#SDiT

[21stc3nturyd1gitalb0y]

made my service dog a mini battle jacket

[kaijutegu]

Thanks everyone! We found Winnie a great spot!

[llycvncy]

my new spoo, Anya!

Named after Anya Mouthwashing and a service dog (nurse) in training!

I will cosplay her as Anya and get her a Mouthwashing vest when she’s older, I swear

[taravali-the-service-pup]

Taravali had a “happy visit” at the vet on Tuesday.

A happy visit is an appointment made specifically for training & socializing the puppy to the vet clinic and Taravali did really well. She was excited to see the other dogs in the waiting room but so there was a bit of leash pulling but no whining, barking or jumping and she was quickly able to settle down and offered a lot of nice behaviors.

We had the vet ignore her during the entire appointment while she settled on her mat. She’s already happy to be at the vet so I wanted to focus on being calm & waiting patiently in a novel environment while I converse with others. This is something Mandana has always struggled with and it affected my ability to have her at doctors appointments. I wanted to get an early start with Taravali and she’s already a natural. At the end of the appointment we walked her through the back area where the staff are and had her get on a scale. There were a lot of new sights, sounds and smells so I was proud of how confident she was and how well she walked on a leash. She’s more sensitive to getting on elevated surfaces than Mandana ever was so it’s something we’ve been practicing at home. I had to step on the scale first but then she got on all by herself and stood there politely.

You have to pay full price for the time slot and it’s obviously not covered by pet insurance so besides training I also brought a long list of questions regarding Taravali & Mandana. We discussed heat cycles and how that might affect her specific health & behavior. We also talked about her upcoming PennHip appointment and how we could negate some of the stress and if I’d stay with her or have her go back for the procedure without me. Then we discussed Mandana’s complex health issues and her MRI results and recent changes. We planned out an ultrasound & endoscopy for June 24th. It was nice to have some time to sit and talk with our vet about all these things and Taravali got some much needed experience in the process.

[bramblethebambi]

A walk in the snow!

[fayeandknight]

Just had the cutest interaction while training Forte.

We were working on alternating between casual heeling/llw and fmp with him in harness around the block. We'd come full circle back to the driveway when I spotted a young kid on a bike coming up the road.

I put Forte in a down and planned to reward him as kid and dad passed by. But the kid saw Forte and stopped in front of us while repeatedly pointing out the doggy. (Kid was young, training wheels and dad's hand on the back of his seat.)

I could tell dad was getting uncomfortable because kid would not move on and was very fixated on Forte. So I looked at dad and explained that this dog is learning to be a service dog, which is a special dog who helps people. That this dog loves people but needs to be able to ignore them when he's working so he can focus on the handler. And if they had a few minutes, would they want to help me train him.

Dad relaxed and said yes. So I asked the kid if he could ride around real fast and call to the doggy. If the doggy stayed in his down I'd reward him with a tasty treat. Kid was pumped to do so. After a few minutes I thanked them both for helping me train my dog.

As the kid rode off I could hear him excitedly telling his dad "I helped train a service dog. They're really special dogs ". And dad agreed that he did and that he'd done a good job. Kid proceeded to say "I'm going to tell mom I helped train a service dog. Does she know they're special dogs?" To which dad said mom's going to be impressed because she knows those are special helper dogs and their training is really important.

It was such a wholesome interaction.

[layniedrew]

He’s Serving, your honor 💋💅

I love a service dog in a cute sweater and some dashing boot. Dress for the job you want, folks!

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💕My commissions are Open! If you want a cute piece of your service dog, pet, original character or almost anything under the sun, check out my Ko-Fi!! Link is in my bio or you can look me up at Layniedrew 💕

[poodle-gutz]

This Friday Molly got to meet a robot! The local junior high robotics team dedicated some time to come to the nursing home where I work so the patients could see their robot and learn about how it works! Me and my coworkers agreed it was a great opportunity for Molly to learn how to function around unexpected things, she did VERY well considering you don't see robots everyday. The team was nice enough to let me get a photo of the bot with Molly, and she thoroughly enjoyed watching it wander around the floor (I let her watch the bot for awhile since it was a new experience and expecting her to focus right away was just completely unrealistic). She was able to effectively task and listen to commands even while watching her environment which is exactly what I hoped for. Great job Molly!

[ennwen]

"Fake Service Dog" videos

I'm gonna be blunt here: they suck

I see so many "fake service animal compilation" videos on YouTube and I've watched maybe one or two of them, and I want to say:

THEY ARE HARMFUL TO THE SERVICE DOG COMMUNITY

Yes, I do understand that they spread awareness of how big the problem is, but I see them so abundantly and frequently, and what I've seen some of them don't even warrant be filmed or at least posted ONLINE because some dogs aren't causing a large problem.

Ninety-Nine to 100% of these videos are posted without consent. While having a fake service dog is a crime, so is filming and sharing a video of someone without consent. A crime does not fix a crime (usually).

I'm not saying that it isn't ever okay to film something like this, because I completely understand needing proof, but in my opinion, these videos need to stay between the service dog handlers, the people who care for them, and store managers at least 80% of the time.

Too many people do bring untrained pets into stores and it's ridiculous seeing people not being able to control a reactive dog and not doing anything to correct them. It's stupid, and it makes it hard for Service Dogs and SDiT's to stay focused. It's enraging sometimes with how much shit we already have to deal with.

But taking the effort to film a pet in the store and posting it online for thousands of millions of people to see could put you and whoever you're filming in danger. Not only this, but when people with Service Dogs start to yell and make a big deal about it, it makes the situation stressful for everyone in the mix, probably usually including the handlers filming. It also creates bad representation for the community imo, and it's the reason some people call us "Karen's". Telling someone that they shouldn't bring their fake service dogs into the store is one thing, but yelling it after them over and over does nothing but attract attention to the real SD handler and the dog. There's also the fact that Most of these people already know what they are doing, and doing these things are virtually useless unless you can talk about the situation to a manager or the authorities. Most of the videos don't teach anything, and a compilation of these out of control dogs make the public even more skeptical about service animals.

Not only this, but they can also make Service Dog and SDiT handlers more nervous about going into public. What happens if your SD pukes or has diarrhea out of the blue (shit literally happens) and someone films and posts it online? What happens if your SDiT sees something scary they haven't before and reacts differently than you've trained them to and it becomes a viral sensation? There's no way of telling what situation an animal is in either. The person you could be filming may be homeless and not have a way of keeping their pet at home. They might be a older looking child/teen who doesn't know the laws on SD's.

Almost every other type of video is absolutely fine to post online and I wish I would see more of them. Public access issues where someone is being denied service, videos where the handler is showcasing/talking about tasks or showing how they've been trained, videos showing/saying that service dogs are still dogs and make mistakes are my favorite type of video because they inform instead of cause more drama within the community.

I'm not saying all of these videos are harmful, but a majority of them don't need to be posted online. It makes me uncomfortable.

Anyways I guess this was kinda just a vent. Thanks for reading if you read all the way to the end and don't be afraid to let me know what you think about them or if you have a different opinion in a respectful way!

[the-thistle-missile]

First time working in her new raincoat. Getting her ready for the rainy season! She has new boots too! Just got them the other day though so no pictures yet.

[21stc3nturyd1gitalb0y]

feel like it’s been ages since i posted my service dog on here so here are some pictures of him in his new vest!

He won’t wear it while he’s working because I prefer him to be clearly identified, but this was just a fun project to work on.

I’d love to make more educational/storytime posts about being a service dog handler so feel free to send me asks, I’m happy to answer questions!

[ambrosia-sdit]

i’m a couple days late posting but ambrosia is one!! (as of 9/27) i can’t get over how much she’s grown 🥺

[arwenthegreat]

Another photo dump of big girl working and being the best dog in general ❤️

[taravali-the-service-pup]

Taravali got some new stickers 🤭

A while back I had stickers made for Mandana to give to kids who would approach us during our public access sessions. It worked so well to keep the kids calm & satisfied instead of frustrated for not being allowed to pet my SDiT that I knew I wanted to do it again for Taravali.

I commissioned a Ukrainian artist named Daniel Malin and he was able to create an amazing custom portrait within my budget.

I ordered the stickers from customstickers.com They have a great deal on 2” stickers and after contacting them about it they allowed me to get the “easy peel” version for the same price which is great for little kids & disabled people.

[bramblethebambi]

Noodle soup.

[toomanysquirrels]

GUYS LOOK HOW PERFECT MY SERVICE DOG (in training) IS