service dog Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Smart Dog University

Service Dog Ike Has A Partner

May 31, 2012

Our sweet boy Ikey now has a partner! In Ike’s own words, as told to Hero Dogs:

I knew something was up, ’cause it started with a BATH. Then there was the new collar, the new harness, the new vest. I have never been fussed over so much in my life. Quite frankly, I was not sure if this was going to be a good thing, or a bad thing. Humans will sometimes try to sneak a trip to the vet or nail cutting in between all the loving and petting. Then I had a lot of special visitors – I got to see my mom and dad from my very first home, and my puppy raisers Laurie and Dana too! Another visitor came to the kennel. I got to come out of my kennel to greet him, but curiously none of the other dogs got to come out. I brought him a toy, which is really the only polite thing for a Labrador to do when he has a guest. Then I climbed in his lap and licked his face, which perhaps you might not consider to be polite, but he seemed to enjoy it and I know I did.

Then my new friend, whose name is Luke, took me outside to play for a while. Luke is an Army veteran and I think he’s used to standing up kind of straight, but I showed him the proper way to wag your entire body at once. Then we went over to the training room and practiced some easy stuff like “sit” and “down.” It was a little weird since Luke was not my usual trainer, but heck, he had a clicker and some snacks and seemed to know what to do with them, so I was happy to comply. We said goodbye and I went back to my kennel, but curiously, Luke came back the next day and we trained some more. Then the next day, and the next – it got to be so I was pretty excited to see Luke every morning. Especially since no one else seemed to be paying much attention to me anymore. Let me tell you though, we worked hard. Every day, four hours a day, for three weeks! We worked on all my obedience and my special skills; we drove in the car; we went to the vet (I KNEW it!!!); we went grocery shopping, to a couple of restaurants, even downtown Baltimore. I don’t think I’ve ever worked that hard before! I will admit that I slept through most of the lectures and videos, though. And I think I caught Luke napping during one or two of them too.

Here are some of the things that Luke and I do together. He tries to trick me by accidentally dropping something when he is walking. I have to grab it and return it to him. I like to play “wake up” – that’s where I am allowed to put my paws on the bed and lick him silly when the alarm goes off. We also play the timer game. It’s kind of like hide-and-seek. When the timer goes off, I have to go find Luke and poke him with my nose until he pays attention. Then he says “What?” and I run back to the timer (that’s where they keep the snacks!) to remind Luke that it’s time for him to do something important. Same thing when someone knocks on the door – I have to run and get Luke and poke him with my nose until he will follow me to the door. If Luke’s wife, Cat, calls him, I get to bring Luke to her and then I get love from TWO people at once. Or sometimes Luke asks me to find her and I have to go bring Cat to Luke. Either way, that is paws-down my favorite game!

I can do other things for Luke too. Sometimes he may get dizzy and I will help steady him to sit or stand. I turn on the lights on the stairway so he can keep his hand on the railing. Being out in busy and noisy places can be pretty stressful for humans as well as dogs, apparently, but Luke and I have a secret sign. If he has had enough, he gives me the secret sign and I know it’s time to turn on the high-jumpin’, tail-waggin’, full-throttle Labrador charm. I don’t give up until he gives in and pets and plays with me. Then we usually just go find a quiet place to sit down and snuggle. Did I mention that I’m good with laps?

After our three weeks of hard work, I went home with Luke. I live there now with Luke and his wife Cat and two cats (don’t ask me to explain that) and my new girlfriend Maggie who is some kind of poodle-thing and it’s a good thing I have a nose or I couldn’t tell her front end from her back end, but she is cute and sure loves to play. Luke and I still work hard every day and we come back to Hero Dogs once a week for more practice. I guess there is going to be some kind of big test in a couple of months, but I’m not worried. Luke and I are tight. We’re in this together.

~Ike

We’re very proud of our Boggy Doggy and hope Luke and Ike have a fantastic new life together!

Dog Birthdays and Milestones

May 18, 2012

Exciting times in our household this week. Tango C Mango, the love of my life Labrador, turns 9 years old today! We’ll be having a little party to mark this fabulous day. We’ll party, take pictures, and pretty much overdo something that a dog doesn’t even know he should celebrate. I don’t actually buy presents for the dogs, but I do put a little something special in the birthday dog’s dinner bowl. And, of course, give them a little extra lovin’ all day long.

Tango came to us as a service pup in training. He (thankfully — shhh, don’t tell the service dog agency I said that) tested poorly for structure (bad shoulder), so after about a year with us, the agency released him and gave us the option of keeping him. I did a dance when I heard he could stay with us. Sorry, Service Dogs of Virginia, but I knew as soon as this dog came into my house that I would fall deeply in love and I wasn’t even a little bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be a service dog.

Tango so enjoys being in public and going places with us, that after he was released from service work, he had a tough time adjusting to life as a pet dog. Pet dogs don’t have access to stores, restaurants, doctor offices, etc. like the service dogs in training do, and poor Tango just couldn’t understand why suddenly he couldn’t come with me when I left for work. It didn’t take me long to get involved in therapy work with Tango and we’re still visiting elementary schools as a therapy team. Happy birthday to my most favorite dog in the whole wide world! Here’s to many, many more, Diggity Dig!

On the same service dog subject, our lovely little Baby Caysun will be leaving us in June. Oh, the heartbreak of service work! Why do they have to leave? [Of course, I know why they have to leave, but I still ask why because it’s so tough to give them up…]

Baby Caysun (or Caysun Louise, as I like to call her) has fit in here so well. Just the other day I Facebooked my dismay that I used the “L” word with her! And at the same time, she was snuggled firmly into my husband’s lap in the recliner. We remark almost every day at how well this little girl fits into our household and our existing family of dogs. It’s like she’s always been here. All the dogs like her, she’s not over-the-top even though she’s an adolescent Labrador, and she’s really very sweet and lovey.

Such is the life of service dog raisers. You know when you bring them home, little fluff balls of cuteness, that in a year or so you’ll be forced to give them back. And for the first two weeks, you’re so exhausted with the duties that an 8-week old puppy brings, that you don’t have time to think about the letting go part. It’s in the quiet moments, when they’re snuggled into your lap, chasing a butterfly, or watching the birds fly, that you start to realize just how much you like this little dog. That’s also when you start to push down the idea of giving them up. It’s almost like: if I don’t think about it, it won’t really happen. In 11 years, that’s happened only twice (two dogs were released before from the program before turn-in — Tango and Nemo).

We’ll definitely keep raising, so a new puppy is on the horizon. We’re hoping for another Dane. I’ll keep you posted!

Part 2: Dog Body Language: How to Tell if a Dog is Happy, Frustrated, Scared, Annoyed

March 22, 2012

Imagine that from the minute you wake in the morning until you lay your head down at night, that someone is bugging you. You’ve got someone tugging on you, someone talking to you, you can’t get a moment to yourself. Not one second to yourself.

Now imagine that’s what happens every day. You’ve tried to hide from the person, you’ve tried giving them the slip, you’ve tried ignoring the person. Nothing. They’re still there, still bugging you. Every minute of every day.

Finally, you’ve had enough of it. You can’t take it anymore. You’ve got to do something about it. That person missed all your subtle signals, so you politely ask him (her?) to leave you alone. They don’t listen. And worse, you get chastized for even asking. How do you feel? Probably hopeless. Maybe frustrated. Possibly sad.

Do you think the person that politely asks for a little space, a little peace, a little quiet deserves to be chastized?

So why do we hold dogs to higher standards than we do people? Humans can at least talk the same language. We’re actually able to speak our minds and get some space. Dogs don’t have that ability – they must rely solely on body signals to communicate their needs, their state of mind.

When we ignore those signals, we’re setting the dog up for failure. That was my point in writing the blog post about Mr. Gibbs, the service dog for the three year old girl. I see a lot of “please give me a break” signals from Mr. Gibbs. And no one is either seeing those signals or doing anything to help the dog.

Remember the Denver news anchor, Kyle Dyer, who was bitten on live tv by a big white dog who had been rescued from a frozen river? That dog was screaming “Please back off!” but no one paid attention to his signals. I’ve embedded the video below along with my notes about all the communication signals the dog is offering to get a little bit of space.

0:01 – The dog is already licking his lips and flicking his tongue. These are both recognized dog stress signals. There are 8 tongue flicks in seven seconds. This dog is screaming “I’m uncomfortable!”

0:08 – Pause here. Look at how tight the collar and leash are on the dog. You’ll also see another tongue flick here. Also notice how the news anchor’s hands never leave the dog’s head. She’s all over him, never giving him any space.

0:16 – Now we’re getting a tongue-flick marathon. There are seven flicks in rapid succession, right before she leans into his face.

0:21 – With no means of escaping the woman in his face (he’s backed up into his owner’s legs and the leash and collar are too tight for him to move away), he bites the anchor.

Both Mr. Gibbs and the dog above were trying to communicate, trying to get people to give them some space. Both of their signals were either missed or ignored. I’m not drawing parallels between the Mr. Gibbs and the dog that bit Kyle Dyer — other than both of them had their stress signals ignored.

What I do know for certain, however, is that if Mr. Gibbs signals are ignored (or not understood), at best he’s in for a pretty miserable life. At worst, he’ll get tired of being laid on, pinched on a prong collar, and hit in the head with a swing. He may start to ignore the 3-year old even more than he’s already ignoring her — and for that he may get labeled stubborn and then forced to interact. And when his signals are again ignored, he may escalate his signaling to something he hopes the humans can understand: a growl. Unfortunately, many growling dogs are punished, effectively taking the very form of communication away from them that worked.

Ignoring a dog’s signals puts the dog in an unacceptable position. They either resign themselves to their fate or they speak up about it. Both are unfortunate options for a dog.

And both positions are entirely preventable.

Dog Body Language: How to Tell if a Dog is Happy, Frustrated, Scared, Annoyed

March 21, 2012

I don't have the luxury of watching "feel good" segments or programs that contain dogs. Because I "do dogs" for a living, I see all the little signs, the communication signals a dog is sending, and nothing is ever cute anymore, but rather just filled with warning and distress signals from dogs.

Take this morning's "feel good" segment on The Today Show for example. It piqued my interest because it was about a service dog for a little girl who is connected to an oxygen tank 24 hours a day. The family procured a service dog to carry the oxygen tank for the three-year old girl.

The anchors on the show, the parents, and the little girl were oblivious to the many signs from the dog that he wasn't a happy camper. Based on all the publicity Kyle Dyer, NBC anchor in Denver, received when she was bitten on the face by a dog live on the air, I was hopeful that people had started to pay attention to dog body language.

Sadly, I was wrong. Below is the segment. Watch it once without reading the warning signals I've listed below. Then watch it again, looking at the specific minute and second spots.

Some things to know before you take a look at the video. The red bandana is used to cover a prong collar on Mr. Gibbs, the service dog. A prong collar is a collar fitted with special barbs or prongs, that lie against the dog's neck. When pressure is put on the collar by pulling on the leash, those prongs dig into the dog's flesh around his neck. The pain from the prongs are supposed to be a correction to the dog so he won't do whatever it was again.

1:24 – Mr. Gibbs ignores the girl. Girl pulls hard on the leash. Those prongs are now digging into the dog's neck.

2:39 – Girl is pulling Mr. Gibbs with the prong. Pause the video here and you can really see the pulling.

2:42 – Mr. Gibbs tries to go with the trainer (instead of the girl) and he gets a BIG yank from the girl. Do you wonder why the dog doesn't want to be with the girl?

2:56 – The first sign of stress from the dog: a lip lick and a look-away. These are both classic stress signals from a dog.

3:13 – "He gets beat in the head," the little girl says. Apparently she likes to swing a lot, and Mr. Gibbs cannot get out of her way. The father repeats the little girl's sentiment and laughs a little sheepishly.

3:30 – "What do you say to him," the anchor asks. The girl answers "Down!" and "At ease." Both are dog training cues — not "I love you!" or "Good boy!"

3:32 – Hit pause here. Is this dog looking to interact with the girl? Does he even acknowledge her?

3:34 – Slight "whale eye" from Mr. Gibbs. The whale eye is another sign of stress. This happens when the girl is laying on the dog. The dog has no escape, no say in whether or not he can get out of the situation. This is a recipe for disaster.

4:11 – We're now in the live interview with the anchor, parents, child and Mr. Gibbs. Pause the video at this spot. See the girl tugging on the prong collar? Every tug on the collar brings discomfort to Mr. Gibbs.

4:14 – The girl gives a double-tug on the prong collar, hard.

4:18 Another tug from the girl. The father finally rescues Mr. Gibbs from the daughter's tugs by placing the dog back onto the couch. I wonder why the dog was trying to get down in the first place?

4:54 – Mr. Gibbs looks to the father for help out of the situation.

5:01 – There's a big lip lick and a yawn. Two classic signals that the dog is stressed and would like to leave. He keeps trying to get down off the couch.

5:15 – Another lip lick from Mr. Gibbs. The signals this dog is throwing are increasing.

5:17 – Mr. Gibbs turns his head away from the girl to try to break off contact, but she just gets closer to Mr. Gibbs. He's trying very hard and his patience is admirable.

5:57 – Mr. Gibbs is resigned to his fate.

6:15 – Girl squeals, maybe there's a little bit of a squeeze by her, Mr. Gibbs tries again to get up and leave.

6:20 – Another head turn by Mr. Gibbs — another attempt to break off contact with the girl, but again she follows.

6:35 – Girl grabs Mr. Gibbs' head, pulls it down, and grabs his eyebrows.

6:41 – Girl grabs Mr. Gibbs' prong collar and pulls off the bandana covering the prong collar.

6:45 – Pause it here and just look at the picture. Is the dog happy about his circumstances?

6:53 – The girl is now pulling the bandana back onto Mr. Gibbs, getting it caught in his mouth.

7:01 – Mr. Gibbs is nearing the end of his attempts to get out of the situation and/or get some relief from this girl from the other people in the room. Finally he lies on the girl as a last ditch effort.

It looks very cute, but in reality, Mr. Gibbs lays on her in resignation — not enjoyment.

There are reasons why most service dog agencies won't let a young child have a service dog. Unfortunately, this segment highlights the many reasons why. The child is far too young to have the responsibility of caring for a dog, her parents haven't taught her how to kindly interact with a dog, and everyone is ignoring (or doesn't recognize) the dog's many pleas to be removed from the situation.

Three Ideas for Getting Your Dog into Therapy Work

February 13, 2012

therapy dog, assistance dog, labrador, lab, yellow lab, dog training, dog obedience, clicker, Smart Dog

Tango’s a therapy dog and his job right now is to listen to kids read.

Kids who might not read as well as their classmates, they might have a little bit of a speech problem, or maybe they can’t tell the difference between a period and a comma.

Reading in front of classmates who may snicker, giggle, or poke fun at them actually inhibits their reading skills. That’s where dogs enter the picture!

Dogs don’t care if the kids skip a word, if they can’t quite get the punctuation correct, or if they stutter a bit.

Dogs just really like it when a child sits on the floor with them, softly rubbing the dog’s fur as they struggle with each word on the page. Dogs don’t judge. Dogs don’t snicker. Dogs just eat up all the attention and will even offer an encouraging lick to the struggling reader.

Interested in getting your dog into therapy work?

You’re not limited to elementary schools and kids. Your dog could visit nursing homes, help relieve stress on a local college campus during stressful final exams, or visit wounded soldiers in the hospital.

Here are some ideas on how to get your dog ready for therapy work.

Good Manners Are A Must

Therapy dogs don’t bark. They don’t jump. And they aren’t rough with their mouth. Get your dog into a local positive reinforcement (clicker training) class that specifically teaches good manners behaviors. [Good manners are Smart Dog U’s specialty! We offer Canine Building Blocks to help teach your dog good manners!] You might need to go through your training class more than once to really solidify those good manners. Good therapy dogs are on their best behavior no matter how much the kids giggle and squirm, how roughly their handled by well-intentioned seniors, or how distracting the buzzes and beeps are on the hospital equipment. It takes time and practice, for sure.

Canine Good Citizen (CGC) Test

The bare minimum requirements are the CGC credentials. The CGC is a 10-item test and it covers behaviors like walking on a loose leash, coming when called, reaction to distractions, and sitting politely for greetings. Take a look at the full list of CGC test items. A more advanced test may be required if you and your dog wish to visit schools, detention centers, psychiatric facilities, and hospitals. The more advanced tests can be administed by The Delta Society and require that both you and your dog are tested to ensure you make a good team.

Join A Local Therapy Dog Group

Most communities have local therapy dog organizations that serve as an umbrella for coordinating all the visits and testing of therapy dogs. For help in finding your local organization, try searching for your town name and “therapy dog.”

Not every dog would enjoy being a therapy dog — two of my dogs at home wouldn’t enjoy work as therapy dogs. Nemo is a bit wary of strangers in unfamiliar circumstances and Lily is not good if other dogs are present (your dog must be good with other dogs — and by good I mean neutral [not good as in “Let’s PLAY!”]). Even Tango has his limits: one of our visits is with a class of 8 special education students who can be noisy, (unintentionally) rough, and unpredictable. One hour is Tango’s maximum in that environment — I make sure that we’re there less than an hour to ensure that Tango’s never pressed to his limit. So be sure to take your dog’s personality and preferences into consideration when you’re deciding whether to give therapy work a shot. Honor your dog.

Happy Dogs, Happy Veterinarians

January 13, 2012

I took little Miss Caysun to the vet today to get her up-to-date on some vaccines. It was going to be a quick in-and-out visit — shots and then we'd hit the door. As usual, things don't go as planned. The shots went ok, don't get me wrong. But I mentioned, in passing, "she's got a little bit of mange on her nose," the veterinarian took a look and immediately said "that's not mange."

What? Of course it's mange. Mange is easy. Mange is common. Mange requires little treatment. It's got to be mange.

Nope, he said, mange isn't raised like that.

Crud. Which is funny because that's both what I thought and what her nose looks like.

Because I have the best veterinarians in the world, they made a little time for me in the schedule (I didn't need an appointment to get the vaccinations, since we'd just been in the week before for a wellness check and forgot to get the updated vaccinations…). And they had to do a little needle aspirate in her nose to see what's doin'.

I say that as if it was no big deal: just a little needle aspirate. That's because it wasn't being done to me. What that means is that the vet has to stick a needle into the rough, cruddy part of her nose and draw out some cells to look at them under a microscope. Yes, needle into nose.

Ouch.

It looked as painful as I'm sure it felt. I had to turn my head, I'll be honest. Little Miss wasn't a happy camper. After a couple of pokes, she decided she was done with all that nonsense. Thankfully they got enough goop off of and from inside the crud that they didn't have to fool with her too much more.

The veterinarian and vet technician were terrific. They had some squeeze cheese spread all over a tongue depressor stick to keep Caysun's mind off of the needle in her nose. They went slow and easy, they let me feed her while it was going on.

But there was a needle going into her nose! She wasn't happy. The moral of this story is: because she wasn't happy with what went on, I need to do some remedial veterinary work with her. I will be taking her back to the veterinary hospital when there isn't anything scheduled for her. I want her to have at least 5 visits that are exceptionally good. Visits where stuff like this happens (and only this):

the veterinarian and the techs come out and play with her in the lobby
the veterinarian and the vet techs come out and feed her sirloin (that I bring, of course) in the lobby
she gets to practice already known (and favorite) behaviors in the exam room and earn delicious salmon, sirloin, etc.

Why spend time going back to the animal hospital and working on these things? Isn't that a waste of time?

Because Caysun's just 6 months old. She'll be seeing a veterinarian for another 14 years I hope. I want all of those vet visits to be easy and fun for both the dog and the vet. And if the dog's not happy, ain't nobody happy, especially the vet because it's hard (and dangerous) to examine a dog who doesn't want to be examined!

So it's well worth those 5 or so "un-vet" visits to help dissolve this one unpleasant one. 15 minutes here and there are invaluable for when she's got an emergency and she needs to be calm while the veterinarians and vet techs make her better.

My vets and techs are great. They're willing to spend the few minutes playing with and feeding Caysun when I drop by. They know it's a good investment of their time, too.

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