Does anybody on here foster puppies for Assistance dog type organisations?

[carbuckety]

We have a puppy who we would like to train to be an assistance dog for my disabled daughter. At the moment the charities who can help you do this with a family dog are full. So i was wondering if you volunteer to have puppies destined for say guide dogs or disability assiantance dogs what kind of 'training' are you asked to do so I can have a go myself to start with. I can't find any local trainers who specialise in this ( and we are essentially housebound). Ultimately I'd like puppy to be able to do simple tasks eg pick up stuff DD drops, alert me , maybe possibly act as brace if she faints. I'm trying at present to do normal puppy trading up to 5 months which is what dogaid recommends

If you have experience, any ideas?
Thank you

I don't but with a young puppy I think I'd be focussing on giving them an excellent foundation to work from in the future.

You need a calm, confident dog who can handle different situations that other dogs cannot so great socialisation and obedience training will really help. Dogs that have experience of learning (anything) are much quicker to learn new things so focussing on all the basics like sit, stay, recall, touch, wait, back up, fetching specific items can all help - I would imagine.

There should be trainers local that can help you with those things and many do life skills or socialisation walks that introduce puppies to different animals and environments to help build their confidence.

I have a family member who fosters guide dog puppies.

She does none of the bespoke training. She covers the basic training/commands for any dogs, but the main effort is a huge amount of socialisation. Which includes for those on a recognised programme admittance to areas where only assistance dogs are permitted, as calm confidence in all sorts of situations is what they after.

(DD and her friends love mucking round with them!)

Thanks battenburg that's what we are doing at present, focussing on obedience type stuff. Socialisation as much as possible but ethel the dog will probably only accompany her outside if she ever gets well enough to leave her bed ( in 5 years only for acute hospital stays so far) so it's not quite the same as say guide dog. It's the disability bit

Fosterers for assistant dogs do not do the training of the whole dog.

You will have puppy walkers who will look after the dog to start with. They will be asked to do basic socialisation, toilet training and depending on the organisation other basic training.

The dogs are then often put in the training centres for more intensive training but may go out to fosters at weekends and the evenings so no real training is given by the fosters.

If you want to pm me your area I should be able to find a trainer that can help with item retrieval, opening doors, bracing for your daughter (although the pup would need to be older to do this) and also alerting you.

I volunteer with hearing dogs. We have been socialising our puppy for a year. As others have said the more specialist training tends to be done at training centres. With young puppies the main focus is using positive reinforcement to help the puppy make good choices.

I second the thing about socialisation - it's key, and you've really got to leave the house and get the pup out having lots of positive experiences in a variety of situations - Inc. Urban, rural, public transport, etc and even "just" learning to settle in public - a cafe for instance. If you can't do it, employ a dog walker who can take your dog out for bespoke socialisation walks.

Socialisation is the really key thing that's time critical and hard to sort out later on - I know this as I acquired a one year old undersocialised and untrained dog. It was relatively quick and easy to sort out all the basic training (and then move onto the more advanced stuff), but to this day we struggle with the fallout of a lack of socialisation in his puppyhood.

As for the actual assistance training, I believe hand targeting is used as a foundation skill, and it's something that's easy to teach, but I'm frankly unclear as to the next steps that allow it to become an actually useful skill. You might like to get some 121 sessions with a dog trainer for the assistance stuff - ideally someone APDT accredited. Run a mile from anyone who talks about pack leadership.

avocados yes that's exactly what we are trying to do, get puppy used to everything we can think of. We have had several dogs and our old boy is fabulously trained but has a back issue and is tbh getting on. We used to foster dogs for a rescue and I know that lack of basic trainjng and Socialisation was the root cause of many a young dog being rehome day. We are prepared to put in the hard work. Working on recall, sit, stay, stand, fetch and 'touch' as key skills at present. I've called round so many APTD trainers locally but few seem to know what I'm talking about. So disappointed that we can't get on a list for an organisation but totally understand how much pressure they are under. We were inspired a few years ago while in hospital and saw an assistance dog for POts ( one of the conditions my DD has) and then have researched and planned since.
valhalla have PMd you. Thank you! I just so want this to work to help my gorgeous girl have more of a life. I know that puppy fosterers won't do much of the intensive training but felt sure they were supported to do some of the basic skills that are then built on a puppy camp!

Oh and yes, we don't subscribe to the pack leader crap. We use treats and tons of love and cuddles to reinforce the behaviours we want from puppy. And it's fun watching the old boy try to join in again! Going to try to teach him some new stuff alongside, but he cannot brace given his back issue and age