Life has gotten a bit complicated lately hasn’t it? I won’t dive into the news, we’re all getting plenty of that right now. What I do want to talk about are 3 free resources for those of us raising and living with dogs in this global pandemic.

Just 2 weeks ago I had decided that Fisher was ready to dive more deeply into his public work as a service dog in training. Are you laughing? I’m laughing. Best laid plans and all. I’m choosing to largely embrace this time as a way to focus on new behaviors that can be taken out into the world when things calm down again.

There is some worry. A lot of service dog hopefuls fail, not because they can’t do their tasks but because they cannot function well enough in public. So it’s doubly important for me to get creative about how to maintain his current level of confidence in public and continue to make progress toward the standards of public behavior he’ll need as a service dog. I’ll be sharing some of my solutions as we go along.

So for all of you who are deeply concerned about raising your puppies in the age of COVID-19, I get it, this is hard even if your biggest dream for you dog is being a lovely family pet. Luckily there is so much you can do to raise a well adjusted dog without even having to leave your home. Even more you can do outside while maintaining social distancing. If you want help with this, head on over to the Pandemic Puppy Raising Support Group . We have a team of people working on free resources to help you be successful. If you need personalized assistance many of the amazing admins are ready to provide virtual dog training services through their businesses. As the group grows we can all pool our creativity to help these pandemic puppies thrive!

Don’t have a puppy? You’re stuck at home and it was great for about 3 days but then you began to realize just how hard it can be to work from home with your dog? Limiting walks because of social distancing or in a true lockdown and your dog is bouncing off the walls? Some of those naughty behaviors getting to you now that you’re home 24/7? Simply need something fun to do with your dog for stress relief? Then I have a group for you too, check out the German Shepherd Dog Network, no German Shepherd required. It’s a learning group with many units on all sorts of dog training topics. Some of the Admins are currently doing live chats on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7pm CDT, adult beverages encouraged.

I’m also working on some step by step training challenges for you all, starring Fish. Look for those here and on the blog’s Facebook page. Every service dog has to learn the basics first so these should be applicable to your pet dogs. We’ll also be modeling some enrichment activities to help keep your dogs happy and content in quarantine.