u/Important-Depth-6248

Hey, I guess I just wanted to write a post to get some things off my chest.

On march this year, my service dog passed away unexpectedly. The past 5 months have been horrible without my best friend.

I was extremely lucky my insurance wanted to cover service dog trainings for a new prospect.

I’m enrolled in an ADI-owner training program just as I have done before with my previous service dog.

I have to search for a service dog prospect puppy myself mostly. Of course the organization I work with assist me with this, but I am mainly the one looking for a suitable dog and they advice me/are available for puppy testing. I’ve been looking and calling breeders a lot but I haven’t found something I feel confident in.

Before I had a german shepherd, he was amazing. But a golden retriever or labrador suits my needs more in this stage of my life. It has been really hard to find a good breeder, but just a few hours ago I found out a reputable guide dog organization offer 2 - 3 pups for adoption from their own breeding program out of a litter with 7 pups.

I saw the post 3 hours after it was posted and I immediately e-mailed them I was interested. The mother is 3/4 lab and 1/4 golden. The father is a field line golden.

This is a dream combination for me.

But I am so extremely nervous. The pups are 8,5 weeks old now, so I think they want to find a home for them as soon as possible. I already got a reply back from them in the afternoon. Hopefully I will hear more from them tomorrow and I also hope my own program is able to go with me to see if we can match a puppy with me.

But I’m so scared.

So scared they might reject me or scared they’ve picked out other people. I dunno. I’m also scared that maybe the 3 pups aren’t suitable.

I’m hoping for the best. But I try not to get my hopes too high. The past months have been horrible and filled with grief. I know Flo (my previous service dog) would want me to be happy. And I know a new puppy will help me gaining my life back.

But I’m just so, so scared and nervous.

Hey everyone,

My insurance is finally covered regarding training a new service dog. They don’t really mind with which organization I choose to work with so I’m pretty free to choose to with organization I want to work with.

My own hard criteria is that the organization is ADI certified and provides at home owner training. I am physically and mentally able to do this and it has worked extremely well with my first service dog to have him from the start until his (unfortunate unexpected) passing.

My question from this community is that I need some input.

Some background: My first SD organization is ADI certified, but over the years they have grown exponentially (they have 600+ active teams now). I’ve found that their way of working with trainees has become very lacking. Specifically after the certification the yearly check-ups were not that great. My trainer claims they have done it every year, but I’m almost certain it was more every 1,5 years.

You have x amount of training sessions and if you use these all up and need help afterwards with certain issues you are basically on your own to figure it out. (I was not informed about this. If I knew this beforehand I would have skipped a few trainings before certifying to keep for later)

I could text my trainer every now and then, but I always had to wait a long time for her reply and usually had resolved the issue already. The organization exist for almost 20 years now.

I’ve found another ADI certified organization which feels more personal and way smaller. I’ve called them and it felt like a good fit. (But I had the same feeling when I contacted the first organization as well when they were still smaller)

Tomorrow I have a free of charge call with the other organization where I can ask them all my questions. I would really appreciate it if people have some input for me in regards of questions I can ask them to eventually make an informed decision.

It feels kinda heavy because if I switch to another organization, I will commit 10+ years with them. I’ve asked around with the service dog owners who work with this organization (which were not many). Most were positive except one trainee, but she said her issue is more a broader owner training issue than organization specifically.

A good friend who has had almost her whole life guide dogs (she knows a lot of inside information from all different organizations) wasn’t aware this organization I want to contact exist.

If I stay with my current organization I already know their strengths and limitations. Since this is a fairly new organization (they only exist for around 6 years) I do feel a bit hesitant. They don’t seem to promote their organization a lot in comparison with my current SD organization. But to be fair, the current organization I have worked with has the main criticism that they accept most trainees and most dog breeds, and are too expensive for what they provide.

Anyway. What would be good questions I could ask this new organization? Are there any ‘red flags’ or ‘green flags’ I could look out for?

(Another note is that I don’t live in the USA so the ADA doesn’t apply to me.)

Thank you in advance ♥️

Hey everyone,

My service dog Flo passed away unexpectedly. I was considering to retire him a year earlier and was waiting to discuss this with my trainer during our yearly check up, but then it all went differently.

It has been 6 weeks since his passing and it has become clear I need another service dog. Flo was a long coated german shepherd, and when we started, it was no issue to use shepherds as service animals. Since a few years the organization I work with decided shepherds are not suitable for service work which I was prepared for initially. During Flo’s last check-up I discussed a golden retriever as my next service dog after Flo would retire. But we still had a few years, at least that’s what I thought.

Right now I’m researching the breed (golden retriever) a bit further and have found a good breeder who also works with my service dog organization. They have good experiences with them, so I think I’ll be good.

It’s just… Although I encountered some issues with Flo due to his breed and a golden might be more convenient, I just… am in love with shepherds. I am so scared I am not able to bond with the my new service dog as I have been with Flo.

I have called with the breeder of Flo (who is also befriended with one the founders of my service dog school) and she told me she completely disagrees with their new policies. (For context she is more than a breeder, also a dog behaviorist and has trained service dogs before) She recommended me to switch to another organization who still works with herding breeds. The only issue is that I’m not familiar with them and they are as far as I’m aware not part of the ADI/ADEu.

I am… kind of lost. I choose to work with a school who specializes in owner training and bonding with the puppy from the start has worked so well with me. But I am so afraid a golden won’t fit me as well as a shepherd has.

I think I just needed to get this off my chest. But I also wonder if there’re people here who both have had shepherds and goldens and how this works for them. Specifically in service work.

Hey everyone,

My service dog Flo passed away unexpectedly. I was considering to retire him a year earlier and was waiting to discuss this with my trainer during our yearly check up, but then it all went differently.

It has been 6 weeks since his passing and it has become clear I need another service dog. Flo was a long coated german shepherd, and when we started, it was no issue to use shepherds as service animals. Since a few years the organization I work with decided shepherds are not suitable for service work which I was prepared for initially. During Flo’s last check-up I discussed a golden retriever as my next service dog after Flo would retire. But we still had a few years, at least that’s what I thought.

Right now I’m researching the breed (golden retriever) a bit further and have found a good breeder who also works with my service dog organization. They have good experiences with them, so I think I’ll be good.

It’s just… Although I encountered some issues with Flo due to his breed and a golden might be more convenient, I just… am in love with shepherds. I am so scared I am not able to bond with the my new service dog as I have been with Flo.

I have called with the breeder of Flo (who is also befriended with one the founders of my service dog school) and she told me she completely disagrees with their new policies. (For context she is more than a breeder, also a dog behaviorist and has trained service dogs before) She recommended me to switch to another organization who still works with herding breeds. The only issue is that I’m not familiar with them and they are as far as I’m aware not part of the ADI/ADEu.

I am… kind of lost. I choose to work with a school who specializes in owner training and bonding with the puppy from the start has worked so well with me. But I am so afraid a golden won’t fit me as well as a shepherd has.

I think I just needed to get this off my chest. But I also wonder if there’re people here who both have had shepherds and goldens and how this works for them. Specifically in service work.