NeuroTalk Support Groups - Question about training adult dogs for service dogs.

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Age for service dogs

I speak from experience and what trainers have informed.

When my first service dog was 8 years old they expected me to adopt him OUT of my home and obtain a new one. I didn't. I knew it cost me in how much the dog continued to aid me, but I was able to compensate in other ways.

For someone who has progressive MS and needs a service animal (monkeys too?) to continue to pick up the slack, I would advise against an older dog.

Their abilities begin to greatly decline at that 8 year mark. Now, to think that a 5 year old dog has 3 good years just isn't rational.

As many know, my first dog died due to the IAMS poisoned food. It nearly took my puppy at the time. I was given the puppy to eventually replace my 15 year old but he was put into service training early due to the other's death.

It's been 2 years now, and my current service dog is really just "getting it" for himself. He's been very good for me in this time so far, but truly the ideal time to put a dog into training is about 2 years old. He's just over 2 now, and with additional advanced training, well, things are beginning to click for him. You can almost see it in his brain! ROFL

I am not completely helpless, which is why this situation worked out for the dog and me. His training has lagged (even though he's 2 years ahead) because of ME and my fatigue and pain levels.

A service animal isn't "just" trained and placed into a home. I mean, he/she needs DAILY reinforcement. Living by myself, this is tough enough, but to have a dog too young or too old puts more stress on both the animal and the person. It would be too much stress for someone with MS, unless there was another person in the home who was daily responsible. And you have to consider the time it takes for the animal and disabled to learn to work together. Everyone has their quirks. To have to repeat this every few years is exhausting for me.

I hate to have to say this but to train an older dog for service just isn't profitable. It takes from $10k to 20k to completely train a service dog. You need to get all the years back out of it you can, especially with the non-availability of homes to train them the basics. Then, the disabled person should also be allowed all the years they can enjoy with their service dog. An older dog just can't give that.

Peace.

Figure a service dog generally retires at 8 yrs old. It takes the average owner trained dog 2-3 yrs to complete training. So you take a 5yr old dog and the dog will be 7-8yrs old by the time they are fully trained. Therefore you will likely only get 2-3 yrs before the dog needs to retire. Since it is best that you start training before your trained dog retires, as soon as your dog completes training, it will be time to start training a new dog.

My personal opinion is that it is better to start with a puppy or young dog. You can control most of what they are exposed to and socialize them properly. So many dogs are surrendered to a shelter because they have started developing behavior issues teir people didn't want to deal with. Rarely do you find a young pup that doesn't have any issues. I have worked with rescue dogs in the past and every single one had some sort of issue. This makes the job of training them much harder as you must fix many issues before you can proceed with SD training. I prefer to get pups from reputable breeders. They are blank slates and I know the health history of previous generations. I can meet the mom to get a feel for the possible temperments.

Quote:

Originally Posted by brighthorizondogs (Post 466681)

Figure a service dog generally retires at 8 yrs old.

whoops I meant 10 yrs not 8.