Or Maybe Not Such Good News…

You know what they say about if something sounds too good to be true.

So I emailed the service dog program lady and asked if she could put me in touch with a couple of people she’s trained service dogs for.  Asking for references seems like a reasonable thing to do, right?

She emailed me back and said that there was one person she might be able to put me in touch with but she had to check with him first to make sure it was OK to give me his number, which is perfectly understandable.  I would be concerned if she just gave out people’s numbers without their permission.

But then she said that as far as all their other clients, she was sure I understood that most of them have psychological disorders like PTSD and it was hard for them to even let a trainer into their lives and she would not even think of asking them to speak to anyone about their experiences with the program.  Um, no, I don’t understand that.  I have PTSD and I would be willing to talk to someone about my experiences with a service dog program.  It’s not like I want personal information about people.  I want to know about their dogs.

Then she said that they are a small program and that is how they keep costs down.  I don’t understand that, either.  How does refusing to provide references keep costs down?  I provide references for my life coaching business and it does not cost me anything to do so.  It’s not like I pay my clients to provide references for me!

And anyway, this program charges almost three times as much as many other programs.  So it does not appear that costs are being kept down.

So now I’m very skeptical.  I will still speak to the one person she said might be willing to speak to me, if indeed he is willing.  And I will still see if I can find any additional information about this program.  But it looks like I may be going back to my original plan for training a service dog.