Service Dog

Talos has been a social butterfly this week. Tuesday he was at the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce early morning networking meeting, yesterday he had lunch with my husband and me at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, then today he went to Cafe Nola in Frederick, MD to a local TweetUp. His social calendar has been quite full!

Which is a good thing, really. I mean, after all, much of his training, especially at his age, is about socialization and habituation. He needs to have a variety of experiences. And have that often. So much of my calendar is spent lining up experiences for Talos. It's fun, but it's also work. I'm training him the entire time. While the casual observer might not notice the training happening, in reality it's happening every single minute we're together.

This morning's TweetUp is a great example. We parked in a parking garage – that was his first new experience of the day. Parking garages look funny if you've never seen them. And if you're a dog. They're loud. They echo. There are different levels. There are stairwells that are outdoors. Great experience for a dog in training.

Then out on the streets of downtown Frederick, there are also lots of new experiences. Traffic. Grates. Crosswalks. People with umbrellas (it was raining this morning). Trucks. Delivery men with carts full of goods. Hustle and bustle. Smells everywhere and no grass – an odd experience for a dog, I'll bet!

Then we get to Cafe Nola and go inside. Where there's lots of food. (Keep in mind, Talos is getting bigger by the minute. His head can easily reach a table top now and he's just 5 months old.) And there are also lots of curious people. People who simply aren't used to seeing a dog in a cafe. Especially a big (giant!) puppy with ice blue eyes, and who has the exact markings as a cow. It's quite a shocker, I do believe.

People want to pet Talos. They want to ask questions about him. I welcome all of this as this helps Talos learn lots of skills such as: (1) Self control; (2) appropriate people greetings; (3) people are nice and kind; (4) sitting is a good thing; and (5) treats come from me…not off the tables!

I forgot my camera, unfortunately. I would have loved to post pictures here of our visit and some of the things we saw. Next time, I promise. So if you see us out in downtown Frederick, stop and say Hi. Talos can always have a few more lessons.

 Talos is in training to be a service dog for Service Dogs of Virginia (SDV) in Charlottesville, VA. While I do a lot of Talos's training here in MD, we need to visit with the folks from SDV from time to time to show them Talos's progress. 

Today was one of the days where I show off what Talos has learned since the last time we saw each other, take notes on the new things he should learn, and then have fun and experiment with new things. 

It's a three-hour drive one way to Charlottesville, VA, which means I'm up at a ridiculous hour. We got on the road at 6:00a. Talos, the ever-sleepy student, slept the entire ride down. I'm a morning person, though, so it's not so bad, really. 

Talos got to visit his brother, Gryphon, again, and they had fun playing and wrestling. Then it was down to business for Talos and I. 

We showed SDV Talos's skills so far: he's got a good sit, down, leave it, watch me, and settle. We worked on some new skills: a "go in," which is where Talos will need to go in under the table, for instance, so he can be out of the way. It's important for all service dogs to have this behavior, but because he will be such a big dog, it's particularly important that he find it easy to go into a smaller space (such as under a table or desk) without hesitation or fear. 

We also worked on body-awareness (and fun!) things like introducing him to the tunnel. We tossed a few pieces of food into the tunnel, when he stuck his head in I clicked and threw some more food in. Never would we force the dog into the tunnel – it's a fun, confidence-building exercise. Well, not to mention, we don't use force in clicker training anyway, no matter the purpose of the behavior. 

Ever the sleepy head, once he'd been through the tunnel a couple of times, he decided it made a good napping spot and took the opportunity to lay down about halfway through! What a slacker!

In addition to the tunnel, we laid a ladder flat on the ground and let him walk over it, stepping over each rung. He went over it as if he'd been doing it since birth, not even looking fazed. Just for fun, as he was walking over the rungs, I asked him to "sit." He looked down at the ladder, took a moment to decide his next action, walked to the end of the ladder and sat right down. What a good boy! It was if you could actually see the wheels turning… "Sit? Here?! On the ladder? I'll sit, lady, but I have to move off this ladder first!" 

It was a good time, but tiring (of course) for Talos. He slept the entire drive home. We have some new things to work on, which will keep us busy until our next training get-together with SDV. You can apply a lot of the things we work on with the service dogs to your own dogs. For some fun, get a flat ladder (not a step ladder) out of the garage and lay it flat on the ground. Encourage your dog to experiment and step over the rungs. Use treats and praise to keep it fun for the dogs. It's a fun change of pace!

 Talos learned about stairs today. In an effort to expose him to as many things as possible, it's critical that he see not just one type of steps, but as many as we can find. So today, we dressed him in his service dog vest and took him to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where my husband works. It's a fantastic place to socialize a dog: there are rolling carts, long, shiny hallways, cafeterias filled with lots of people, noise, and dropped food, and stairs. Lots of stairs.