OT - who can tell me about dogs, especially training dogs?

I think most people here probably know about my PTSD and dissociative identity disorder.  I am considering getting a service dog, one that is trained to provide assistance with those conditions.  People are more accustomed to seeing service dogs with blind people or people with physical disabilities, but there are a number of specific tasks dogs can be trained to do for people with psychiatric disabilities, too.

Anyway, I'm not asking how to train a service dog.  I'm just looking for more general info on dogs because I've always been a cat person and don't know that much about dogs.  For those here that are dog people, what can you share?  How much work is it to take a dog outside regularly and make sure you give it enough exercise and bathe it and stuff?  Cats are pretty easy to care for, really.  Dogs, I think, take more work.

What about basic training for dogs?  How much training do your dogs have?  Did you go to an obedience class?  Train them yourself?  How hard was housebreaking?  Or did you get a dog that was already housebroken?  What about training them not to bug your cats (if you have cats)?  And what is the deal about dogs getting in the cat's litter box that I keep reading about?  How gross, and how do you prevent it?

Thanks for whatever you can tell me.  You know how I research stuff.  This is me in the beginning stage of research.

Hey Kelly,

I'm a vet tech so I have been professionally been working with dogs for the last 12 years.  I have had Great Danes for 10 years and grew up with dogs.
Dogs are expensive to own.  I see  clients  come in all the time with very sick animals and don't have the money to treat their animals.  Be prepared to spend about $120/yr on flea and tick preventative, about $400 for annual vaccines, heartworm tests and fecal test, and about $100 for Heartworm preventative.  That is just yearly maintenance.  Depending on the size of the dog (service dogs are generally a large breed) a premium dog food usually costs about $40/month.  Emergency services are also very expensive if there is an emergency so I recommend checking out different pet insurance companies.  A couple to check out are ASPCA pet insurance, and VPI pet insurance.  Dogs should be walked at the very least 3-5x per week if not daily and they should be let out to go potty 4-5 times daily.  Most dogs can go 8-10 hours crated without being let out to go potty.  The spay/neuter surgery will cost between $300-$400.  Training with my dogs was about $150 for 6 weeks.  Private training for a service dog may be more.  Good luck in your research! 

It depends on where you live.  My dog's yearly vaccines + extensive bloodwork never top $200.  I spend $80 a year on HW preventative and maybe that much on flea prevention (110lb dog, in Florida).  His neuter, with pre-surgical bloodwork, was $120- $130.  Training here at Petsmart is $100 for 6wks. My private trainer is $125 for 8wks, and she comes to me. 

 I DO have VPI pet insurance and it has already paid for itself.  My Lab had to have double knee surgeries  (TPLO for torn cruciate ligament... major orthopedic surgery for athletic injury)

 

The cost of food and vet care and basic stuff like that I can cover.  I am concerned about training costs.  If I can get a service dog through a program, the dog would already have been neutered and have its current shots and stuff, and would have a good deal of training.  Unfortunately, there do not seem to be many programs that provide service dogs for psychiatric disabilities free of charge.  If you are blind, it seems you are more likely to be able to get a guide dog at no cost to you.  I mean, you'd have to pay to care for the dog after you got it, but no charge to get it.  For a psychiatric service dog, you may be looking at $5000 or so for the dog.  Which, considering the cost of all the training and stuff, I guess is not a bad fee, but it's still a lot if you don't have lots of money.

But if you try to train a dog yourself and hire an indvidual trainer and stuff, that can be very costly too because a service dog needs so much training.

 According to the Dog Whisperer, you should walk your dog for at least 30 minutes twice a day which fits in nicely with exercise goals.

My dog is wonderful. She was housetrained by four months and hasn't had an accident in 5 years. Because she's a bigger dog - 75lbs, she has a large bladder. It's important to get a dog that suits you if it's a pet, to look up personality traits that you want. But if it's a service dog, it'll already be well-trained and easy to train specifically for you.

Regular, non service dogs, can be easily trained, but it's more important, perhaps for the human to be trained. Our parks department offers a cheap dog training course over several weeks. Pet stores often offer training sessions as well.

Dogs are easy to train to stay out of whatever you want them out of. Everytime they approach the litter box you say a sern NO. You have to intimidate the dog. You have to be the alpha, and your dog will follow right along. The dog does want you to be in charge, so you have to consistently be in charge. Dogs usually get along with cats that they live with; it's when they don't know cats that they want to play chase.

Hope this helps.

You made a good point!  I bet it's always  more important that the  human be trained.

Different breeds of dogs have different temperaments and some can be much easier (or much more difficult) to train and/or housebreak.  I have always started with puppies and had to do he potty training myself.  Make sure a puppy or young dog goes out after every drink, meal, map, or playtime.  Some breeds are very easy  to housebreak (Chows) while others can be very stubborn about it (or about marking their territory (Westies and Scotties).  Females don't mark in the house.

Some dogs require MUCH more physical activity than others. The Terriers, for example, need more activity than my Chow.  Picking a dog breed that is suitable for you, your living space, etc. can be the difference between as good dog ownership experience and a very bad one.

I have always trained my own dogs, but it is limited to sit, down, stay, come, teaching them which furniture they are and are notc allowed on, how to walk on a leash, how to leave food on the coffee table alone (!), how to stay away from the lawn mover and weed eater, which stuffed animals are THEIRS and which a MINE, etc.

Lora

 How do you train a dog to leave the food on the coffee table alone?  That one I've never been able to do.  

 LOL. When they are puppies, once I teach them the "down" command, I add "stay" to it and make them leave a food treat between their paws untouched until I release the stay command ("ok"), then when they show interest in food on the coffee table, I back their nose up (which sometime means backing up the whole dog!) and say "stay... not yours".  Once they have left it alone for a while, I praise them and get them one of their own treats as a reward. Eventually, I just say "not yours" when I set it down, and then eventually I say nothing at all... they just know better.

Lora

 Thanks!  I'll have to try that with the next dog.  Wags is 12 1/2 now and not only spoiled and stubborn, but I think getting a little senile.

Jan