Stairs can be daunting to the dog that’s not had much experience with them. There are so many different types of stairs, too, that it’s important to find as many different types: wooden, spiral, concrete, metal, without risers (backs), glass, steep, short, etc. Here’s a video of Talos experiencing an odd-looking set of stairs: glass sided without any risers. He does a fine job, taking the lead of my husband.
Talos + the Freight Elevator
Service dog training involves exposing the dogs to as many different situations as possible, in a safe and fun way. When Talos was only 12 weeks old (and his house training was reliable), I started taking him to public places so he could see the world.
Once a week, I try to get out to lunch with my husband where I can expose Talos to some of the neatest socialization experiences. We've done this freight elevator a couple times before, but today I had the camera with me to capture just how noisy and large a freight elevator can be!
There are a few things to pay attention to in the video:
- I'm feeding Talos a relatively high value treat. He takes the treats most of the time. However, take note of when he refuses the treat I offer – that's a great way to gauge how much stress a dog is experiencing. If he won't take a treat, he's probably a little stressed.
- Watch how he's able to perform the behavior "touch" (touch my hand with his nose), but cannot sit when I ask him. The situation is simply too distracting for him. That's a training issue, not an obedience issue. In other words, that's my problem, not Talos' – I need to work with him more in distracting environments.
- Notice the position of his tail and his ears. The tail and ears can tell you a lot about what your dog is thinking and/or feeling. His tail is down, but not tucked, indicating that he may feel a little stress, but isn't terrified.
- After we exit the elevator and we're walking away, you'll hear the (very loud) buzzer and the clanking of metal. Notice the absence of any fear reaction from Talos. That's a good indicator that he was not wigged out by the entire experience. He just lopes along, happily beside me, waiting for the next adventure.
Who’s Fault?
I was very frustrated with myself after yesterday's fiasco in the library. I was frustrated for several reasons:
- I assumed Talos knew more than he actually did.
- I put both of us in a high pressure environment by going to the library where silence is golden.
- I didn't prepare properly – I should have had more than one food toy.
- I should have spent a lot more time on Talos' settle before asking him to perform to such high standards.
- I assumed that Talos' size is indicative of his knowledge and skill. He's only five months old. He may be big, but he's still a young dog with only rudimentary skills.
Knowing the fault was mine, not the dog's, I was able to re-frame the experience and make a plan to improve his behavior. That's the main difference between the old-fashioned style of training and scientific, modern style of training.
Looked at with old-fashioned eyes, a trainer would say that Talos was being disobedient, he was trying to assert his will over mine, and that he needed to be corrected and shown that whining and playing were not appropriate in a public setting. That's not really fair, now is it? After all, I never taught Talos those skills; at least not to the standard of being in the public library.
My focus isn't on the dog's poor performance, but my own. It's not Talos' fault. That blame rests squarely on my shoulders. And I'm happy to take that responsibility. I cringe thinking about those trainers (and owners) who find it so easy to put the blame on the dog. What a lazy and cowardly way out!
I say man-up and train the behaviors you want. No sense blaming the dog for my own mistakes. I'm better than that. Talos deserves better than that. Stay tuned for more details on our settle work, there will be a lot of it in our future!
Being Quiet is Hard (Video)
One of the things service dogs have to be good at is waiting quietly. They'll be asked do a lot of that in their life – they only need to work when their person needs them, so downtime is a big part of their day. At first glance it may seem like an easy task, but being quiet is sometimes difficult for a dog to learn.
Today I took Talos to the local public library. I'd planned to do some work on my laptop, while giving Talos some "office experience:" how to lay quietly for an hour or two in a public place. Two years ago, when I worked for the Federal government, the pups learned this relatively quickly – they were immersed in office life nine hours a day, five days a week. We had a few restless meetings, but in general, the pups learned that when nothing was required of them, it was nap time.
I don't have an office environment, so today was Talos' first real "office experience." I was prepared: I took his portable bed, a stuffed food toy, and a regular dog toy to help occupy his body and mind. We found a nice, quiet cubby out of the way of the library traffic and away from other patrons. I gave him a quick tour of the library, so he could have a few moments to see where he was and what was (and wasn't) going on, then headed back to my cubby to get some work done.
I put Talos' bed under the desk, gave him his chew bone, and got to work. For about two minutes. He wasn't interested in the chew bone. He could hear children across the library, and apparently they'd peaked his interest. I threw a few pieces of dog food under the table to get his attention back to where I needed him to be. He was happy to eat the food, then was ready to explore again.
I took him on another quick circle of the library, letting him sniff and explore, but not letting him meet any people. (No one asked to meet him – I would have let him greet if anyone asked.) He flopped down on his side, began running his big lips along the carpet in one of the aisles and proceeded to sing. Oh good lord – not now, not here!
I managed to get him up and back to our out-of-the-way cubby, only to find a woman had chosen to sit right next to us. Out of the 50 free cubbys, she picked ours to sit next to. Another distraction for Talos. I tried again to get him to sit or lay quietly under the table, but he was having nothing of it. He flopped down again, and began rolling on the floor and singing. Imagine this at your local library, except he's not on a couch, but on the library floor. We've got a lot of work ahead of us:
Talos Swims!
Talos and all the dogs spent last week on vacation with us at Lake Anna. Talos is quite a good swimmer, as you'll see in the video.
Trouble is, he doesn't know how to get from dry land into the water.
It's probably because when he was wee little (ha, was he ever wee little?!) we'd carry him in, snuggled safely in our arms. Now he's just not ready to step off of dry land and into the depths of the lake by himself. So we're still carrying him. For now.
He's a big boy and is only going to get bigger, so this was probably the last time he was small enough to carry in…
Service Dog Training or Circus Show?
We spent the day in Charlottesville, VA with the good folks from Service Dogs of Virginia. Talos got reacquainted with his brother, service pup in training Gryphon, and also got to visit with his brother, Arrow, a real working service dog.
Two Great Dane puppies is a sight. Three Great Danes will stop traffic! Talos and Gryphon are cute, and Arrow is handome and huge. I'm 5' 1" and Arrow's back hits my hip. He's a svelte 165 pounds and has movie-star good looks. And a sweet personality to boot. The pups are, well, pups, and will sometimes bicker, sometimes play, and sometimes be good, quiet pups. Never a dull moment, let me tell you…
We had lunch at a quaint cafe in downtown Charlottesville. Arrow, the mature and dignified service dog waited quietly while we ate. The two brothers, the pups, took turns sitting on one another, gnawing on each other's ears, and generally being, well, puppies. They did settle in eventually and we all enjoyed the company, both canine and human.
After lunch, we meandered around a bit. Everywhere we went, people would point. They'd exclaim. They'd stop. They'd watch us pass. They'd whisper. They'd cross the street. Mothers would either grab their children and walk away or shove them toward us. Everyone, however, was nice. The questions were as varied as the questioners: What kind of dog is that? What does he do? How big will he get? How much does he eat? Is he friendly? Is he a dalmatian? I didn't know if we were training dogs or if we were the side show in a circus.
It was a fun, hot, tiring day. Talos slept the entire trip back – and is asleep again as I type this. I hope to have more pictures for you in a future post.