Curly Coated Retrievers as Assistance Dogs
Mulga working as a Medical Alert Dog
Curly Coated Retrievers are steady confident dogs and are well suited as Assistance and Therapy dogs. They have been succesfully placed as Seeing Guide Dogs, Personal Assistance Dogs and Therapy Dogs in numerous countries around the globe.
Curlies are naturally empathetic and will adjust their temperament to their persons mood. They are large dogs able to pull a wheelchair, open doors, and pick up and retrieve items for their charge. Curlies are retrieving gundogs and this means they are both trainable team members and will also independently use their inititive when required to keep their charge safe. Curlies are a slightly aloof breed who are more interested in their person than in strangers particularly when they are working. This means they are ideal as service dogs as they will work consistently when out in public.
As a Behavioural Scientist I am dedicated to placing my Curlies in the suitable home environment for their individual personality. As a Type 1 Diabetic with over 35 years living with this chronic medical condition, I found Curlies are naturally attuned to my Diabeties management. .Due to this ability I have begun training my dogs and pups to both recognise my target blood sugar levels and alert me when I am below or above this target range. Positive training methods are used to condition the dogs to blood glucose alerting.
This same principle can be successfully used to train a dog for any purpose with patience and consistent positive reinforcement. There is no great secret to training a medical assistance or service dog it is a matter of moulding the desired behaviours to produce the behaviours needed. Early behavioural moulding (from 3-weeks) will bring the desired behaviours to the fore and ongoing positive training after the 6-week assessment when we identify suitable assistance pups, will ensure these traits are retained. An Assistance Dog also needs to have a very good level of obedience making it a lovely dog to have around at all times.
There are many factors involved in successfully training a dog to be a successful Assistance Dog and all of these are individully fine-tuned to the needs of each human-dog team. There is a long waiting list for orginasation trained dogs at present Australia wide. I help people gain greater independence with their disability needs, by helping place and owner-train Curlies in South Australia where I can continue to assist the team with their ongoing service training. Dogs who are placed in other Australian states will need to contact one of my Assistance colleges to gain further assistance with ongoing training.
If you would like to find out more aboout the suitability of a Curly as an Assistance dog for youself or someone you know please contact me via email or 'phone. I am very happy to discuss an Assistance Service Dog's suitability with you.
Curlies are naturally empathetic and will adjust their temperament to their persons mood. They are large dogs able to pull a wheelchair, open doors, and pick up and retrieve items for their charge. Curlies are retrieving gundogs and this means they are both trainable team members and will also independently use their inititive when required to keep their charge safe. Curlies are a slightly aloof breed who are more interested in their person than in strangers particularly when they are working. This means they are ideal as service dogs as they will work consistently when out in public.
As a Behavioural Scientist I am dedicated to placing my Curlies in the suitable home environment for their individual personality. As a Type 1 Diabetic with over 35 years living with this chronic medical condition, I found Curlies are naturally attuned to my Diabeties management. .Due to this ability I have begun training my dogs and pups to both recognise my target blood sugar levels and alert me when I am below or above this target range. Positive training methods are used to condition the dogs to blood glucose alerting.
This same principle can be successfully used to train a dog for any purpose with patience and consistent positive reinforcement. There is no great secret to training a medical assistance or service dog it is a matter of moulding the desired behaviours to produce the behaviours needed. Early behavioural moulding (from 3-weeks) will bring the desired behaviours to the fore and ongoing positive training after the 6-week assessment when we identify suitable assistance pups, will ensure these traits are retained. An Assistance Dog also needs to have a very good level of obedience making it a lovely dog to have around at all times.
There are many factors involved in successfully training a dog to be a successful Assistance Dog and all of these are individully fine-tuned to the needs of each human-dog team. There is a long waiting list for orginasation trained dogs at present Australia wide. I help people gain greater independence with their disability needs, by helping place and owner-train Curlies in South Australia where I can continue to assist the team with their ongoing service training. Dogs who are placed in other Australian states will need to contact one of my Assistance colleges to gain further assistance with ongoing training.
If you would like to find out more aboout the suitability of a Curly as an Assistance dog for youself or someone you know please contact me via email or 'phone. I am very happy to discuss an Assistance Service Dog's suitability with you.
Type 1 Diabetic Alerting Dog - Gillie
Born on March 20th Markable Gillii (Gillie) is a very special dog. At birth he was destined to travel to Reunion Island to become a Marine Rescue dog. He was selected for this endeavor at 6 weeks as he had a very strong retrieving instinct and good team bonding when temperament tested. Sadly his prospective owners hadn't investigated the costs of travel to Reunion Island and decided it was too expensiv to continue with his placement as the travelcosts were double the price of a pup .
I decided the specialised training he had already done should not be wasted and continued to train him as a human-dog team member for service. I conditioned him to alerting glucose Levels and placed him on trial as a diabetic alert dog, where he performed well alerting both High and Low Blood Glucose levels. Sadly another dog resident in the household was attacking 5-month old Gillie (unprovoked) so he returned home to Markable Lea. He then continued with both his alerting training and with his Public Access Test- PAT training. He has been consistently reliable with both his alerting and his behaviour in public. Gillie was placed as a Medical Alerti Dog in early November 2012 where he continue's his PAT training and his alerting work. He will help Aaron to remain independent and safe from debilitating hypoglycemic episodes especially night time ones..
I decided the specialised training he had already done should not be wasted and continued to train him as a human-dog team member for service. I conditioned him to alerting glucose Levels and placed him on trial as a diabetic alert dog, where he performed well alerting both High and Low Blood Glucose levels. Sadly another dog resident in the household was attacking 5-month old Gillie (unprovoked) so he returned home to Markable Lea. He then continued with both his alerting training and with his Public Access Test- PAT training. He has been consistently reliable with both his alerting and his behaviour in public. Gillie was placed as a Medical Alerti Dog in early November 2012 where he continue's his PAT training and his alerting work. He will help Aaron to remain independent and safe from debilitating hypoglycemic episodes especially night time ones..