Specialty Dog Training (SDT) offers customized training programs to elevate your dog’s natural desire to love you and be there for you. Our ESA/ESD (emotional support animal/dog) programs focus on teaching all foundational obedience, intermediate obedience and we finish each emotional support dog with advanced obedience. We define advanced obedience as a high level of control and the ability to follow obedience commands with distractions as well as off leash command and control. Our ESD’s also come home with excellent house manners, community obedience to be sure your dog is well behaved and welcomed in dog friendly locations, and engagement cues to help support the handler in times of need. If you already have a dog and feel your dog could be a good fit for this type of training program and high level need, we will learn more about your pup and set up an evaluation with one of our trainers to be sure we can confirm his or her ability. Dogs that have any form of aggression, anxiety, fear, or major medical issues will not be accepted.
An emotional support animal (also known as an emotional support dog) is an animal companion that offers some type of benefit to an individual with some form of disability. The animal is intended to provide companionship and support that will help alleviate at least one aspect of the disability. ESA’s/ESD’s do not have public access rights like a service dog and are not fully trained service animals. All SDT
Graham Bloem and his Specialty Dog Training Team are the best in the business! I searched globally for a year for my canine companion to enjoy the golden years. Having family pets throughout my life, I knew that the choice I made was similar to adopting a child. I had very specific needs on my want list: Breed, sex, age, specialty training, physical characteristics, personality, and, most of all, a family member to love and be loved by all who visit our home. Graham went above and beyond my expectations in his personal involvement in my case. The result was perfect. Reina, the queen of our hacienda. Our lab retriever, with a heart of gold, trained like a service dog, yet full of playful energy and joy.
Emotional support dog programs include the following:
- Any breed and size dog (hand selected by our training team) – clients that request a specific breed are responsible for all costs involved in the acquisition of the dog. For adoption/rescue, the average fee is $500. (Only relevant if we are providing a trained dog and not working with your existing pet).
- Crate training and house manners. We teach a command for your dog to enter the crate, be comfortable and content in the crate, and we either teach an indicator (whine, bark, scratch or similar) or a solid schedule and routine for potty breaks
- Socialization to ensure your dog is safe and comfortable in many environments, with new people and also other dogs
- Vehicle manners
- Acceptance of grooming and handling
Our emotional support dogs are fully proficient and responsive on and off leash regardless of environment or distraction. They have received not just the foundational teaching and reinforcement of commands in varying challenging environments, but they are also proofed in all commands. This means we have had the time to properly help the dog fully understand the cues and commands, integrate them in many settings, reinforce the expectations and finally polish and proof where it is now fair to hold the expectation of high level control.
SDT emotional support dogs are also able to take and pass the following series of exams to prove their temperament and abilities. A) AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC), B) AKC Community Canine and C) CGC Urban.
This advanced dog training program also provides the stepping stones for service dogs.
An SDT pre trained emotional support dog is a special companion that has undergone extensive temperament assessment, obedience training, socialization and environmental exposure and is a dog that can lead an active lifestyle while showing off outstanding control at places like your home, neighborhood walks, trail hikes, camping, busy outdoor markets and shopping centers, dog friendly establishments like pet stores, hardware stores, outdoor cafes or similar, and is able to take on more environmental pressure and stress due to the preparation and prior experiences.