Pets and People: Companions in Therapy and Service

Books to Help Handler-Train
a Service Dog

One of the best resources we've seen is TEAMWORK by Stewart Nordensson and Lydia Kelley. Here's an excerpt from the website:

Stew Nordensson was born with cerebral palsy but has never let his physical disability stop him. He has been training dogs for nearly 50 years and has devised many innovative methods to train without strength or agility. He has learned to think like a dog and figure out the best ways to communicate with them. These are the ideas that went into Teamwork.

Lydia Kelley has been training dogs and teaching classes for nearly 20 years. She has had several dog training articles published in Off-Lead magazine.

Nordensson and Kelley knew there were many good dog-training manuals out there. The problem is they all assume the reader is physically able to follow instructions. Someone in a wheelchair, someone with muscle spasms, someone with limited arm strength and mobility needs a different approach to many of the exercises. The assumption seems to have been that an able-bodied person should train the dog first and then turn it over to the person with the disability. How can someone in a wheelchair, with muscle spasms and limited arm strength and mobility be expected to do the complex work required to train a dog?

Teamwork I covers basic obedience training. Teamwork II is subtitled "Service Exercises". Order them by clicking the images below:

Clicker Training

Karen Pryor's Clicker Training for Dogs Kit

Raw Feeding

The personal dogs & cats of our founder as well as some of our volunteers are fed raw meaty bones. The books below explain the idea of raw feeding and Dr. Tom Lonsdale's new book, "Work Wonders", also explains how to do it.

The Service Dog Raw Site

There are also lists about this topic on Yahoogroups!; a specific one for service dog owners who are interested in feeding raw is SD-BARF.

WORK WONDERS: FEED YOUR DOG RAW MEATY BONES