Att the end of my last post, Diamond and I had just met. However, locating my lovely diva took a lot of time and energy, and that’s what I’ll address in this post.
Firstly, I had to decide whether training my own dog would be a good idea. I have some other friends that choose to train their own guides, so I spoke with them to get a good idea about the work and expenses involved. Because cutting corners when it comes to training one’s own dog generally backfires in a major way. To give you all an idea, I spent about 6000 dollars before I even met Diamond. Most of the major expense is always the dog. At least for me, I choose to purchase the nicest prospect I can afford in order to start with the best material, if you will.
I did extensive research on breeders, pedigrees, and wrote down what my ideal dog would be like, and then prioritize that list. I planned initially to get a dog from another breeder, but learned that she wasn’t as ethical as she claimed, among other things, so decided to seek a dog elsewhere. Eventually, I heard about Molly Graf who owns Eichenluft Working German Shepherds and that she’d bred some nice service dogs. I decided to e-mail her about dogs, let her know what my goals were, and see if she’d be willing to work with me. Usually, especially when you’re as picky as I am about dogs for myself, I expected a long wait for the dog I wanted. Well, Molly got back to me the next day to tell me that she happened to have a 6-month-old puppy from a show line litter that she felt would meet my needs. Good with all humans, confident around noise, had a natural retrieve, high pack drive, really wanted a job, and had just taken 2nd place at a regional dog show. She also gave me the option to wait for another litter if the dog she had in mind wasn’t what I wanted. Diamond seemed perfect, at least on paper, but I wanted to get her screened for temperament and prelim health done, and I didn’t want to take that on myself. Not because I couldn’t, but because I wanted an objective look at the dog.She passed her health and temperament evals with no problems, so Leslie, owner of Most Fine Canine, did 30 days board and train on Diamond to get her public access ready for me to come get her myself and fly her home in the cabbin. I expected Leslie to sort of teach her basic obedience and kind of teach her some impulse control , but just enough to get the dog home in one piece.
I instead got a puppy who was super confident, had very solid basic obedience and started advanced obedience. She could do escalators, elevators, handle crazy airports, etc. Leslie more than fulfilled my expectations, which made it much easier to begin task training.
The Diamond Diaries 