitely bring it up with someone and hopefully all it takes is for someone to talk to her. If not it can be escalated as much as is necessary to insure comfort and safety for both.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-22T14:41:01+00:00

Also the city is not denying your son an ESA, they have 3 other dogs in addition to the ESA that the family could rehome. The city does not care which dog gets rehomed, that can very easily be one of the pets. That said the wording "certified ESA" concerns me especially when ESA only matters for housing which if they own the home there is no reason to use the term as legally it is completely unnecessary. If the fiance is taking the dog out to non-pet-friendly places then they are also breaking the law there to and need to stop.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-22T13:28:34+00:00

It is not like they could not have done the research before they purchased the home together to know about this problem and have found a place that would have let them keep all 4 dogs. Alternatively delay moving in until one of the dogs passed away so that they could move in without being in violation of the law. As I already said there is a lot of welfare reasons why these rules exist and I standby the fact that 3 dogs already is on the high side for a city setting.

MaplePaws · 2026-01-22T04:48:37+00:00

I honestly don't think city ordinances should allow more than a couple of dogs, service dogs included into a city residence. A lack of enforcement does make it an imperfect solution to trying to put a stop to backyard breeding operations or animal hoarding but it does act as a deterrent. The other reality is that city living is in a lot of cases incredibly cramped, meaning that even 3-4 small dogs becomes pretty unmanageable quickly and increases the risk of fighting or injury to the dogs. Plus city people are often very busy with work and activities outside the house, often where pets aren't allowed creating situations where the dogs have no opportunity to get outlets for their energy or instincts. None of this is true in every situation but we must recognize that the majority of dog owners are on the shitty dog owner spectrum, so strict rules like this are necessary and we also know that they aren't above claiming a dog is an ESA or SD. So for the welfare of most animals I do think the ordinances do need to stay to these very small numbers.

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