Dogs can provide invaluable services to people with a vast array of issues, from physical disabilities to PTSD to emotional insecurities. Many of these dogs are highly trained and specially bred to help in their specialized field of support. It can take from several months to years to properly train a service dog. This leads to many disreputable “trainers” taking advantage of people looking for some kind of help through the use of a canine.

A recent story in the Seattle Times highlights this issue. A woman found out the wait for a dog from a reputable organization was around three years, and went with someone who claimed to be able to provide a fully trained service dog in a matter of months. (RED FLAG)

Here’s a link to that story.

The flipside to that issue, one I as a trainer deal with frequently, is people believing they can get a dog from a rescue or shelter and simply train it to be their service or support dog. Or worse, they pay some bogus online entity a fee to have their dog registered as a service dog. No matter what those groups or organizations say, it is a scam. There is no registry.

These are very special dogs. They aren’t available everywhere and certainly not quickly or cheap, so if you are looking for a service dog remember, buyer beware.