On the Inconvenience of Working a Giant Dog.

[seth_unholy]

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

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[seth_unholy]

I totally feel you there; it's very nice to have a big fuzzy dog when you panic (I have PTSD combined with generalized anxiety disorder, so I feel you there.) One of the reasons I chose such a large dog was because I fall so fast, so hard, and so frequently that a smaller dog, I risk injuring, and I can't take that risk.

I can definitely help you with training (though, my first tip is to not refer to your dog as a therapy dog/for therapy purposes; I have a friend who got kicked out of a store for saying her psychiatric service dog was a therapy dog, because after all, the dog was therapeutic to her, and the store was correct in believing that they could not allow her in because they thought it was a therapy dog, not a service dog.)

What do you plan on training the dog to do? My dogs have a lot of psych-based tasks in their repertoire and so I'm pretty well versed in training them, haha. I can pretty much walk you through most things if you want help. I also find that bouncing tasks off other people helps you make the distinction between which are actually legally considered tasks, and which are considered emotional support... it's a fuzzy line sometimes!