dog obedience Archives - Page 7 of 8

Cause for Celebration

May 18, 2011

Today's a celebratory day here in our family. It's Tango's birthday!

We celebrate every birthday in this house, dogs included. We also celebrate anniversaries — the date the dogs came to us.

Eight years ago today, Tango was born. He was slated to be a hunting dog, but by nine weeks, the kennel knew he didn't have what it takes to be a successful hunter. So they called Service Dogs of Virginia (SDV) and suggested they come take a look at this very laid back boy.

I happened to be at SDV that day with Lily, our little black Labrador who was then a service dog in-training. I remember seeing Tango for the first time: a roly-poly, squeezable little Labrador. He was indeed laid back. He went through the temperament test like a champ and just like that, he was a service dog in training. It was decided that he would come and live with us for his training and he fit into the fold like he'd been there forever.

He was the fastest house trained pup we've had to date. He came to work with me and soon became a favorite of the Director of the federal agency. We were invited up to the holiday party, even. Well, if I'm being honest, it was Tango who was invited. I was merely the leash holder!

It was discovered that Tango had a bad shoulder. Tests were conducted that eventually led to Tango's dismissal from the program. I was elated!

Tango wasn't elated at all. Being dismissed from the program meant he couldn't come to work with me any longer. No more grocery store runs, no more movie theaters, or dinners out. He was now a house dog, a pet. It was a tough transition for him. I quickly got him Delta certified so he could be a registered therapy dog. We now visit elementary schools where kids read to him – he's happy again!

Tango's my heart-dog. He's mine and I'm his. We're each other's favorites. He chose me and I chose him. He's singled out for all things special. All the dogs have gotten used to the hierarchy and they know that Tango always gets the best or biggest treat, he gets to clean my plate, he gets whatever he wants.

He's my traveling companion. He's happy to do whatever it is I want to do. He doesn't care what it is, he just wants to be included. He's easy, he's sweet, he's a dream. And today he's eight.

His muzzle's getting a little grey. He's slowing down just a little. But he's still a tennis-ball-chasing fool. He still jumps off the dock and swims all day at Lake Anna . We've got a lot of adventures in front of us yet. Here's to many more good years, Tango!

A Day in the Life of a Dog Trainer’s Dog

May 3, 2011

What's it like to be a dog trainer's dog? Well, you've gotta work for one thing. Tango, that handsome dude on the left, earns his keep from time to time, going to work with me.

You've got to know something right up front: Tango is my favorite dog. Ever. For all time. He's my guy. Dog people have a term for this, it's called heart dog. Tango is most definitely my heart dog.

So know that part of the reason he comes to work with me is because I love having him with me – he'd be my shadow 24/7 if I could somehow finagle it.

He also happens to be pretty good at keeping puppies in line. And yesterday he pulled double-duty, working a private, in-home training session and also attending group class training with me. In the private session, his job was to set very clear boundaries for a rambunctious (and sweet) puppy — and enforce those boundaries. Tango's an excellent boundary setter, especially for puppies. He doesn't tolerate their antics, he doesn't think they're cute, and he's not afraid to let them know (1) where the line is and (2) when they've crossed it.

The one thing I don't have to worry about, though, is him hurting a puppy. Well, sometimes the pup's feelings get hurt when Tango tells them off, but they're never physically traumatized. In fact, he doesn't even have to put a paw or a tooth on them to get their attention. He's got pretty good display signals. Puppies sometimes either don't notice another dog's signals or they walk right through them as if they didn't see them.

Tango teaches puppies just how important it is to notice those signals. First, he's pretty calm. He lets the pup approach him and stands quietly, head off to the side or sniffing the ground. Second, his displays are very clear. Yesterday when the pup jumped on Tango's head to greet him — not within polite doggie-manners — Tango very clearly and very quickly told the pup that wasn't how dogs greeted. He gave a nice loud growl, then snapped at the pup. He never made contact with the pup, but he definitely got her attention! It happened in the blink of an eye, and then he went right back to sniffing the ground again, doing his best to ignore the pup. She eyed him warily — good girl! — and joined in the sniffing. Really good girl!

We took the two for a short neighborhood walk and the remainder of her interactions with Tango were very appropriate. We used verbal praise to help the young dog understand when her actions were appropriate and relied on Tango to tell her when her actions were not.

In group class, Tango makes for a good demonstration dog. He learned the material already and we've worked around distractions, so he's a good example of what level of success dog owners can attain. Sometimes, clients with their adolescent dogs just don't believe their dog will ever be capable of walking politely on a leash, ignoring another dog, coming when called…so it's nice that those students can see Tango doing those very things.

Does Tango know everything? Is he the perfect dog? No, of course not. He's got his warts, like all dogs (and people). But he earns his keep.

Grilled Pork + Feta = Easy Subway Trip for Ike

April 29, 2011

Part of becoming a service dog involves getting used to a lot of different sights and sounds. Ike had a field trip today to our local commuter train station.

It's highly likely that in his lifetime as a service dog, Ike and his partner will need to take public transportation. It's crucial to make these experiences fun for Ike.

To that end, I brought lots of yummy treats. Not just any treats, though. I brought the really yummy and smelly stuff: feta cheese and tiny pieces of grilled pork chop (leftover from dinner a few nights ago).

Ike doesn't normally get this really delicious stuff in his everyday training. Going to WalMart isn't a big deal to him now. Going with me while I get my hair cut is old hat. The treats I use for those locations are more mundane (but still pretty tasty) because he's used to those situations.

But a train station? That's big. And potentially scary.

The grilled pork and feta cheese helped Ike create favorable associations with the potentially scary train. The noise of the station, lurching left and right on the train ride, the hustle and bustle of people, and the screeching and banging that a fast-moving train makes – any one of those could have thrown Ike into a tail spin.

The feta and grilled pork helped ensure that his train ride was a fabulous experience.

In addition to the really good food, I was careful to lower my standards for Ike. He was in a strange place. With lots of odd sounds. And almost every person there was a stranger to him. So instead of asking him for newly trained behaviors, I asked him for the very easy ones – the behaviors he's been doing since he was a pup. And he got paid BIG for each of those behaviors!

This allowed Ikey to build up his confidence, to realize he really could lie down even on the rocking and rolling train. He really could sit as the train came into the station.

If you're raising a puppy, remember to use very good food treats when you're taking your pup somewhere new. Also remember to lower your standards if you're training somewhere distracting or potentially scary. Let your dog take his time exploring and deciding when he feels comfortable. The more positive experiences your pup has, the more likely he'll become a confident, well-mannered dog.

There's a lot more training ahead for Ike. But his first introduction to the trains and buses earned an A+ today! Next time we go back, we'll likely raise his criteria slightly — maybe I'll ask him to sit for a little longer. Or expect him to watch me a little more. And maybe he'll get the feta and grilled pork every second or third treat. But by really upping the treat value this first time, I've created a positive association with trains and with training. And that's priceless.

A Scary Moment on Our Morning Walk

October 12, 2010

Alternate Title: WHY I HATE UNDERGROUND ELECTRIC FENCES.

We walked every day in Europe. We walked a long time. A long way. It was really fun. I wanted to keep up that habit when I returned home. So this morning, I leashed up the three dogs and we went for a nice neighborhood stroll. As I walked out the door, I dismissed the idea of bringing my cell phone (the battery was really low). And I'd never ever needed the DirectStop. Ever. So it stayed behind, too.

The walk was nice – Lily (the dog who's reactive to other dogs when she's on-leash) did a great job dealing with the maniac dog who rushes his electric fence barking like he's going to kill us if we get close enough. (This alone is enough reason for me to hate underground electric fences. But wait, there's more. Keep reading.) She started to go into her frenzy but then turned and looked at me when I called her name and very quickly was back under conrol. Nice work, Lil!

We continued our walk, loving this beautiful morning. Around the next bend was a 90-pound dog, safely (so I thought) contained by his invisible electric fence. Thing is, he looked WAY too close to the road. Generally, he stays about 30 feet away from the road.

Uh oh.

He took a step closer. By this time, my dogs (Lily, especially) noticed this big guy who is very stiffly staring at us. Stiff is never something you want to see in an unfamilar dog – it usually means trouble. I yelled at him (I can sound pretty tough) to get away, but he's laser-locked on my dogs, taking very deliberate and slow steps toward them.

By this time, my guys are pretty fired up. I was unable to get Lily's attention, so she's in full-blown bark mode and now, with Tango (my yellow Lab) and Nemo (the hound/Dane mix) as back-up, she's in rare form. When Tango and Lily are together, even Tango (who ususally uses his brain and is reasonable) gets a little haywire.

The neighbor dog wasn't stopping. I had some decisions to make. And quickly. I wasn't going to get in the way of him. I hoped he'd notice that it was going to be three against one and would reconsider. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, he kept taking those slow, deliberate paces straight toward us.

I decided against trying to pull the dogs away: (a) I'm not strong enough (I was outweighed) and (b) tension on leashes, especially in a situation like this, is never a good idea. My next thought: give my dogs as good a chance as possible if this big dog decided to have a go at them. So I dropped Nemo's leash — he's the least likely to fight and would try to escape if possible.

By this time, the big dog is squarely in the middle of my dogs. I'm still yelling (like an idiot) and thankfully Lily begins to calm down. (I don't think it was because of my yelling – more about that in a minute.) Things are still awfully stiff among the dogs, there's a lot of posturing and I'm still not sure how this whole thing is going to turn out.

I decided to drop Lily's leash as well – she's the smallest and if there was going to be a disagreement, I wanted her to be able to get out of there, too. Finally, I walked between Tango and the big dog, calling my dogs as I did it.

They looked up (!) and I began to walk away. The big guy decided he'd like to follow, so I turned, made myself as large as I could (hard to do for a 5' 1" person) and bellowed "GO HOME." He didn't necessarily listen, but I think the bass of my voice took him by surprise. He looked up at me and at least stopped moving forward.

My dogs got lots, and lots, and lots of food (I always carry food with me) and we extricated ourselves from the situation.

Remember the yelling I was doing as the dog was approaching? If I could do it all over again, I'd try to get myself under control first – yelling was ineffective at best. It could have helped encourage a fight. I was panicked, however, at the thought of a fight, blood, and the fact that I had neither my phone or any way to get an injured dog back to my house.

Things I will never leave behind again: Cell phone and DirectStop.

If you have an underground electric fence: PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COLLARS ON YOUR DOGS ALL THE TIME. The dogs really DO know when the collar isn't on. DON'T leave your dog unattended. And when they start to bark like maniacs at the boundary, call them back! All that frustration is not a good thing for your dog. And having them cross that barrier to get to my dogs isn't good for me. Or my dogs.

Go, Go, Go and Slow, Slow, Slow

September 2, 2010

Teddy's public debut focused mainly on getting in and getting out of locations and situations rather quickly. We stayed just long enough to expose Teddy to a new situation, make it fun, and then we're outta there.

Today, we worked on settle-in-and-relax scenarios. The life of a service dog is varied – there are times when they're in and out of places lickety-split, and there are other times when they're in it for the long haul — they might as well get comfortable.

Teddy debuted today at the Frederick Chamber's lunch event with former Governor Robert Ehrlich. This was a good opportunity for Teddy for several reasons:

Many of the attendees are service-dog-savvy. Talos did a great job of breaking them in so they'd know what to expect when a woman with a young dog walks into the room. Friendly, but not exuberant greetings are the norm with most of the Chamber folks. They make for excellent and knowledgeable distractors!
I could leave if Teddy wasn't ready for the situation or if he became unruly.
The luncheon would require that Teddy be still for a considerable period of time. We've worked on this skill at home – it was time to measure our progress in the real world.
There would be manageable distractions. Lunch being served! Delicious, hot lunches! Again, if Teddy couldn't manage, I could very easily leave.
New sounds, surfaces, people to experience. Applause, carpet, draping table cloths, microphones, hustle and bustle, noisy crowds.
Lastly, this was a "quiet" event. Quiet meaning Teddy needed to settle in, relax, and take a nap.

I went well armed: clicker and treats were at the ready! Teddy's loose leash walking skills leave a lot to be desired, but we practices stopping and starting every time the leash got tight. He's still a young dog, he has self control issues – his desire is to jump and say Hi to people, but he's starting to try to maintain his decorum and restrain himself from putting paws on people. It takes a lot of work on his part, but with lots of practice, it's becoming less of an impulse and more under control.

Applause was a little startling to him. He sat bolt upright and looked curiously around the room. He didn't appear frightened, but the noise took him by surprise. After realizing that, I had my treats ready and they magically appeared immediately after any applause started. He ate the treats greedily, which means he wasn't particularly stressed.

It's important that potentially scary things (and applause can definitely be scary) be paired with very good things from the outset. By the end of the luncheon, we'd paired applause with treats appearing out of thin air about 15 times. He's beginning to look forward to applause now!

Teddy responded perfectly to his down cue (the word "down") in the midst of a crowd of people. He also took it upon himself to curl up under my chair when he really settled in. The service dogs will be taught a "go in" cue which means: tuck yourself under the table or chair and chill until I tell you otherwise. It's basically a "you're off the clock, but don't go anywhere" message. We haven't started teaching that to Teddy yet, so I was doubly pleased to see him make that choice of his own accord today. Especially when there were so many delicious smells and interesting things to check out.

He got a chance to meet Bob Ehrlich (a dog lover) and many other people today. He didn't jump or put his paws on anyone – that's an accomplishment.

One thing people don't think about very often – Teddy also had his first experience accompanying me into the ladies room. Service dogs need to learn to accompany their person everywhere. Public restrooms are one of those things that a dog needs to be introduced to early on in his training. They're small little cubes with panels that make voices sound echo-y and loud. They obscure 90% of the person in the neighboring stall — except the feet! Of course, most dogs want to duck their head under the stall to see who those feet belong to. It's a bit disconcerting to be on the other side of the stall, minding your own business, and have a dog head suddenly join you in your stall! So not only do the dogs need to get used to going into the stalls, but they have to get very good at minding their own business when they're in there!

Both of Teddy's outings have been good experiences for both of us. He's a smart little guy who seems to enjoy this new life in public.

Independence Day

July 4, 2010

Here in the Mid-Atlantic, it's hot, hot, hot! Too hot to be outside, too hot to do anything inside. So just a quickie blog post today to celebrate Independence Day.

These pictures are of Rocky (service dog #1) and Lily (service dog #2) on 4th of July in 2002. They were rockin' the red, white, and blue for a neighborhood parade.

We're fortunate to have the opportunity to visit with Rocky from time-to-time. He's visiting here with us right now, as his family vacations. It's wonderful to be able to keep in touch with the dogs we've raised. It's special to have them back in the house, just for a visit.

Little Lily never went back to the service dog agency: she was dismissed because she didn't enjoy working in public, and she was somewhat reactive (barky) at other dogs. She's a terrific pet dog and we're happy to have her as part of our permanent family.

Enjoy this 4th of July with your four-legged friends. Remember: the big booms of firework celebrations can be mighty frightening for our dogs. Please, please leave them at home with the radio or television on to help mask the thunderous booms from fireworks tonight!

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