Service Dog Archives - Page 2 of 34

Service Dogs Need Vacation, Too!

June 10, 2016

If you’ve ever wondered if service dogs get a vacation, the answer is yes!

Our door is always open for service dog puppies that we’ve raised.

service dog in training, service dog, service puppy, puppy training, Smart Dog University, clicker, Laurie Luck, Frederick, Mt. Airy — Baby Levi

We love the chance to get to know their new families and to have a little piece of our life back with the dog that we raised. It’s fun to see them as adults. They go off and work a real job with responsibilities and everything. We get to see the result of the 15 months of hard work we put in when we were raising the pup.

Until their new family drives away. Then all bets are off.

Those responsible service dogs are then allowed to have “vacation brain.” They can turn all those responsibilities off for a week or two and just be regular dogs.

We hadn’t seen Levi since I turned him in back in January of 2015.

It was only a year and a half, but it felt like forever. We were unable to attend Levi’s graduation ceremony because of one of my work commitments, so we were overdue for a Levi-fix.

I met Levi’s family halfway between our homes. As I waited for them, the anticipation was killing me! For a brief moment, I wondered “Would he remember me?” I was out of his life 18 months ago, there one day, gone the next. (I always wonder what they think about that sudden disappearance.)

When the arrived, I got out to greet them. As soon as I got out of my car, it was clear Levi remembered. I was beaming, he was jumping (allowed on rare occasions like this), and everyone was laughing. What a spectacle we must have been. Levi hopped into the car and settled in for the 45-minute drive home as if no time had passed since I last saw him.

I knew integrating him back into our house would be a breeze. The initial multi-dog excitement led to Schooner-Levi zoomies in the fenced backyard for 15 full minutes. We got to see the famous “butt tuck” run that Levi was famous for when he lived with us. (The “butt tuck” is when a dog is running hard and tucks his butt under his legs. It’s both hilarious and endearing.)

Levi spent almost two weeks with us on his vacation.

He was a good vacationer — he didn’t check email or call into the office once! I was texting with his family while they were abroad to let them know what adventures he was enjoying each day.

Having a young dog back into the house was fun and also exhausting. Our dogs are all seniors at 14, 13, and 10 years old. Schooner is 3 years old, but at his size, it feels like he’s older than he is. Great Danes are quite the couch potatoes and Schoons isn’t used to running all day long.

Thankfully, our neighbor has a dog that was Levi’s best friend when he lived with us. It was fantastic seeing that reunion, as well! Dogs don’t forget, that’s for sure.

As Levi’s family was exploring foreign lands, Levi was kicking back and relaxing in the kiddie pool. Again, none of our older dogs enjoy the pool much now, so it was entertaining to see Levi jump and dig and romp in the pool. Oh, and to run in the house fully drenched, too. I didn’t miss that part at all!

Levi was respectful of the older dogs, politely inviting them to play. And accepted their refusal with grace (most of the time). He found his old spot on the couch and settled in as if he’d never left. Same thing at bedtime: he found his favorite sleeping spot like he’d been there every night.

All good things must come to an end, and Levi’s vacation with us ended last week.

He was just as happy to see his family as he was to see us two weeks prior. And that made us all laugh and thankful that Levi has two great families to call his own.

Life Without A Service Dog (Empty Nesting)

October 20, 2015

Since 2001, we’ve had a puppy in the house every single year.

14 years later, life is really different as we’ve taken a temporary break from raising service dogs. It’s not better or worse, but definitely different. It’s certainly less work, that’s for sure. No house training, no all-day trips to check in with the service dog organization each month.

Our life now is very different than we’re used to. Three our of four of our dogs are seniors. Seniors! When did that happen? Each of them is a released service dog. I distinctly remember the pick-up days for each of those dogs. And for those dogs who went back for advanced training before being released (Lily and Schooner) I remember the dread and heartbreak of turn-in day and leaving them at the agency.

Lily was just the second pup we raised.

lab, labrador, Labrador retriever, swimming dog, black lab, yellow lab, dog training, Frederick, dog trainer She was feisty and a real handful. She had gotten so attached to Rocky, the first service dog, that I was seriously concerned that she’d fall apart when he went back to the agency for his advanced training. Turns out she missed him a lot, but service pup #3, Tango (who was keeper #2), was a nice distraction and he kept Lily busy so she didn’t have much time to cry in her food bowl about missing Rocky. Lily was released from service dog training for a few reasons. She has a tactile sensitivity that made her quite unhappy in a service dog vest. She hated wearing the vest and doesn’t really even like wearing a collar, even today. She also didn’t love working in public. She’s very friendly, but I liken her to an introvert who would rather stay home than go to the party. She’s most comfortable tucked under my desk, under the table, or in her crate. Being out in public wasn’t really her thing. She wasn’t happy with the life of a public working dog, so the agency made the wise decision to let her live the life she really wanted — a pet dog that didn’t need to interact with the world all day every day. She’s now almost 14, but can run circles around any of the other dogs (with the exception of Great Dane, Schooner — and she runs circles under him!). She’s active, fit, and can keep me walking at a speedy clip for miles and miles!

Tango, the handsomest yellow Labrador you’d ever want to meet (not that I’m biased or anything) is the second keeper dog.

yellow lab, lab, labrador, yellow labrador
We were very excited for him to become a service dog as his training had been perfect. He was cool, calm, and collected in public. Happy and cheerful, full of pep, yet sensitive to the mood in the room, Tango was going to be the perfect service dog. He unfortunately had some elbow trouble that was diagnosed on x-rays early in his training. The service dog agency didn’t feel it was fair to Tango or his future partner to work a dog who may develop physical problems later in life. I remember the call telling us he was being disqualified. I maintained my composure “Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that!” until I hung up the phone, then I jumped up and down like a loon and squealed like a schoolgirl, thrilled that this boy was ours to keep. Regular readers of the blog know that Tango is my favorite over all the others. It’s hard to explain, but if you’ve ever had that special dog that just gets you, you know what I’m talking about. While second oldest, he’s the one with the most physical problems. That nasty arthritis is really kicking in and it’s starting to really slow my boy down.

Nemo is keeper #3.

LaurieLuck_SmartDogU060 A total “man’s dog,” he mainly tolerates me while living for my husband’s affection. Once when my husband was on business travel for six weeks, we had a gentleman come over to fix something in the house. Nemo was attached to that guy the whole time he was here. Before the guy left, Nemo crawled his 85 pound self up into his lap and was the most contented dog you’d ever want to see. Visually, Nemo looks like the oldest dog, as he’s gone almost totally grey in his face. Silly and playful, Nemo is the one who’ll run around the yard doing zoomie laps while playing chase with me or the other dogs. A ridiculously handsome (and yet also goofy looking) dog, Nemo garners the most attention when we have him out. People seem to gravitate to his stately stature, his houndish face, and his friendliness. At the end of the day, he loves nothing more than to crawl into the LaZ Boy with my husband and drift off to sleep.

The big boy, Schooner.

Great Dane, Schooner, dog training, clicker, Frederick, dog obedience
The biggest, silliest, and sweetest Great Dane you’d ever want to meet, that’s Schoons. We had high hopes for Schooner as a service dog and loved the thought of him out working with someone in public. Big he may be, but he’s still quite a chicken. He’s afraid of thunderstorms, wind, and rain. It’s kinda hard for Schooner’s partner to go out only on nice days. When I got the call that he was being released, I was ready to get in my car at that very moment. I couldn’t stand the thought of waiting to get him. We love Great Danes anyway, and Schooner was a fabulous boy who had already lived with us and who had already been a part of our family. Did we want Schooner, they asked? Uh, YEAH! He had a rough transition from service dog to pet dog. Used to going everywhere all the time, he was unhappy for a few weeks, which led me to question my decision to take him. A couple weeks later, though, we figured each other out, got used to the new daily routine, and haven’t looked back. He’s a big bed hog, gentle, sweet, and oh so drooly. Man, can that dog make a mess of the floors and walls with all that goop. We love his silly self despite all the grossness — that should be a testament to just how much fun and lovable the big ox is.

Reasons we’re not raising.

The real reason we’re not raising service dogs, anymore, is Schooner. Well, yes and no. He’s our fourth keeper dog, which means we’d have five dogs if we were raising service dogs. Five dogs in the house is a lot for me. The mess of hair and drool that five dogs creates is overwhelming. I can’t ever have the house totally clean. There’s going to be dog hair or dog drool somewhere, no matter how meticulous I am (which I’m not even a little meticulous). Whichever way you look at it, five dogs was our tipping point. We didn’t feel like we’d be giving each dog what a fair shake if we had five dogs.

Time was another reason we didn’t get another puppy. I’ll be honest, the four dogs don’t get enough training time. They all love to learn and train, but I don’t have enough time to get each of them the training time they need. If we added a fifth dog, whose training schedule was not only demanding but also inflexible due to the service dog milestones that we needed to reach, our four would get even less attention and training. And with four dogs already, I wasn’t confident I could give the pup all the training, attention, and time in public that he (or she) needed to meet the service dog agency’s requirements.

Our senior dogs made it clear when we were raising Levi, that they’d just about had it with this whole puppy raising business. Puppies were fun for them when they were younger, but now puppies were just a pain in the neck. They began to look at me with disgust when they were all reaching about 10 years old with the “you have got to be kidding” look when the next puppy would come into the house each year. It was when we turned Levi in and I got to see the dogs begin to enjoy one another, initiate play, and return to their normal selves (that I’d kinda almost forgotten about), that I realized what a damper a puppy put on their lives. It was then that we decided to take a break from pups until we had more room in our house. Which means we’re not going to raise any more pups until our seniors aren’t with us any longer. So while I do miss raising puppies, I’m in no hurry to get back to it at the cost of losing one of our seniors.

Do I miss raising puppies?

Yes, yes, yes. Very much. I miss the opportunity to teach the pup all the cool stuff like self control, attention, focus, playing nicely, leash manners…all that stuff that most dog owners think is a real pain, I love teaching. I miss watching the weekly progress as their brains take in all the learning, process it, and then they incorporate it into their everyday lives. I miss the silliness that is a puppy! The playing, the barking, the craziness.

We’ll get back to it, I know. But it’ll be awhile. In the meantime, I’m enjoying the senior years with my old guys. They still keep us busy and they’re still learning things, too. I hope it’s a long time ’til I get back to puppy raising.

Service Dog Training: Schooner’s Adjustment to Career Change

May 12, 2015

Changing careers is hard, for people as well as dogs.

Schooner, the Great Dane pup we raised for service work was recently released from service dog training. The transition has taken some time, but I think Schooner is settling into the new lifestyle of stay-at-home dog.

Big changes.

Great Dane, Laurie at Frederick Keys baseball game. — Service dogs get to go everywhere.

Service dogs in training get to go everywhere with their trainer. When I put my shoes on and grab my keys, the service dog in training knows what’s next: he gets leashed up, vested, and hops in the car with me to head out on an adventure. The routine is pretty familiar and the dogs get used to it.

The first time I left Schooner with the other dogs, I hadn’t given my departure a second thought: it was errand day and I had to get on the road, as there were lots of stops in front of me. I gave our three stay-at-home dogs their frozen stuffed Kongs and they happily trotted off to start to work. Schooner looked at me as if I’d given him something disgusting. Surely I had this wrong: surely I meant to take him.

After watching him fret while I was gone, I knew I had to come up with a plan to help him transition from working dog to his new role of stay-at-home dog.

Transition plan.

My first goal was to get him conditioned to eating Kongs again. He wasn’t interested in the stuffed frozen Kongs I hand out as I leave. He needed something a little more immediately reinforcing. He was worried when I left and working on something frozen wasn’t paying off quickly enough for him so I began leaving him with a Kong stuffed with just regular old peanut butter — not frozen. “Mmmmm,” he appeared to say, “now you’re talking!” as he took his Kong over to his bed to investigate it more thoroughly.

I ran into a problem a couple days later: Schooner associated Kong delivery with my departure. He wouldn’t eat the Kong (even with just plain, unfrozen peanut butter) because he was onto me: I was trying to distract him with a Kong so I could sneak out the door without him. It was clear I had to deliver those Kongs at random and unpredictable times. Times when I wasn’t going to leave. Over the next several days, I’d give the dogs Kongs at various times — the only constant was that I wasn’t leaving after the Kong delivery.

After I convinced Schooner that Kongs didn’t always predict my departure, we could move along to the next goal which was uncoupling keys/shoes with running to the door in anticipation of coming with me. I actually worked this one at the same time as the random delivery of Kongs mentioned earlier. I would pick up my keys, deliver a Kong, and sit at my computer. Or I’d put my shoes on, deliver a Kong, and return phone calls. Regardless of what else was happening, gathering my shoes and keys did not go together with my leaving. I got smart and left my shoes on for the day and put my keys in the car long before I needed to leave in order to uncouple those clues, too.

Minor changes.

Forgetting how massive he is and how much room he takes up on the couch, I hadn’t moved a dog bed into the living room. As I watched the dogs on our Dropcam, I could see that part of Schoons’ distress was in the fact that he didn’t have a comfy place to sleep while I was gone if the other dogs got up on the couch before he did. There was a big, fat, smooshy bed about 15 feet away from him in my office (easily accessible for any of the dogs, including Schoons), but he didn’t want to use it because then he’d be the only dog sleeping in the other room. Heaven forbid. I began leaving a big bed in the living room and now there’s always a comfy sleeping spot for whoever doesn’t get couch seating.

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I’ve also started taking Schooner along on my early morning exercise jaunts. He and Lily go about 3 – 3.5 miles every morning with ease. He’s quite athletic and in very good condition so while the distance isn’t strenuous, he’s a tired dog when we get back thanks to the physical exercise, but mainly due to the mental stimulation — all the sniffing opportunities, new sights and sounds, and the brain power required to process it all. So when I have errands, I tire him out, leave him with a Kong, and I’m confident he’ll finish the Kong and then start napping. The exercise is good for him and it serves several purposes for us both.

Current status.

Our daytime routine is now fairly well set. Recently, Schooner turned his nose up at his unfrozen peanut butter Kong and instead wanted the frozen (yogurt, pumpkin, peanut butter) Kongs that the other three dogs get, so now we’re even closer to our regular routine — all the dogs are getting the same thing. He no longer rushes to the door when I grab my keys and instead is now running to his bed where the Kong has been consistently delivered. Next week, I’m starting on a training plan for our dear giant boy — my goal is to get him certified as a therapy dog and maybe think about some competitive obedience.

New problem.

Great Dane, dog on the bed, dog training, dog obedience, Frederick, clicker, Smart Dog University, puppy, dog bed
Schooner is huge. He’s also a bed hog. Who’s really hard to move when he’s dead-asleep lying diagonally across the bed, leaving me no space. Actually, compared to the other transition issues, this one’s not at all hard to deal with. We’ll get it all sorted out, of that I’m sure.

For the Love of an Old Dog

May 4, 2015

I’ll do almost anything for the sake of my dogs.

This year, I’m giving up something I love dearly: raising service dogs. When we started raising puppies for service work back in 2001, I was a newlywed. I’d never owned a puppy ever and was a relative newcomer to the organized, specific training required of service dogs.

The second puppy we raised, Lily, our sweet now 13-year old, didn’t make it through the service dog program — and neither did the next two puppies we raised (Tango and Nemo). In the span of about three years, we went from one dog to four dogs! It was a fun time — we had a houseful of young dogs and always had a puppy in rotation. The dogs enjoyed the puppy, they helped raise him, entertain him, and teach him dog- and people-skills.

We hummed along happily, raising and loving the latest service puppy in training.

Over the years, our lives changed. I quit my Federal job and started Smart Dog University. I loved the job of puppy raiser. A new puppy every year, watching those young dogs learn and grow and turn into fabulous working dogs who were worth their weight in gold. I enjoyed every aspect of puppy raising, even house training.

“Puppy Raiser” became who I was.

It’s what I did. It became part of my identity. I was the “lady with the service dog puppy.” Raising a puppy didn’t slow me down, personally or professionally. I showed up for meetings, conferences, seminars, and talks with a puppy in tow. Often, I was the presenter and the pup would be my co-presenter. I don’t think people knew my name, but recognized me because of the puppy who was always with me, rain or shine.

Over the past few years, as our dogs grew older, we began to realize that our dogs seemed to be enjoying the puppies less. I still loved puppy raising, but our dogs didn’t think too much of it. They were snippier, it took them longer to accept the newest addition, they played with one another less, Tango wouldn’t chase his ball if the puppy was nearby… It was an endless number of things that had crept up on us silently, but once I noticed it, there was no denying it. Our dogs were done with puppy raising.

After Levi’s turn-in, I had a lot of travel on my calendar. I wasn’t going to get another puppy for at least three months. Good, I thought, this will give me a chance to see how our dogs do in a puppy-free house. The change in our dogs was clear after the puppy left. Overnight they began to play more, wag more, have more energy. They seemed happy to be retired from puppy raising. Lily, our matriarch, is thrilled with the decision. Tango loves our afternoons in the backyard now, where he can retrieve his tennis ball without being chased by a puppy, and Nemo has sole custody of my husband’s lap every evening.

If they’re happy, I’m happy.

Do I miss raising a puppy? You bet! But, my dogs have worked hard for 13 years raising pups — they’ve earned their retirement, I think. We’re now walking together every day, I have a chance to teach them new skills, and we have the time to just hang out under the shade tree together, enjoying this lovely spring here in the mid-Atlantic.

It’s taken a few months to get used to not having a puppy with me. I’m no longer “the lady with the service dog puppy,” and I’m a lot more ok with that than I thought. It’s likely that we’ll raise a puppy again, but not while we have our current menagerie. Hopefully, it’ll be quite a few years before we get back in the puppy raising routine, no matter how much I love it. Having my dogs happy and carefree is a little more important to me.

Talk back: have you altered your life or your home for your older dog(s)?

Service Dog Training: He’s Baaaack!

April 27, 2015

SmartDogU-031-2543281984-O

We have added a fourth dog. And it’s not a service puppy in training.

It’s Schooner!

Great Dane, puppy, dog training, puppy training, Frederick, clicker training, Smart Dog — It’s hard to run when you step on your paw!

We raised this guy two years ago with the expectation that he’d be a brace (balance) dog for someone. He went through his puppy training with us quickly. We had him a mere ten months before he went into advanced training. He stayed at the service dog organization in the advanced training program for 15 months. He was 99% perfect!

Released.

Service dogs are held to a very high standard. They need to be medically sound (no allergies, no dysplasia, no skin conditions, etc.). Sadly, he would occasionally bark and pull toward another dog. Working as a brace dog, his leash manners need to be perfect. And they almost are. But not good enough. I can’t lie: I did a happy dance when I got an email from the organization saying that he was being released and did we want him.

Did we want him?! Yes, I’ll be right down, I said! It actually took a week due to scheduling conflicts, but the big oaf came to live with us permanently last Saturday!

Great Dane, Schooner, service dog, clicker training, Frederick, dog obedience, clicker
I was thrilled, yes, but I was sad, too, because Schooner is a fabulous dog — he had so much of what it takes to be a service dog in training and could have done so much good. But risking someone’s safety — even though he was unreliable just one time out of a hundred — isn’t ethical, regardless of how good he was in every other way. Would you want to drive a car whose brakes worked 99 times out of 100? It was a tough decision for all involved, but it was an easy one for us: Yes, we’ll take him!

The transition.

We live with three other career changed dogs: Tango, Lily, and Nemo. Service dogs in training get to go everywhere with their trainers. They get used to going anytime we pick up the car keys, so the transition from service dog in training to pet dog can be a rough one. The first time since Schooner’s homecoming when I left the four dogs to run errands, I watched Schooner closely on our Dropcam. The poor boy howled for quite some time after I left. I had forgotten just how hard the transition could be.

Since that first howl-fest, he has gotten better at staying behind and I’ve gotten better at my departure routine. Instead of a frozen Kong, which he quickly abandoned, Schooner now gets a fresh peanut butter stuffed Kong which gets him working right away and affords me a few moments to leave without being watched. I’ve since watched the happenings on the Dropcam while I’m gone and he’s now sleeping on the couch with the other dogs more often.

What’s next?

We are taking the next few weeks to let Schooner adjust to his new life and settle back into our routine and our household. We want to get him into therapy work so he can continue to do good. His manners are impeccable and we’ll be working hard to keep those up to the service dog standard. Look for more Schoons stories, pictures, and for him to show up in our dog training videos!

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Service Dog Training: Turn-In Day for Levi

January 30, 2015

Dreaded turn-in day.

The minute you get your new charge, that lovely and naughty little pup, you know — KNOW — the countdown to turn-in day starts. I’ve done this more times than I can remember and I’m still surprised how hard it is — and how the date sneaks up on me — even after 14 years.

Today, of course, was Levi’s Big Day.

For him, this is a fabulous day. This is the day he’s been waiting for (without even knowing it). Today’s the day he goes off to college! Late night parties, studying for tests, making new friends, finding out what he’s going to do with his life.

For me, turn-in day is a mixed day.

I’m happy that he’ll get to learn more, do more, see more, play more, work more. I’m sad that he won’t be doing that with me. It’s totally selfish. My dogs are happy — no more teenager in the house who jumps on their heads, butts his way into everything, interrupts their sleep, steals their couch space, etc. You get it: the only sad one here is me.

Turn-in itself went well.

We ran Levi through his paces, talked about his current level of each behavior so the organization has reasonable expectations. Levi did fine through all of that, even though the last time we’d worked together was before Christmas. He got some fun playtime in with our previous service dog, Schooner, which, of course, made me double happy.

All was well until they leashed him to leave. (I hate leaving the dogs, so whenever possible, I prefer for them to take the dog on a field trip or something so I’m not literally walking out on them.) Levi’s a happy guy, willing to do anything, but when they went to take him out of the building, he looked back at me and gave me a “Huh?” look. A “Shouldn’t you be coming with us?” look.

“Kill me now,” was all I could think.

I gave him a happy smile, kissed his head, and they cheerfully called his name. He wagged his tail, caught up to them, got a treat, and trotted on out to the car, happy as a lark. He didn’t think twice. I was panicked.

I hope you’ll forgive me for not having a dog-training video ready this week.

It’s ready, actually. It was done a few weeks ago. I just don’t have the umph to put it up. You’ll see it next week, it’s about out-of-sight stays. If you haven’t guessed, Levi is the star. I’ll be ready to see it next week, but to see it today — that’d be a tough one. Hahaha, such is the life of a puppy raiser.

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