I've read through twice to make sure I understood everything I read, so now I am going to give you my personal opinion and experience training my own service dog.
Like you, I grew up with animals. I started volunteering for a vet in Italy helping to care for strays she took in when I was 11, she hired me after I turned 13 years old. I grew up on military bases and would do just about ANYTHING so that I could work with and play with the military working dogs and hang out at the kennels because we couldn't have our own dogs. We did have cats though.
Summers were spent state side either with my godfather who bred, raised and trained working retrievers (not the show kind) or my great grandfather, who had a large farm that had horses and many many many working dogs about. He didn't own a single dog that did not have a job. My Nana-the greats lap dog also doubled as the protector of the kitchen garden, he kept out the rabbits and other critters. At both places, I did as much as they would let me do so I got to do a little bit of everything.
I have also worked as an assistant animal control officer.
I checked out two programs that train service dogs, and I wasn't impressed with either. Especially when they kept pushing a long haired dog onto me, when the thing I hate most is grooming. I did not want a shepherd, golden or a lab.
Somewhere along the way, I decided that I really wanted an American Pit Bull Terrier since I loved the breed and had seen what great working dogs they were. A program in my state told me that they would train an owner dog. But in the two years it took me to find the right dog in the shelters, with the right temperament, that passed the health tests, their liability insurance changed, so they could not train an American Pit Bull Terrier.
So with the help of several trainers, I set out to train her myself.
I will say with all honesty, training my own dog was one of the hardest things that I have ever done and the most frustrating. There were days when I just sat down and cried because I had messed up some part of her training and I had to start all over from the beginning on a least one task and re-do it because I done something wrong.
I needed training, just as much as my dog did and the trainers I worked with made no bones about it. There were times when they would tell me to come for training WITHOUT my dog so that they could work with me. While I had a lot of DOG experience, I did not have a lot of TRAINING experience. And the the training experience I did have was more suited to training police or protection dogs, not service dogs.
I also started with a dog that was approx. 12 - 14 months old that was picked up off the streets at 5 months old (still had puppy teeth) and then adopted out to a NY State certified Dog trainer at 9 months old who fostered her until she was approx. 13 months old. He house trained her and took her through intermediate obedience before I adopted her.
Training my own dog was alot of work. Time consuming, frustrating, tedious work that took alot of patience, discipline and perseverance. When you read the teamwork book and he mentions "Slow is Fast". He isn't kidding. Slow, steady and consistent training, with repetition and proofing is the key. Any attempt to leap ahead, will only put you further back.
Before I took the training patches off of my dog, I paid a woman who has trained service dogs and who has trained dogs for many levels of competitive obedience, tracking and personal protection competitions to test and observe us working through each level. And test us she most certainly did. But first, I had to agree that if at any time, she or any of the trainers we worked with felt that my dog was not suited for service dog work, I would respect that and discontinue training her for service work. She was pretty critical and blunt, but in the end she was happy with how my dog worked with me.
In hindsight, would I recommend that someone who does not have a vast amount of dog training experience attempt to train their own dog? Absolutely not. I got lucky. I had a good support group of trainers, a very sound dog and I was too darn stubborn to quit.
Were I to have the opportunity to repeat that portion of my life, I would have gotten a program dog and apprenticed under experienced trainers before attempting to train my own dog. I would have learned alot more and I would not have subjected myself to so much stress and frustrations.
Will I train my own dog in the future? Yes I will.
Why? Because time and time again, my dog has performed better than the program dogs I have seen. I'm friends with many people with program dogs and they all marvel at how well my dog works no matter what kind of crazy chaotic situation I put her into. I feel that this is in part due to the fact that I set the bar pretty high because of her breed. She had to be better than the other dogs because of the stigma associated with Pit Bulls.
What will I do different next time?
I will NOT get a rescue dog. I spent alot of time un-training things, addressing fears to things she had and building her confidence. I almost quit because she was afraid of silly things until one of our trainers told me that all dogs have fears and it's HOW they address and overcome those fears that is an indicator of their temperament. Through training and obedience work, we built up her confidence, so that now at almost 3.5 years old, there isn't much that phases her. She is bomb proof. And I also want to note, that even though I got her at 12 -14 months old, an "adult", she was not MENTALLY an adult dog. It took her until she was a little over 2-1/2 years old to fully mature.
My next dog will be either a puppy or a young adult from one of the breeders that I know and trust. The dog will be from working lines with parents that have been health tested and passed and are also temperamentally sound. These breeders have many many many years experience in picking the working dogs from the litters of pups, so I will rely on their judgment when the time comes.
Raising puppies is not something that I really enjoy, it's a TON of work. But on the other hand, addressing fears, bad behaviors and other things learned before you got the dog is also a TON of work. So if I am going to have to put that much effort into a dog, I'd rather start with a puppy and begin to socialize, mold and shape behaviors at a young age.
In the end, I spent two years looking for the right dog and then 15 months training her when I got her. So almost 3.5 years from when I started.
So to sum this super long post up, while I truly learned alot by training my first service dog myself, I would honestly recommend that you give serious consideration to getting a program dog first and begin working with a trainer so you can learn. Better yet, a service dog training program that would allow you to apprentice to them so you can learn while you wait.
Either way, should you have any questions about training or my experiences, I will be happy to answer them for you to the best of my ability.
Written by Hoyden, submitted by Kirsten