Messed Up

Have you ever felt like you've messed up your Service Dog?

Pretty much all dog owners, especially Service Dog Handlers, have felt this at some point in their journey of life with their dogs. This can be a very emotional time for the dog owner. All Crazy2Calm Canine Coaches have experienced this and work to help people overcome this struggle. Check out this personal example from Canine Coach Robin as she explains some of her journey with Pippin.

Pippin's Journey

It happens. Even when I read, made phone calls, asked questions, and listened, sometimes there is a mismatch between owner and trainer or trainer and team for a variety of reasons. I took their words to heart, heartsick.

How could I have ruined this puppy? Not my first, puppy or service dog, yet my first acquaintance with that organization. I was devastated, didn’t trust my instincts and had him evaluated by a business which trains working dogs leaving there with training tools I was unfamiliar with entirely.

High drive, prey driven poodle, ie hunting dog in a poodle body. You did not ruin him. He is smart, and drivey. He must have a job, now at 7 months. This is not a show dog or pet poodle. This was our road from puppy to service dog a couple years later.

All public classes ceased after those first early classes. I was going back to the drawing board. He needs work, obedience, relationship and fun, not in that order and is a puppy. Alerts and responses are his primary work.

I was devastated. My confidence tanked and affected his confidence. It affected training, public access, public acceptance of us as a team when doing very early exposure training and PA training because of where my head was. I needed to realize I was ok and he was ok, as a team we were learning together and he was not Peaches, my prior service dog.

It was a rather rough beginning that taught me a lot. There was much to learn about myself, dog training, individual dogs and dog trainers. I began being more active online in the training and SD communities. Moderating one, I learned the many flavors and began to understand what my training preferences were though I had been told it wouldn’t work with this dog.

Finding Crazy2Calm I observed and listened to their material and programs for a long time. Slowly I began changing over to what I had done with Peaches, my first SD. This was still different, games building skills, and fun for both of us. Human and service dog sorely needed that. It does take discipline, is fun, builds skills, games, tasks and success. Pippin was not ruined, at all. He needed a different path. As an old teacher, I respect that.

TEAM Support

At Crazy2Calm Canine Coaches, we strive to meet you where you are on your journey and help you transition to the fun of games based training that feels good to both you and your dog! We also strive to keep our costs as low as possible knowing that our target audience is disabled Service Dog Handlers. Since we are all SD Handlers as well, we know how important it is to find your community where you fit in and get the help you need to keep moving forward. 

If you haven't yet, check out our C2C Working Paws FB Group for a kind, compassionate group to help you. You may also want to check out our Patreon Memberships where all our low cost training happens.