Service Dog Candidate

[Guest Grant]

I recently got my boy and have trained him to be a service dog. As stubborn as he is, he has picked up everything quite well and we are ready to take the public access test. Has anyone else tryied qualifying their dog so be a service animal?

[Time4ANap]

If you mean a true service dog where he performs tasks that you can't, or alerts to a medical issue, there have been a few members here over the years who have trained retired racers to be service dogs,, but most that we know of are no longer active on GreyTalk. We do get several visitors each year inquiring about using a greyhound for this type of task. Some will do well, and some are truly "already retired."

 

If you are referring to a Therapy Dog that requires a Canine Good Citizen Test or other similar training to be allowed to do hospital, nursing home or school visits, we have lots of those here on the site and those folks will introduce themselves. It seems that lots of retired racers have a second career making lots of people smile, and they do it well. There may be a few here that are also Emotional Support Dogs. We mostly have retired racers as pets here, with the majority of any "service dogs" being those that do therapy visits to medical patients of many types and to schools as reading companions or other types of visits with children,

[Guest Grant]

This is a true service dog that performs tasks for my disabilties.

[GeorgeofNE]

I assumed service dogs were trained by professionals and then given to someone whose needs were met by his or her specific skills.

 

Good luck on the testing!

[Guest Sportingfields]

Most 'service dogs' are owner trained, then they find a place to certify them. If you go thru a professional organization, the wait is 6 mos to 2 years and cost ten to thirty thousand, each having different criteria. There is no one registry for service animals, which I hope will change in the not to distant future. Right now the most accepted is ADI although there are other just as worthwhile registries, they just aren't recognized by the government.

[Time4ANap]

This is a true service dog that performs tasks for my disabilties.

 

 

EDIT - I had posted info about a member that you might want to contact who had a Retired Racer who is a Disability Service Dog. From other online posts that I found it appears that she has passed away. I have deleted her contact info, but there is a great deal of info online about her journey with her service dog. She wrote lots of articles in order to pass on information to others who were interested in Greyhounds as service dogs.

 

Here are links to Twitter and some of the articles where she posted.

 

https://twitter.com/aroundwthehound

 

http://www.ottumwacourier.com/news/local_news/good-dog-bad-dog-loose-dogs-raise-concerns/article_0983dfb3-9a7e-56fe-bdfc-e18bacf4de12.html

 

https://documentingme.net/

Edited October 27, 2016 by Time4ANap

[Vampiric_Conure]

Whooo hoooo! Another Sighthound Service Dog handler! I currently have a whippet/IG cross as a psychiatric service dog and one of the breeds I'm looking at when she retires is the retired racing greyhound **waves hi**