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Service Dog Training: NBC Makes Schooner a Star

Great Dane, service dog, dog training, clicker, positive, Frederick, Service Dogs of Virginia, assistance dog, Smart Dog
The last few days have been a whirlwind.

From the good: we gained a new service pup in-training. To the sad: turn-in day for Schooner. Everything happened in less than 24 hours and I was emotionally exhausted after the entire ordeal. I’ll catch you up on the details of each event and introduce you to Levi, our newest charge in upcoming posts, but for now, take a look at my handsome boy, Schoons, as the local NBC station documented his big day. The reporter, Molly Balkenbush, is a true dog lover and jumped right in to help work with Schooner.

Click here to watch the video of Schooner on turn-in day.

Easy Dog Training Treats on the Run


Schooner is in socialization overdrive right now. I’m finding places to go every day so I can get him out and around lots of different sights and sounds. The more he sees in a happy and comfortable way, the less excited he’ll be when it’s time for him to settle in and get to work with his partner. We’re still a good ways away from turn-in day, but the earlier he sees and experiences new situations, the faster he’ll become a pro at handling the public life of a service dog. And the better service dog he’ll be.

I’ve made an effort to have a treat bag full of training treats ready to go at the beginning of each week. One of my (many) Sunday night chores is stuffing the treat bag full of delicious, pea-sized food treats. Schooner is picky — I can’t get away with most packaged dog treats with him. He’ll turn his nose up at leftover chicken from dinner, for goodness sake! He’s definitely not interested in artificially flavored anything! He’s a real challenge in that department.

Sometimes I have him out in public for several hours. Summers in the mid-Atlantic can be tough on dog treats. I’ve had processed meats go bad before I get back home — ew, so stinky (and embarrasing when the lady in the checkout line sniffs and then turns to look at me as the source of the stink).

I was rushing out the door last week and had Schooner in tow. I got him loaded in the car, made sure I had my purse, my keys, my phone, Schooner’s vest, his leash, his harness… And I forgot the treat bag. I ran back into the house, yanked the refrigerator door open (where I store his leftover treats, as most of them need refrigeration unfortunately) and found a bare treat pouch. Like Mother Hubbard’s cupboard it was.

Drat! Now, in addition to having no treats, I was going to be late for my meeting because I needed a high value treat to reinforce all of Schooner’s good behavior I was looking forward to getting. I’m an eternal optimist.

I glanced in the pantry for something, anything, when I spied The Honest Kitchen’s quickies. I’ve mentioned The Honest Kitchen before. They had, rather fortuitously, just sent me some of their new little training treats. I grabbed the little can, threw them into the car and off Schooner and I went to our meeting.

Great Dane service dog, assistance dog, dog in restaurantAs I was walking into the building, I tossed the treats into my treat bag and kept right on walking, not missing a beat. Schooner’s loose leash walking was quite impressive, so I clicked and treated him for such nice work. I grabbed a quickie, popped it in his mouth and went right on stepping it off. He came back for more! His loose leash walking turned suddenly into “right next to my leg, not leaving my side” walking. It was pretty cool.

Throughout the meeting, he got treated for settling quietly. This is an amazingly hard task for a social butterfly like Schooner. It’s not like he blends into the woodwork and no one notices him for goodness sake. He’s a very large, very speckled, extremely friendly dog. In a restaurant. Or in the grocery store checkout line. He draws a crowd. And settling is right up there with loose leash walking as far as must-have skills. So a high value reward is imperative, as we want him to repeat that lovely settling behavior.

I’m happy to report that the quickies did the trick for this picky dog. The quickies are simply Icelandic Haddock. That’s it. Nothing else. Oh, and they come in the shape of a heart. Very cute. And they’re delicious — at least according to Schooner. And our cat. Who begs shamelessly whenever I carry the treat bag inside.

Oh, and the other nice thing. They don’t need refrigeration, these quickies. No surprise stinky-car in the morning.

Your turn: have you found a delicious, easy, small treat that your dog adores? Please share in a comment below!

This post is entirely my opinion and I did not get paid to write this post about The Honest Kitchen. I received three quickie treat containers from The Honest Kitchen to try out for Schooner’s training. 

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My “Take Your Dog to Work Day” is a Little Different

The first Take Your Dog to Work Day was in 1999. We’ve come a long way, baby! 300 companies participated in that first year. Now, thousands of companies are having dogs at work today!

Rocky, labrador, service dog, service dog in-training

Rocky, the Original

I started taking a dog to work in 2001. Rocky, our first service dog in-training, came to work with me every day at the Federal office where my husband and I worked.

It wasn’t easy — I was dealing with the Federal government and a dog in the workplace. But after some help from a Federal attorney in Florida who took his service dog in training to work with him every day, the government finally allowed the service dog in training on campus every day. There was an initial flurry of interest, but pretty soon Rocky and I were a familiar sight and no one gave us another look.

That’s not entirely true. There was a particularly stressful time when our agency had to perform layoffs. Almost every employee was at risk, and our human resources (HR) department was stressed from the pressure of ending employee’s federal career. During that time, some of the HR employees would stop by my office “just to talk.” What they were really coming for was to love on the dog. After the entire process was complete, several months later, some of the HR folks expressed their gratitude that there was a dog around  — just having the chance to pet a dog decreased their stress levels significantly, they said.

I eventually left my government career to start Smart Dog University. But not before I’d raised five service dogs in-training with the help of the Federal government. Our three permanent dogs: Lily, Tango, and Nemo were all service dogs in-training and all spent time on the government campus. (They were released from service work for either temperament or health issues and we got to keep them!)

Schooner in training at a local supermarket

Schooner and I “at work”

Now I work from home and every day is Take Your Dog to Work Day. Because I raise and train service dogs, sometimes my “work” involves public places like the doctor’s office, restaurants, libraries, concerts, office buildings, and shopping malls.

Some of the more interesting places I’ve been with the dogs:

  • dentist office
  • open air concert
  • hospital
  • movie theater (the original Harry Potter movie!)
    celebration dinners
  • award ceremonies
  • political fundraisers
  • live shots on television news
  • graduation ceremonies
  • hospice
  • elementary and junior high schools
  • football games
  • speaking engagements
  • conferences
  • trains

Generally, the service dog in-training goes where I go. They need to learn how to handle many different situations and experiences before they are teamed with their human partner. We’d rather they get all the kinks out with us.

Does your workplace allow dogs? Just for today or on an ongoing basis?

Fixing Your Dog’s Problems


Schooner, the service dog in training, had his monthly check-in at the service dog organization and we ran into some interesting dog training problems. A couple of comments from blog readers appreciated my honesty in writing about the problems. Yes, even professional dog trainers have trouble.

I’m already working on Schooner’s issues and here’s our plan for improvement. 

The Problems

  1. Lack of focus. Schooner was easily distracted and lost focus very quickly at the training center and at the mall.
  2. Not able to perform simple requests. I asked Schooner to do the simplest of tasks without success.
  3. Sociability. Sociability isn’t really a problem, but when it gets in the way of training, it’s something that needs attention. Service dogs can’t wander around and say hello to anyone at anytime.
  4. Pulling on leash. In the mall, Schooner dragged me around quite a bit. Because he’s going to be a balance dog, his loose leash walking needs to be perfect!

The Solutions

  1. Short, fun training sessions. We’re going to go way back to the beginning with Schooner and train in short bursts. I’ll counteract his lack of focus with these short, rapid-fire, really exciting and fun sessions. As quickly as they start, the training sessions will be over. With Labradors, it was almost a punishment to end a training session. With Danes, it seems that the sooner a session ends, the faster the learning and the happier the dog.
  2. Find highly motivating rewards. Schooner is a bit picky, spitting out chicken — what I usually consider to be a fairly high value treat. In today’s training session, I worked quickly and his reinforcer was a canned dog food. The canned is smellier, has a wet consistency, and is — according to Schooner — pretty high value! Over the next few weeks, I’ll be trying lots of different foods (sardines, salmon, different cheese, some mushy foods (cottage cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, etc.) and even some play. We hope to ramp up Schooner’s enthusiasm with these rewards.
  3. Out and about. Letting Schooner “watch the world go by,” will hopefully help with his lack of focus. Sometimes, it just takes “getting bored” with a scenario before a dog can work well. We’ll be planning some outings to the local athletic fields on the weekend. I’ll take a book for me, a blanket for him, and we’ll just hang out. We’ll head to the downtown areas of some local towns for varied activities and sights. I think these repeated positive experiences will help Schooner begin to settle down and be ready to work.
  4. Step by step. The ideas above will all help slow Schooner down so he can pay attention to my pace and match it — instead of me trying to slow him down. We’ll also work literally step by step. I’ll take a step, then click and treat when he takes a step. We’ll repeat that until he understands that one matching step to mine will earn him a click and treat. We’ll then add another step to the sequence — so it’ll be two steps, then click and treat — and so on.
  5. Deep, not broad. I’d been trying to introduce a lot of things to Schooner — from the basics (and there are a lot of basics!), to more advanced training tasks like pivots — and I think it was too much. He wasn’t able to master any of them, and when asked to perform even the simplest ones, he was unable. So instead of teaching many things, we’re going to focus on just a few. But those few will be taught to fluency, meaning: he’ll be able to do them anywhere anytime.

While this post is about Schooner, the service dog in training, it could just as easily be about your dog — many of my clients experience the same thing I did with Schooner. And this is exactly how I’d help them out, too.

What have you tried? How has it worked? What treats or rewards were you surprised that your dog liked?

Stinky Dog

  Great Danes amuse me for so many reasons.

I think their sheer size is comical for starters.

When you add in their vocalizations, things start to get really funny.

Topping it off are their facial expressions. I can’t take it, they crack me up. Is it just me?

Takea  look at the video and let me know…Do YOU have conversations with your dog? What do you talk about? Do they answer back?

Please leave a comment and let us know!

7 Easy Steps to Teach Your Dog “Leave It”

Seven Easy Steps to Teach “Leave
It”
December 2012

Here’s the situation: you’re struggling to open a
child-resistant cap from a big bottle of Tylenol. Before you know it, the lid pops off and the bottle
shoots through the air, spilling Tylenol all over the floor. Your dog comes
running, eager to gobble up the “treats” as quickly as possible, not knowing
these treats can kill him. There isn’t any way you can pick them all up before
your dog eats some, so what can you do? If you’ve taught your dog the behavior
of “leave it,” you simply say those words to your dog and resume picking up the
Tylenol off the floor, as your dog sits and watches. No emergency veterinary
visit, no forcing your dog to vomit the Tylenol. Sounds good, right? You owe it
to your dog (and to your wallet) to teach this behavior. It’s a convenient
behavior, as well as a life-saver.

Leave it means this to your dog: remove your face
from the object and look at me. The
dog should disengage from the object and give you his full attention. A
well-trained “leave it” is really something to see, and it’ll impress all your
friends when your dog performs this cool trick. We’ll teach this behavior using
food in our closed hand. The closed hand makes it really easy for the dog to
get it right – it’s almost impossible for the dog to get food out of your
closed hand.

This is a great behavior to teach your dog because
you don’t need to rely on a leash and collar to keep your dog from getting something
in his mouth. Instead, you’ve got
a phrase that means “look at me and leave that thing alone.” It serves you both
well because it keeps the kitty poop or dead bird or Tylenol out of your dog’s
mouth and it also is an easy way for your dog to earn a goody. Here’s how you
teach “Leave It.”

Step 1
Place a treat in your hand, make a fist, and present your fist to the dog at
nose level and say nothing. Your
dog will sniff, lick, paw, gnaw, push, and mug your hand, trying to get the
treat out. At some point, the dog will pull his nose off of your hand, even for
1/8 of a second. The instant that happens, CLICK and open your hand to let him
have the treat. We don’t care why
the dog pulled his nose away – maybe he heard a noise, maybe he got bored. Put
another treat in your hand and continue this step until your dog stops nosing
or pawing at your hand when you present it. Once your dog is good at leaving
the treat alone, you’re now going to add the eye contact into the behavior.
Instead of clicking when the dog pulls his nose away from your hand, you’re
going to wait until your dog looks up toward you. Goal: Your dog doesn’t touch your hand at all when you put it at
nose level in front of his face. And your dog has started to leave the hand
alone and is looking at you to earn
the goodie.

Step 2
When you are ready to bet me $100 that your dog will not touch your fist when
you present it, you are ready to add name the behavior. Say “leave it,” (or whatever word you choose) before you present your fist, then
present your fist. Because your dog is really good at this, he shouldn’t move
forward at all. Click and treat! If he does move forward and touch your hand,
simply do nothing. Wait until he leaves your hand alone, then click and treat.
If you find that you’re saying the word, but your dog is still trying to get the treat, you’ve added the word too quickly.
Go back and keep working without the word until you’re ready to bet $100 that
your dog won’t touch your fist. Goal:
You say “Leave it,” put your hand out, and the dog leaves your hand alone (i.e.
doesn’t bump your hand with his nose). Important note: Do NOT repeat the cue
“Leave it,” more than once. If the dog doesn’t comply, simply wait until he
leaves the hand alone all by himself. He isn’t in trouble, he simply loses the
chance to earn a little snack. 

Step 3
You’ve named the behavior, now let’s increase the difficulty slightly. To do this, say “leave it,” and present the treat
in a slightly open hand. If
you’ve mastered Steps 1 and 2, your dog should not charge in to get the treat. When
your dog leaves the treat alone, click and treat! If he touches your hand or
tries to get the treat, simply close your hand, being sure not to pull your
hand away. Continue to open your hand a little more each time so that your hand
is open wide with the treat in the middle of your hand and the dog still leaves
the hand alone. Goal: Your dog is as
good at leaving the open hand as he was leaving the closed hand.

Step 4
The next step will be to put the treat on your knee. Your dog should be getting the hang of this game
now and hopefully will not try to go for the treat. If he does, however, just
cover the treat with your hand so he cannot get the treat. When his nose comes
away from your hand and he looks at you, CLICK and treat. Always pick the item
up and hand it to the dog, as opposed to letting him take it off your knee when
you reward him. Goal: The dog looks
at you when you put the piece of food on your knee and say “leave it.” 

Step 5
We’re now ready to move into more “real life” territory. This is a big step – you’re going to present the
treat on the floor and ask the dog to leave it. Have the dog on a short leash.
Say “leave it,” and put the treat on the floor on the opposite side of where the dog is sitting. Be ready to cover the
treat with your foot if your dog tries to eat the treat off the floor. When
your dog leaves the treat alone andlooks atyou, click and pick the treat up off the floor and hand it to your
dog. Always handing the treat to your dog makes it clear for him that grabbing
the treat from the floor isn’t the way he gets the treat. This will set him up
for success in real life when something falls on the floor in front of your
dog.


Step 6
Once your dog is easily leaving
the item when you place it on the floor, drop the item on the floor. If you are doing this with your dog on leash, do
not use the lead to pop him back from the food. Toss it far enough so he can’t
get to it even if he tried. As he gets better, gradually toss the treat closer.

Step 7
Begin to introduce new “leave it” items to teach your dog that this behavior
applies to all kinds of things (i.e. a toy, a person, another dog, steak on the
counter, etc.). Remember to make
the reward for leaving it better than
what the dog actually left. If you gave me a bowl of Brussels sprouts because I
left the pan of brownies alone, I probably wouldn’t leave the brownies alone
next time you bake!

Taking the time to teach
your dog to leave things alone and look at you isn’t only useful, it can save
your dog’s life if he’s ready to eat something poisonous or something that will
make him sick. Or heck, if he’s about ready to dive into your
fresh-off-the-grill hamburger that you (sloppily) left on the coffee table
while you got a drink!

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