helper dog Archives - Smart Dog University

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

June 21, 2013

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

June 13, 2013

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

Lack of focus. Schooner was easily distracted and lost focus very quickly at the training center and at the mall.
Not able to perform simple requests. I asked Schooner to do the simplest of tasks without success.
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.
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

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.
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.
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.
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.
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?

Teaching is Time Well Spent

June 24, 2011

I'm sitting in a wheelchair, Ike faithfully by my side. I cue "let's go" and Ike moves forward with me. Going straight is pretty easy for Ike, he learns quickly to keep his feet out of the way and settles at an even pace. We're at Harris Teeter grocery store, doing a training field trip and I'm in a wheelchair to help mimic Ike's future surroundings.

Here comes the hard part — now we have to turn. It's an inside turn, which means Ike has to actually go backward just a bit to keep out of the way. His circle has to be tighter (smaller) than the wheelchair's circle. Uh-oh. We've not practiced this before.

With the clicker, all things are possible. And fast.

In only three tries, I'm communicating to Ike that moving backward is a good thing. It's a pretty complex skill, I think, for a dog to acquire. He has to go the opposite way from his handler. I've spent a year teaching him that being next to me is a really good idea.

The clicker gives Ike the information he needs: what behavior he should repeat. The precision of the click — and the fact that Ike's been clicker trained from 8-weeks of age — gets a behavior happening pretty darn quick.

The turn/back still needs work. A lot of it. But with the clicker, nothing's out of our reach. And it's fast. Because Ike knows the clicker, knows he can count on the clicker for information, he's ready and willing to learn. He wants to figure out this new game. He's a full and willing partner.

And did I mention he's not only smart, but pretty stinkin' cute, too? Brains and beauty… This picture's from Ike's adventure to Lake Anna, more on that in the next post.

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