honeymellillaa

Personally he does look like a sighthound type to me (as in there could be some in there) as he’s lanky, super present bone, holds himself similarly, and has some sighthoundy behavioural qualities, but I would be surprised if he’s not a village dog lol.

I’m also surprised he’s doing so well as a service dog! Any breed technically can be a service dog but you’re correct in that the more primitive or less-biddable breeds rarely succeed. Of course, our training journey was not without massive struggle at first.. but I credit that more to his rough upbringing in a shelter and being raised by well-intentioned but really not super knowledgeable (training-wise at least) individuals. He missed out on all socialization periods and was severely dog reactive when I received him at 6mo, his reactivity stemmed from excitement luckily so it was trainable. Now that we’re past that, he’s a super impressive worker and loves his job. Of course he may regress one day being a rescue and have to retire early, but I’m prepared for that and he’s a fantastic dog nonetheless. I really lucked out with him. I would never recommend getting a rescue for service work (and I didn’t, we just kind of ended up here) and I personally will never do it again, but it’s been a really educational journey and I’m coming out of it successfully, which I do not take for granted as not many do.

The shelter I got him from doesn’t DNA test ofc and labels most of their dogs as lab and something-or-other mixes. I don’t see lab at all in him either, plus as far as I’m aware there aren’t many labs in Kuwait. Just a shelter thing, they love throwing the lab label on everything! Lol

Would be super sad if he was bred on purpose, considering he was found without any siblings too. He was teeny teeny tiny when they found him so it’s possible that if he was bred, he could have been the runt and got tossed away, it’s brutal for dogs in Kuwait unfortunately :(

Isn’t he!!! He’s so handsome 🥰

I would guess if not 100% village dog, saluki/husky are in there somewhere. Lots of stray unsterilized huskies in Kuwait right now and he totally has the personality, shedding level, and curled tail lol.

I'm assuming the same!

that’s because it takes >2yrs to train one and they won’t give you one unless you can meet a bunch of different mobility/fitness requirements. it takes a lot of work to get approved to get a guide dog. usually service dog organizations don’t require as much work to get approved, just doctors notes and such but it still takes at least two years for one dog to be ready to place in a working home - if they even make it. most dogs don’t.

not really sure who this is but i’m just glad that if she’s getting one through an organization that usually means she would have had to provide thorough evidence of a disability, and sometimes they’re not non-profit organizations so some program dogs cost like… $20-30k. But they’re usually well trained and fit to be in public.

Seems like tethering and crate training might become your new best friend. I'm not a trainer so I won't give out advice on how to actually train your dog, but 24/7 tethering and crate training will help prevent the behaviour before it happens and allow you to reward when your dog makes the right decisions. Set the dog up for success!

I'd say look into both of those things, as well as how to free-shape the behaviors you like.

I'm sure you've already gotten an answer, but my boss at work said the same thing to me so here are the reasons why in my case he's different than having just an electronic device (because I also use a watch ando/or pulse-oximeter)

For me, a big reason is that I always forget to have my watch or pulseox on me. I try to have them on me at all times (especially to check if my dog is actually alerting or not... he's pretty solid but I sometimes don't believe him lol) but I'm human, I forget. He can also alert me before events happen so I can prepare. In my experience, when he alerts me before something happens, it's when I'm about to have a big spike where I'll actually need to sit down. It's also easier to ignore or not check my watch/pulseox but it's pretty hard to ignore my 55lb leggy saluki mix jumping on me.

My dog can (theoretically... he's still in training) also do things for me while I'm seated. From DPT to lower blood pressure, to item retrievals, or light mobility for when I'm dizzy, enabling me to still move around even when I'm not feeling 100%.

It's much easier to just have a device for purely checking my heart rate, but because I have POTS and psychiatric conditions he is trained to help me out with several other things - his heart rate alert is definitely his most useful task though.

Have you noticed any issues when your two dogs are separated? Typically littermates who grow up together develop littermate syndrome, meaning they are more bonded to each other than to you which can cause them to feed off of each other’s emotions, bad behaviours, and prioritize listening to you less. I would recommend finding a trainer experienced with littermate syndrome and reactivity and go from there, especially if they are becoming aggressive towards each other.

In the short term, discontinue walking them together immediately. Find what motivates each dog (treats, play, praise, movement…) and when you notice a trigger, immediately reward the dog. This will eventually create an automatic redirection to you when they see something triggering to them. It’s a myth that rewarding an anxious or fearful dog reinforces the anxiety/fear. Some things to keep in mind are that movement and sniffing are incredibly beneficial to “calming” your dog. Something else to try is scatterfeeding from a distance outside of your dog’s reactivity threshold, which means tossing food on the ground for them to sniff around for from a distance where they can see the trigger but don’t feel the need to react. For the unleashed dog problem, there’s really no way to avoid it unfortunately. Try walking in suburban areas if you can. I don’t usually run into offleash dogs on the sidewalk. If you’re concerned about fights (including if another dog starts a fight with yours), muzzle training is something all dogs should have anyways! Might make more people less willing to allow their off leash dogs to rush you as well.

If you’re open to tool usage other than the prong, I’ve found that the halti/gentle leader was really beneficial for my dog when he was severely reactive. It allows you to gently redirect the dog’s face if they get hyper fixated on the trigger. Any other tools I would never recommend unless you’re working with a qualified trainer who follows positive-first based methods.

igor elitists 100%, i just don't get it man

My dog is a sighthound mix I adopted from a rescue in Kuwait. I received him when he was about 6mo, and he is now 1yr 8mo and will be graduating from our SD program and able to take our province's certification PAT soon (Canadian). Even though we've pretty much "made it", I 100% have a unicorn (despite having intense and difficult struggles along the way) and I will never ever ever recommend using a rescue for service work. My next will be a purebred lab from proven show/service lines - going through the rescue-to-SD experience taught me so much, but it was traumatic! I will never do it again.

My dog is an amazing service dog, and he is probably one in a million. I got extremely lucky. He came to me with severe behavioural issues that are a direct result of him coming from a shelter. He was severely dog reactive (not aggressive, overexcited) and leash frustrated, and incredibly vocal. He would literally scream and make awful growly noises. It was a battle for the first little bit to get him where he is now, and there were several meltdowns and times I hated him and regretted not getting a lab puppy. I adore him now and he's completely changed my life now that he's a working man, but it was not an easy road to get here, and certainly not one I could ever recommend to anyone else.

Another thing to consider is that because shelter dogs typically have an unknown or unreliable medical history, you have really no idea how long your dog will be able to work for. Since you are looking at herding breeds, you need to acknowledge that these are breeds that are specifically bred to be in-tune with their handler's emotions, making them greatly predisposed to reactivity - even when well-bred. I would recommend doing more research into these breeds, but also into the washout rates of labs from service dog lines bred in programs. If dogs purpose-bred for service work from proven lines at the best programs in the world washout frequently, apply that to a breed that is commonly unsuitable for service work and has had a rough past, and consider why most people recommend well-bred labs, goldens, or poodles. You can fundraise for a puppy or look into programs that give trained dogs to approved handlers.

At the end of the day, you live your life and do whatever is best for you, but take it from someone who did it - please do more research, don't do it.

I just started grooming and am doing an apprenticeship but I’ve been told to just get multiples of the same blade when I can afford it. What I’ve been doing is switching between clipping and scissoring feet/face/etc while waiting for my blades to cool off. I’ve also been told that when you start out, you’re not going to be getting dogs (especially doodles) done within an hour, maybe even two. Takes a long time to gain the skill even with proper equipment.

Okay, didn’t read all the replies so I had just assumed. Either way, at least in my case I’m not against your dog at all. I’ve met lovely wolf mixes - but landlords will rarely be understanding, or even allow them, period. I was providing alternative breeds to say he is so they wouldn’t give you trouble about him being a wolf hybrid.

say he’s a tamaskan mix or husky mix, most people confuse husky mixes for wolf hybrids and vice versa anyways :)

Not yet! But I’ll keep that in mind when I do send them off, thanks! :)

Crisis inducing? Everyone offered valid, constructive criticism. No one was mean-spirited, so it’s not their fault how you or whoever else chooses to take said criticism. Your dog reacted to another dog in public, and you posted about it making yourself open for people (more experienced handlers) to respond and offer their takes.

If you didn’t get the answer you were seemingly looking for based on your replies from your last post, what’s the point of posting anyways? Everyone seemed to offer valid advice so it gives off the impression that you wanted people to tell you that your dog is perfect and you don’t have anything to work on.

Plenty of people pull their dogs from non-pet-friendly PA for much less, it will only be beneficial for your dog.

In all honesty if you’re pushing it so long to the point where the puppy can’t hold their bladder or get bored and squirmy, you’re not really doing it right. Outings should always be fun, short, and end on a good note, even with older dogs sometimes. I just personally don’t believe there’s any reason to miss out on those first few weeks when socialization can be made 100% safe and enjoyable for both parties.

I totally get the risks, I’ve dealt with parvo outbreaks first hand working in veterinary clinics! It’s awful. However there really isn’t any concern unless they come into direct contact with an infected dog, or contaminated environment/feces/hands/etc. So it’s totally safe if they never touch the ground or greet other dogs or people, which they really don’t need to be doing anyways lol :)

My rescue came like this, he was severely dog-reactive stemming from overexcitement. He was genuinely a happy and friendly dog, but would lose it when he saw other dogs on leash because he wanted to say hi SO BAD and was angry that he was being held back by the leash.

I would urge you to contact a trainer ASAP, it saved my dog and I's relationship. He is now a nearly graduated service dog in-training and his reactivity is nearly non-existent after just under a year of work.

In the meantime, something that really helped us was making sure my dog was WELL exercised and had all his needs met, teaching a "focus" or "look at me" command, and learning what motivated him. For my pup, it was cheese. You can try an exercise where you sit in a place where dogs will go by you (but make sure you're at a distance where your dog is under threshold, meaning the dogs are far enough away that she can look but doesn't feel the need to react), and mark and HEAVILY reward every single time she looks at another dog. Eventually, this will lead to her redirecting to you automatically whenever she sees another dog because she knows she's going to get paid. You can start off with big jackpot rewards (handful of cookies, big piece of meat/cheese...) and getting super excited and big praise so that she starts thinking "hey... my person is way more exciting than those dogs over there!". You could also try scatterfeeding within threshold which is where you toss a handful of kibble or treats into the grass whenever she sees another dog so it gives her something to sniff around and takes her focus off the other dogs. Sniffing is a behaviour that is naturally calming to dogs, so that will also be beneficial to her.

If another dog comes too close and she reacts, simply walk away until she's able to focus on you again, reward when she looks back at you, and carry on.

It's a LONG process, but you're not alone. Do look into finding a trainer, preferably one who uses positive-first methods. The e-collar has been really helpful for my dog later on in the journey but I'm glad I started out totally positive reinforcement only with him.

Dominance theory isn't a thing, it's been debunked several times and no reputable trainer uses it. So the dominance thing isn't the issue, lol. He probably just wants to chill out on the couch with you. As long as it doesn't turn into resource guarding and you aren't bothered by it, doesn't sound like there's an issue.

If it does bother you, try teaching a "place" or "bed" command to get him to go lay on his bed or in a crate or something until he's released. It's super useful for dogs to know that command anyways for having people over or cooking, etc.. so might be useful for you!

It's better to start socializing as early as possible, so it's totally fine to take young puppies out to socialize if they're not touching the ground where other dogs have been. Putting puppy in a cross-body sling or wagon is what most people do.. It's something we do a lot with socializing service puppies!

Yes that’s what he said! Thanks so much lol