On the Inconvenience of Working a Giant Dog.
I was talking to a friend the other night who, after meeting my Newf puppy, declared quite firmly that she wanted a Newfoundland for a service dog; no mobility work, but psychiatric.
She was confused when I cringed.
I absolutely respect anyone's choice to have whatever breed they please, but I feel like a lot of SD handlers don't take into account all the negatives of the breeds they choose. Absolutely, Newfies are fantastic temperamentally-- they're lovable, friendly, and wonderfully caring animals. I will never deny that. But, even as someone who is a seasoned service dog handler, working a Newf is something unlike anything I've ever done before in my whole life, and I genuinely wish that I didn't need the mobility work that I do so I could work a smaller dog but for me, it's impractical; I fall hard, frequently, and quickly, can't use a rigid handle harness because I'll fall backwards and the torque force on the dog's spine is incredibly damaging. I risk hurting a dog or simply not asking him/her to do the work that I need. I would kill to work a Lab or a Golden.
The attention.
I have been approached more times in three months of public training with McCoy than in 2.5 years of working with Boo, the white dog in my icon who looks essentially like a traditional breed and is a standard size. I wish I was kidding, actually, but I'm not. Fortunately I don't mind talking to people, I actually like talking dogs and educating the public... but it once took me, I shit you not, TWENTY MINUTES to make it from the door of Target to where the carts are. Twenty minutes. Because someone would stop, want to pet him, ask how old he is and what he's being trained for, then someone else would step up to the plate. Repeatedly. He's very large, very cute, and a nontraditional breed, and I cannot IMAGINE how much worse this would have made my anxiety when I was partnered with my first dog. I can handle it now, but I know a lot of people who can't deal with the constant bombardment of people, which brings me to my next thing...
The public reaction.
I tend to get one of two responses when I'm out with him. Either people glom onto him, before I can react, and are grabbing his face or manhandling his body and cooing about how fluuuuuffy he is, or they take one look at him, scream bloody murder, and run the other direction. Yes, there are absolutely polite people, but I have had shop owners not wish to let me in the store BECAUSE he is big and black and therefore scary. Again, in 2.5 years of working with Boo, this did not happen once.
And the space.
I was at Target the other day, waiting on french fries, and I went to go find a table. I picked the one with the most space by the wall, lay him down... frowned, stood up, moved to a different place, tried to pull my chair in and realized I was crushing his head, moved again, realized after his tail got rolled over that he was in the way, then finally hauled the table away from the wall and put him there. During a trip to TGI Fridays, we had to sit outside, because there was genuinely not a single open table inside that he could fit underneath. He is 120 pounds and will probably put on another 40-50 before he's full grown, so this problem will only get worse.
And I love him, I do. He's an incredible dog and a wonderful partner, but he's also horribly inconvenient. I'm planning a trip to Disney next year, and am facing the very real possibility that well over half the rides, though service dogs are permitted to ride, he will not be able to fit on them so I'll have to use the rider swap anyway. A smaller dog would have no problem. I have difficulty moving between the close-set racks of clothes in many stores, and he can't work for me there because he must walk behind or in front of me, instead of next to me so I can hold his harness (if I try, his head is in the clothing.) I have to take extra care to move him when I stop to look at something in the store, either to put him in a sit and tuck his tail (which means no balance assistance) or position him to stand in front of me (thus blocking my view of the items) or behind me (which opens him up to people manhandling him.)
This is not to say that I don't love him and that I'm not thankful for him. He's a natural at what he does, from balance to retrieves to medical response work, going so far as to catch my head on his shoulders and roll me over of his own accord when I went down... which is something he has never been trained to do. He loves everyone and everything and is rock-solid temperamentally; nothing fazes him. I do not think, however, that I would choose another Newfie (or Dane, or giant breed) if a smaller dog would do just as well.
She was confused when I cringed.
I absolutely respect anyone's choice to have whatever breed they please, but I feel like a lot of SD handlers don't take into account all the negatives of the breeds they choose. Absolutely, Newfies are fantastic temperamentally-- they're lovable, friendly, and wonderfully caring animals. I will never deny that. But, even as someone who is a seasoned service dog handler, working a Newf is something unlike anything I've ever done before in my whole life, and I genuinely wish that I didn't need the mobility work that I do so I could work a smaller dog but for me, it's impractical; I fall hard, frequently, and quickly, can't use a rigid handle harness because I'll fall backwards and the torque force on the dog's spine is incredibly damaging. I risk hurting a dog or simply not asking him/her to do the work that I need. I would kill to work a Lab or a Golden.
The attention.
I have been approached more times in three months of public training with McCoy than in 2.5 years of working with Boo, the white dog in my icon who looks essentially like a traditional breed and is a standard size. I wish I was kidding, actually, but I'm not. Fortunately I don't mind talking to people, I actually like talking dogs and educating the public... but it once took me, I shit you not, TWENTY MINUTES to make it from the door of Target to where the carts are. Twenty minutes. Because someone would stop, want to pet him, ask how old he is and what he's being trained for, then someone else would step up to the plate. Repeatedly. He's very large, very cute, and a nontraditional breed, and I cannot IMAGINE how much worse this would have made my anxiety when I was partnered with my first dog. I can handle it now, but I know a lot of people who can't deal with the constant bombardment of people, which brings me to my next thing...
The public reaction.
I tend to get one of two responses when I'm out with him. Either people glom onto him, before I can react, and are grabbing his face or manhandling his body and cooing about how fluuuuuffy he is, or they take one look at him, scream bloody murder, and run the other direction. Yes, there are absolutely polite people, but I have had shop owners not wish to let me in the store BECAUSE he is big and black and therefore scary. Again, in 2.5 years of working with Boo, this did not happen once.
And the space.
I was at Target the other day, waiting on french fries, and I went to go find a table. I picked the one with the most space by the wall, lay him down... frowned, stood up, moved to a different place, tried to pull my chair in and realized I was crushing his head, moved again, realized after his tail got rolled over that he was in the way, then finally hauled the table away from the wall and put him there. During a trip to TGI Fridays, we had to sit outside, because there was genuinely not a single open table inside that he could fit underneath. He is 120 pounds and will probably put on another 40-50 before he's full grown, so this problem will only get worse.
And I love him, I do. He's an incredible dog and a wonderful partner, but he's also horribly inconvenient. I'm planning a trip to Disney next year, and am facing the very real possibility that well over half the rides, though service dogs are permitted to ride, he will not be able to fit on them so I'll have to use the rider swap anyway. A smaller dog would have no problem. I have difficulty moving between the close-set racks of clothes in many stores, and he can't work for me there because he must walk behind or in front of me, instead of next to me so I can hold his harness (if I try, his head is in the clothing.) I have to take extra care to move him when I stop to look at something in the store, either to put him in a sit and tuck his tail (which means no balance assistance) or position him to stand in front of me (thus blocking my view of the items) or behind me (which opens him up to people manhandling him.)
This is not to say that I don't love him and that I'm not thankful for him. He's a natural at what he does, from balance to retrieves to medical response work, going so far as to catch my head on his shoulders and roll me over of his own accord when I went down... which is something he has never been trained to do. He loves everyone and everything and is rock-solid temperamentally; nothing fazes him. I do not think, however, that I would choose another Newfie (or Dane, or giant breed) if a smaller dog would do just as well.