Dougals Background

Since I may be having to start over with my blog I thought I would go over Dougal's background with his training.

After deciding it was time for me to have a service dog we had to find a breed and breeder that we could start the process with. We had a few things that I would like to see in a dog.

• A smaller dog than the German Shepards and Mali's I was used to working with
• A smart breed.
• An active dog. I needed help motivating myself to get out of the house.
• A dog I could play frisbee with (Bonus) I have always wanted a frisbee dog!

This research took months. I understood that if it didn't work out it was still a 10-15 year deal. But we decided on a border collie as it clicked all the boxes, well except the frisbee one but that one would be a hit or miss based on the individual dog. We found a good breeder in North Carolina. Carolina Image Borders & Aussies that we fell in love with, a small outfit and the owner is very strict with the pairings. We explained to her what we were looking for and she informed us that she had just delivered a litter. Most were already spoken for but there were 2 that were scheduled to go to puppy school and sold afterward. She thought that those two would be very good prospects, but would have to the trainer.

Honestly, this was perfect as we wanted puppy training as to set the foundation for the rest of the training.

We went to view the puppies before they were fully whelped. We had our choice of black and white and red and white. Well, on our first visit the little red and white crawled to my wife and made himself at home with her. Well, that was the end of the choosing, it was pretty much a settled thing. Talking with the trainer she told us that the black and white pup seemed a little more stable but both of them passed all the tests. Later while the pups were in their training the trainer admitted that she was glad that we had picked the red and white as he was progressing so well. So, after about 20 weeks we were taking him home.

At the time we were bringing Dougal home we were also in the process of moving to Florida. So training was on hold though we were still working on what he was taught in school.

3 months later, after moving into our new place Dougal and I really started working hard. Several hours a day training to get his obedience down and started working on some of the easier tasks like waking me up during my nightmares. Over the next year or so we worked with trainers and SD organizations to help with training. He was doing well with everything we put in front of him. At one and a half years old he was doing public access like a pro.

It has been a long road through training, and as always with service dogs there is always more training to do.

Oh, and yes, he loves to catch frisbees!