freevortex

Not OP, but I've also trained service dogs (I don't any longer, I'm in grad school which takes up 100% of my time, but I'd like to again in the future).

1. A lot. Basic training (sit, stay, etc) is obviously the same, but the entire purpose of the dog is different and so they're tooled in different ways. One thing I can think of that's probably similar is, for example, I taught my pup-in-training to fetch certain toys or people for me based on their name. I'm sure K9s go through a similar training! I've never worked with K9s though, so I'm sure someone else knows a lot more about this one.

2. Ohmygodyes. At 8 weeks (when our organization starts training), they're cute as heck and basically just sleep every 30 seconds. Then they hit like 4 months and turn into monsters D: As a trainer, you have them 24/7 for about a year, so you really get to know your pup-in-training and realise when he's just not having any more training for the day. They also go through teething, learning not to chew on everything ever, potty training, etc. And then they hit an age that I call the 'terrible teens' at around 7 months when they realise that they don't have to listen to mom when she gives a command. It's seriously so similar to a kid going "This isn't a stage, mom, this is me! I don't have to listen to you!" that it's ridiculous. They grow out of it though :) As to the second part of your question, I'm sure every program is a little different but for our particular program, the initial puppy trainers have the dogs from about 6-8 weeks to a year old (sometimes more if the pup needs extra training). Once they can pass the CGC (Canine Good Citizen test), they're generally handed off to secondary (puppy grad school) school, where full-time trainers give them training specific to the pup's forever partner (disabled person). This is also the point at which they bring in all prospective pups and prospective forever partners together to find which dogs gravitate to which people, and vice-versa. ETA: I think the pups go home with their partners at about 2 years of age. Not 100% sure though, I don't do secondary training.

3. I'm gonna split this up because it's gonna be long.

• Operant conditioning and clicker training is your friend. Find a treat that your dog LOVES (for my pup, it was freeze-dried liver bits! A lot of people swear by Bil-Jacs too.) and buy a clicker (they're like a buck if you get the cheapie ones). this might help for a quick clicker guide.
• Definitely do not ever try to take on more than one problem at a time. Focus first on males, then once she's okay with that focus on dogs. Or vice-versa. Whichever you think is the more pressing problem.
• For the males thing, see if you can stand on the side of a walkway at a college or something, somewhere where you can control to some extent how close your dog is to other people, and also somewhere you know that people will be passing by regularly. Don't do this if your dog is likely to become aggressive towards people, that's not good for the general public! PM me if this is the case.
• ALSO make sure you have an easy "escape route" for your dog. During this training, your pup is gonna get real tired of it, real fast, and you want to be able to remove her from the stimulus as quickly and easily for the both of you as possible.
• Now, down to the specifics. Basically, you want to sit her down next to you on a leash (it helps if she knows "sit" and "heel"). Every time a person (any person, male or female) walks past and she DOESN'T growl, click and treat. If she DOES growl, don't make it a big deal (i.e. don't try to jerk on her leash or anything) but make a "nuh-uh" noise (also, have a single "no" noise that you use every time you want to say no. I usually do a nasally "eh-eh" or "no sir" because I have to think about how the public perceives me and my organization, but do whatever feels best to you).
• Repeat as necessary. Your pup should quickly learn that silence = treats, and growling = mommy makes a gross noise.
• You can also see if you can get a string of males she doesn't know to walk past, one by one, so you can work on the whole "male" thing. It's harder when it's "she only does it to strangers", though, I totally understand that.
• Please only do this for 15-ish minutes at a time to begin with. Don't overtire/overstimulate your pup! They can only take small amounts of training at a time before they wear out.
• For the dog aggression, it's gonna be something similar. Find friends with dogs she doesn't know well if you can (so the owners know what they're getting into and because you want to minimize risk at all stages).
• Leash her, hold her leash firmly, sit/heel her next to you. Have someone walk by with their dog also on a leash, at a distance. Click/treat for no aggression, "nu-uh" for aggression.
• Work up to closer proximity between her and stranger-dog.
• You can also try this at a dog park (have her outside the fence! The dogs in there are off-leash and you don't want to introduce a potentially dangerous situation!) but be careful with training out aggression around dogs/owners who don't know what you're doing.

Sorry this is super-duper long! I hope it helps :)

Just train your pup! They're calm and respectful because that's how they've been trained their whole lives. Look into operant conditioning, clicker training, positive reinforcement, and the like. Volunteer at animal shelters and practice training. Guide and service dogs are expensive because they're trained basically 24/7 for up to two years. I would not at all recommend trying to buy a dog that was meant to be a service dog. That's taking a dog away from someone who actually needs it, and two years is a lot of time to put in for a volunteer (or even a paid employee) when the dog isn't even going to end up helping someone!

That being said, there are guide/service organizations that have adopt-out programs for the pups who don't pass their final training, and for older service dogs who need to retire. You could always look into that!