I love how honest you are about Mars' mistakes. Most SDit handlers don't have the courage to do that but I think it's so helpful to see that they aren't perfect. :)

You and Mars are lucky to have service dog buddies to practice with! It makes it much easier to practice dog reactivity with well-behaved, trained service dogs than with excitable pet dogs. Ralph, my service Doodle and I were only able to practice when we came across other dogs at the Disney parks, but of course, it was just the leave it command since he was never allowed to say hi. Eventually, I came up with the idea to join a local therapy dog club. Now, Ralph moonlights as a therapy dog through an ATD club at palliative care, post-acute recovery facilities, and bookstore reading events with other well-behaved dogs. We basically had to go through an AKC Urban Good Citizen first and had piles of paperwork to fill out, but we got there. Anyways, informative and amazing as always.

Mars did so great!! You both make such a great team! :)

Thanks for being so descriptive, I’m blind and for once I felt like I could keep up with aNother handlers video lol.

love this! "i think a misquito bit my ass" caught me off gaurd lmao

You’re totally right, just ignore people staring because you know your dog you know what you’re doing and why you doing it and how it will help you in the future and that’s what’s all important. Best of luck to you both

mars is so cute!

Yes the carts! It gets better I promise keep at it! My boy, now 3, had a couple of bad fear periods with shopping carts too. He didn’t like the noise either, I was so worried he wouldn’t make it and disheartened. It is a rough time for sure but with the work you’re doing just like I did they get through it. I also used a fully trained dog with no fear of carts (my trainers dog) to help him through the fear periods, laying them next to each other and walking carts around them. We looked crazy but 100% worth it.

great work y'all! he's so cute!! your recall is amazing beautiful!!

What a sweet beautiful dog

I am in training my half great pyrenees half Rough Collie 10 month old dog and she's just coming out of her fear periods. She's just starting to go into stores.

I need a dog walker like you for my therapy dog. Great job.

amazing work!!! Keep it up!!

I have a service dog in training as well he just turned 21 weeks so just over 5 months hes a yellow lab named ben. He was also a bit reactive to shopping carts. But we have been around enough to desensitize now. So far hes been reactive or a little freaked out to shopping carts and wheeled things like bikes and wagons and he would pause when cars past close by but weve worked through everything thats come up so far. My last lab teddy passed away earlier this year it was incredibly difficult for me it still is he was my 2nd lab and 1st service dog now i have ben who is my 3rd lab and 2nd time training my own service dog. Ive been around lots of dogs and id like to say im pretty successful at training. I really enjoy raising a puppy. My last lab teddy had fear of balloons and big blow up doll things like those holiday decorations that are blown up with air he also was seriously afraid of egg cartons which was super strange and he was afraid of small children. Its interesting seeing what different dogs see as scary then finding ways to show them its ok. I just try to bring them around as much as possible as soon as possible and we train daily multiple short sessions throughout the day. I live in a rural area on acreage and we have lots of space for training but it makes it difficult sometimes to get into the city but i have to go to the city once a week for the doctor so we use that day for dog parks and stores and such if im up for it or we try to make special trips he really does get me out of the house more. I think its so cool you have friends with service dogs we dont know anyone else who has a service dog. Im not sure if you'll actually read this i tend to write a lot but your dog is the first service dog ive seen that hasn't been neutered. Do you plan on neutering? The reason i ask is i waited until my last lab was around 15 months to neuter against the advice of the vet but i just felt like it was good to wait. But i honestly didn't notice much of a difference from before to after and years later i wondered if i should have left him intact. Now this time ive actually done research and found that i was right to wait to neuter later so ill be waiting until 2 years old to make the decision with ben. I know every dog is different but i think when you work with a dog as much as we do to train a service dog maybe that negative behavior isnt as much of a problem. Id like to make the best choice for the health of the dog and i feel that the hormones would be useful to a lab in their older age to help their joints and keep their metabolism going to help with unwanted weight gain. Then the risks with leaving them intact like testicular cancer can be taken care of by neutering if need be. I think unwanted pregnancy is so little of a chance with a responsible dog owner thats not even on my mind im only considering health. But anyway im curious if you've ran into behavior that is really hard to deal with and if you plan to neuter? It makes me so happy to see another service dog intact at your dogs age that you have at least waited for him to develop properly. Every other young boy service dog trainee ive seen is neutered and its just given me some doubts. I have spent a ton of time researching the pros and cons and i even found some stuff about people who have given senior dogs low dose testosterone supplement and they've had improvements across everything and ailments disappear. The hormones are there for a reason. We know early spay/neuter is detrimental to a dogs health so if you at least wait it makes a huge difference.

sorry for the long comment i am like binge-watching ur videos.. my sdit is 1 1/2 right now. our trainer is from a service dog organization and her training to us was donated through a foundation to help people like me so it's already funded (and i couldnt afford it otherwise). the issue is, my trainer says i should be avoiding treats as much as i can and have myself be the reward. i kind of agree but my dogs a golden retriever and super food and toy driven- is there a way you balance this? i havent figured out how to train her new things/reinforce behaviors without treats (unless using a leash but sometimes that fails) especially during her adolescent phase when shes testing me and very hyper puppy energy still, sorry i know you arent an expert but i know you've gone through the training stages i am and imo i see Mars thriving with treats and how well trained he is.. agh. im so torn! i cant switch trainers as the training is already funded im wondering if i should just use treats anyways (reward w treats sometimes but mostly praise so she doesnt rely on them). what do you think? if you cant answer this and its a lot thats okay too, sorry. im just really new to this and i have 0 friends in the community and my family is close minded., soo yaknow i just figured id ask you since you're experienced and Mars acts very similar to my SDiT personality and drive-wise. also my SDit, Stella, loves salmon treats too lol do u have any recommendations?

How does Mars get along with the cats in the house? Does he ever try and chase them, or anything?

Hii!question can cats be service catd?or is that not a thing

keep in mind a service dog is never fully trained. It is probably too late to change that statement other than that good video.

why do you guys need the dogs with you? Why can you not go to the bookstore without a dog?