Our passion for Service Dog training started nearly two decades ago with experience working with three different service dog organizations in various roles. We regularly get asked if Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs or Lowchen make good service dog prospects. While we strive to breed and raise dogs with disposition and foundation ideal for service work, training dogs is not without challenges. Here’s some details on both breeds.
We use the Puppy Culture protocol including Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) and Early Scent Introduction (ESI), to teach puppies to regulate their own emotions, recover quickly after startling, enter new situations with confidence, communicate with their owners, and learn how to learn. These are key qualities that put our puppies in the best position possible for service work, performance sports, and great family pets. While the first 8 weeks of life with us do not dictate the final outcome as adults, this type of enrichment contributes to the nurture part of behavior. Behavior is a complex mixture of nature, nurture, the current situation, and dynamics. *Scents we use during Early Scent Introduction includes peanuts, cashews, pistachios, gluten, shellfish, and various oils. Read more about litter raising here.
Here’s some resources that we recommend depending on your needs:
Snowy Pines Board and Train Service Dog Training: Ask for monthly board and train. They are located about 90 mins from Little Rock, Arkansas.
The Dog Alliance: For handlers looking for training with an Assistance Dog International accredited organization, this is a good option for local to Texas or remote students.
Do Greater Swiss make good service dogs? In general, Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are NOT an ideal breed for service work. Though, their larger size and history of pulling carts lends themselves to being physically built for mobility work. They are a sentinel breed that can make them difficult to use for public access. They can alarm to things that they find “out of order,” and it is more common for them to escalate emotions rather than de-escalate emotions making psych work more challenging. Some also have more “stranger danger” than others. This is good as they may ignore strangers in public, or it might not be good if the handler is unconscious and the dog deems all strangers as foe. *At most, Greater Swiss may bark at strangers. More than that is unacceptable temperament.
Are Lowchen good for service work? *Lowchens can make wonderful service dogs, particularly medical alert, because they are extremely attuned to their humans, great problem solvers, and quite biddable. Their small size, robust health, and non-shedding qualities make them an ideal candidate for many non-mobility tasks. Read this article for more in depth information about the breed’s temperament.
