From our dear friend and former trainer, Tony. Thank you, Tony – your words always have and always will mean the world to me and to all of us – and your opinions are very important to me and all of us at SDE:

“As a client and former trainer I have the utmost respect for Laurie and Service Dog Express, She has made my life so much better and I can handle the simple everyday tasks that most take for granted when she paired me with my properly assessed dog Lucy (God bless you Laurie and what you did for me).

As trainers, the client should come first; their needs are off utmost importance.

I think off myself as not only a client but as an ambassador for Service Dog. I try to educate the public as much as I can, but having just one aggressive hyper or skittish dog can make it so much harder for the public to understand what we are doing or what the dog is for, so a properly assessed dog is essential. I know we would like to place all the dogs with homes but they all can’t be a Service Dog!!..

I get so many compliments on how well behaved my dog is in public; it is a proud and calming feeling to me. So thank you so much Laurie for all that you have done to make my life a lot easier..

Tony Cuciniello
( Service Dog Lucy)”

TONY – YOU ARE VERY CORRECT THAT PROPERLY ASSESSED AND TRAINED SDs ONLY SHOULD BE IN THE PUBLIC. IF THERE IS A DOG THAT WE FEEL IS NOT ACTING APPROPRIATELY, WE WILL WORK AS HARD AS WE CAN TO TRY AND TRAIN THE INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR – EVEN IF IT MEANS HAVING TO REMOVE THE DOG AND HANDLER FROM PUBLIC ACCESS FOR A WHILE. IF THE DOG JUST CAN’T BE TRAINED CORRECTLY, WE WILL ALWAYS BE HONEST AND REALIZE THAT THE DOG IS JUST NOT SERVICE DOG MATERIAL. A DOG CAN LEARN THE COMMANDS, BUT ONCE IT BEGINS TRAINING WITH THE HANDLER, DYNAMICS CHANGE. THAT IS WHY CONSISTENCY AND SUPERVISION BY TRAINERS IS PARAMOUNT. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INPUT. MANY DOGS THAT PASS ASSESSMENTS ONLY EXHIBIT BEHAVIORS ONCE THEY ARE PUT IN VASTLY DIFFERENT SITUATIONS. THEY MUST BEHAVE CORRECTLY – FOR THE SAFETY OF THE CLIENT AND THE DOG.