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

Crate Love

July 1, 2010

Crates and puppies go hand-in-hand. There’s no easier way to keep a pup out of trouble than a crate. The crate is also essential for speedy housetraining.

When Teddy came to us, he’d only spent one night in the crate. Needless to say, that first night with us was a little rough – he cried for awhile in the crate that night, and woke up frequently.

It’s crucial for Teddy (and all dogs, really) to be able to relax in the crate for several reasons:

As I mentioned earlier, the crate provides the pup with a safe place. It’s really hard for the pup to get in trouble or get hurt while he’s in the crate.
Housetraining is a breeze if the pup is crate trained. Generally, a pup doesn’t like to pee or poop where he’ll be sleeping (smart pup!), so he’ll hold it, vocalize to alert you to the fact that he’s gotta go, and then you take him immediately outside to do his business. Easy peasy!
At some point in a dog’s life, he’ll be at the veterinarian for a procedure that will involve crating. It may be something routine such as a spay or neuter, or it could be something long-term like an injury requiring strict crate rest. If your injured dog has never been in a crate and suddenly finds himself locked away, it’s going to be a long recovery process — for you and the dog!
If you plan to do dog-sports with your dog like agility, lure coursing, nose work, tracking, Rally obedience (just to name a few), it’s a pretty good bet that your dog will need to be crated. If your dog isn’t comfortable in the crate, it’s going to be a lot harder – and not nearly as fun – to participate.

How can you teach your dog to like the crate? Easy: feed your pup every meal in the crate. Keep the door open the first four or five feedings, then close (but don’t latch) the door. Let him push the door open when he’s done. Let him push the door open and exit the crate after his meals for another few days. Then begin to close (and latch) the door while he’s eating. Have some really tasty morsels of chicken ready. When the pup is done with his meal, give him a piece of chicken. Wait a few seconds and give him another morsel of chicken. Continue to feed him chicken at four- or five-second intervals. Then you can open the crate door and let him out.

How can you ruin the crate experience for your dog? Using the crate as punishment is a sure-fire way to make the crate a drag for your pup. Also, don’t bang on the crate to try to quiet your pup if he’s barking. (A client told me their shelter adoption-coordinator gave her this advice as she was preparing to take her puppy home!) Don’t put your pup in the crate ONLY when you’re leaving the house. Get your pup used to being in the crate: when you’re home and in another room, at home and in the same room, when there’s activity going on, when it’s quiet, when you’re leaving the house…in short: get your pup used to being in the crate any time, any where, and for any reason.

What if your pup cries in the crate? That first night, Teddy cried a little bit. I had my hand in the crate between the wires to soothe him. I spoke to him softly when he was quiet and ignored him when he was making noise. In the middle of crying, when he quieted to take a breath, I very calmly said “Good boy, Teddy” in my most soothing, sing-song, calm voice. The instant he started to make noise, I shut up. He quieted, I talked. He barked, I got silent. Within five minutes, he was quieter already. I kept that up for about 10 minutes. Gradually there was much more of me talking and a whole lot less of Teddy talking!

Teddy’s crate behavior has improved dramatically over the past few days. The first night he cried quite a bit, the second night he cried for only a minute or two, and last night he cried only briefly. I put him in his crate after his mid-day feeding and he whimpered once and went right to sleep. We’re on the right track!

Talos Rocks D.C.’s Metro Train

April 3, 2010

A service dog needs to be comfortable in many different environments. They've got to be ok with lots of different noises, locations, people, surfaces – nothing should surprise them when they're out in the world working with their partner.

Talos and I ventured to D.C. at peak cherry blossom time. And we went on the Metro system. I was a little apprehensive. Trains were new to Talos. They make a lot of noise. The stations are dark. They're a little like riding a roller coaster, pitching left and right.

Talos went through the card-reader gate (a narrow contraption with guillotine like gates that slide shut between passengers so only one person can get through at a time) without a hitch. Didn't even look crossways at it.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Time to board the train! We got on with a few families headed down to see the cherry blossoms. Thankfully, there were two little girls. There's nothing that Talos loves more than small children. As the train departed the station, he looked at me, his face concerned. I spoke softly, gave him a few pieces of cheese, and he decided it was not worth panicking about.

Another sigh of relief.

A few more stops and he'd completely forgotten he was on the train. The little girls, captivated by the big dog sitting right in front of them!!, decided to baby-sit Talos. For which I'll be forever grateful. Here's a picture of one of them telling Talos a story. He was paying close attention.

We had to change trains at Metro Center. For those not familiar with the Washington, D.C. Metro system, Metro Center is the station where all four Metro lines converge. It's the central hub. It's huge. It's loud. It's crazy. It's dark. I was scared because I didn't know where to go or how to catch my next train. Thank goodness for the kindness of strangers – the mom of one of the girls held my hand through the entire trip, went out of her way to find (and ride) the elevator with us (Talos can't do escalators yet), and got us on the right train. Her five-year old daughter continued to baby-sit Talos – soothing him when the loud trains whooshed past us, frightening Talos.

Finally we made it to the correct stop and I bade my new friends farewell. I think the little girl would have had just as much fun sitting with Talos as seeing the cherry blossoms! Talos was sad to see her go, as was I.

We met up with three other dogs in training from Service Dogs of Virginia. Here's their blog about the day. We saw cherry blossoms. We saw loud, exhaust spewing buses. We were crushed in crowds of people. We saw the Washington Monument (Talos was unimpressed). Here's a quick snippet of our ride down, the cherry blossoms, and the ride home:

The ride home on Metro was a crush of people. The crowds were phenomenal. At one point, I couldn't see Talos' head because there were so many people packed into the train. He didn't even notice. Or if he did, he didn't care. It was if he did this trip everyday. On the way home, I swear he was bored.

The people traveling on Metro couldn't have been kinder. Not one person complained, squealed, or shied away from riding the train with a dog. He, in return, was a gentleman, although at one point he did lay down on a man's feet. I didn't realize it until it was the guy's stop and he politely asked Talos for his feet back. Like I said, the other train riders really helped us have a fantastic experience.

Another successful socialization trip for Talos and I. I think T's got the makings of a fantastic service dog. He's steady, even-keeled, and solid as a rock. I'm as proud as a mom when her child takes it's first step.

Teaching “Wait” (Video)

October 7, 2009

I was giving the dogs their dinner the other night when I realized Talos didn't have any idea how to wait his turn. Easy enough to teach, wait, so today I decided to teach him wait using his lunch. If I'd have planned this session (like a good trainer should), I would have had my clicker handy, I would have created a short training plan, and I would have reinforced the tiny correct steps.

What did I do instead?

Everything that I shouldn't do. I winged it. I didn't use a clicker. And I lumped behaviors together. In short, I made a mess of the session, but around 53 seconds in, I salvage it and actually pull it off.

Not one to show you just the good stuff, I thought it would be interesting to show you how not to do something. In the end it all works out, but it would have gone faster if I'd done it the right way.

Watch how Talos gets a tad frustrated. He goes through several behaviors he thinks I might be looking for. He backs away once or twice, clearly confused. Finally, I wise up and start to incrementally reinforce the appropriate behaviors (backing away from the dish, waiting just one second, two seconds, etc.).

I haven't added the cue yet "Wait," because we're nowhere near ready for that. I'll add the cue once I'm ready to bet $50 that Talos wont' go for the food bowl until I release him. Once I have the behavior I want, then (and only then) will I start to call it something.

It won't take many sessions for Talos to master the Wait - especially if his trainer gets her act together!

Being Quiet is Hard (Video)

August 25, 2009

One of the things service dogs have to be good at is waiting quietly. They'll be asked do a lot of that in their life – they only need to work when their person needs them, so downtime is a big part of their day. At first glance it may seem like an easy task, but being quiet is sometimes difficult for a dog to learn.

Today I took Talos to the local public library. I'd planned to do some work on my laptop, while giving Talos some "office experience:" how to lay quietly for an hour or two in a public place. Two years ago, when I worked for the Federal government, the pups learned this relatively quickly – they were immersed in office life nine hours a day, five days a week. We had a few restless meetings, but in general, the pups learned that when nothing was required of them, it was nap time.

I don't have an office environment, so today was Talos' first real "office experience." I was prepared: I took his portable bed, a stuffed food toy, and a regular dog toy to help occupy his body and mind. We found a nice, quiet cubby out of the way of the library traffic and away from other patrons. I gave him a quick tour of the library, so he could have a few moments to see where he was and what was (and wasn't) going on, then headed back to my cubby to get some work done.

I put Talos' bed under the desk, gave him his chew bone, and got to work. For about two minutes. He wasn't interested in the chew bone. He could hear children across the library, and apparently they'd peaked his interest. I threw a few pieces of dog food under the table to get his attention back to where I needed him to be. He was happy to eat the food, then was ready to explore again.

I took him on another quick circle of the library, letting him sniff and explore, but not letting him meet any people. (No one asked to meet him – I would have let him greet if anyone asked.) He flopped down on his side, began running his big lips along the carpet in one of the aisles and proceeded to sing. Oh good lord – not now, not here!

I managed to get him up and back to our out-of-the-way cubby, only to find a woman had chosen to sit right next to us. Out of the 50 free cubbys, she picked ours to sit next to. Another distraction for Talos. I tried again to get him to sit or lay quietly under the table, but he was having nothing of it. He flopped down again, and began rolling on the floor and singing. Imagine this at your local library, except he's not on a couch, but on the library floor. We've got a lot of work ahead of us:

Service Dog Training or Circus Show?

August 10, 2009

We spent the day in Charlottesville, VA with the good folks from Service Dogs of Virginia. Talos got reacquainted with his brother, service pup in training Gryphon, and also got to visit with his brother, Arrow, a real working service dog.

Two Great Dane puppies is a sight. Three Great Danes will stop traffic! Talos and Gryphon are cute, and Arrow is handome and huge. I'm 5' 1" and Arrow's back hits my hip. He's a svelte 165 pounds and has movie-star good looks. And a sweet personality to boot. The pups are, well, pups, and will sometimes bicker, sometimes play, and sometimes be good, quiet pups. Never a dull moment, let me tell you…

We had lunch at a quaint cafe in downtown Charlottesville. Arrow, the mature and dignified service dog waited quietly while we ate. The two brothers, the pups, took turns sitting on one another, gnawing on each other's ears, and generally being, well, puppies. They did settle in eventually and we all enjoyed the company, both canine and human.

After lunch, we meandered around a bit. Everywhere we went, people would point. They'd exclaim. They'd stop. They'd watch us pass. They'd whisper. They'd cross the street. Mothers would either grab their children and walk away or shove them toward us. Everyone, however, was nice. The questions were as varied as the questioners: What kind of dog is that? What does he do? How big will he get? How much does he eat? Is he friendly? Is he a dalmatian? I didn't know if we were training dogs or if we were the side show in a circus.

It was a fun, hot, tiring day. Talos slept the entire trip back – and is asleep again as I type this. I hope to have more pictures for you in a future post.

Two Years Ago Today…

February 19, 2008

Two years ago today, Nemo was presented to us as the newest service pup in training from a local service dog agency. He was rescued from the local Charlottesville shelter as someone tried to dump him and leave without completing any paperwork; he was but a wee baby, thought to be a Labrador. The picture on the left, with me in the yellow coat, was taken the weekend we got him.

He kept growing and growing and it was clear that this wasn’t any Labrador!

The picture of Nemo on our patio wall was taken during March – look at how much he’s grown in only four weeks! Those legs are getting longer…

If you’re a long-time subscriber of my newsletter, Your Smart Dog, you’ll remember the article I wrote in June of 2006 about stress in dogs. The article was written because I had noticed a big change in the happy-go-lucky attitudes of my two Labradors, Tango and Lily. They no longer seemed to enjoy being around Nemo. In the picture with the three black dogs, Nemo is the smallest and you can see that Lily’s not particularly enjoying all of Nemo’s antics. Rocky, the big Lab, is shaking off – a sign that he’s feeling a bit stressed, too. Look at Nemo, though – he hasn’t a clue that he’s not welcome.

It was a tough couple of months for us and the dogs as we tried to find a balance that suited us all, Nemo included. If he had his way, he’d play all day — bowl them over, bite their flanks, and steal their toys. It was all great fun for him. Only him, though, unfortunately.

Thankfully, we got an older service dog in training, a German Shepherd Rottweiler cross (also a shelter dog) who was able to dish out as much rough play as Nemo could take! This alleviated some of the stress and pressure from the other dogs and we regained our stable pack once again.

We took Nemo and Tango to the Frederick Keys “Bark in the Park” event and you can see that Nemo loved it.

He learned to swim at Lake Anna (looks a bit like an otter, don’t you think?)…

All was fine and dandy until September 2007, which was when the fungus paid us a visit. We weren’t sure Nemo was going to make it. It was a roller coaster ride and I had more stress from September through December than I cared for. It was awful — literally we were going day-to-day, week-to-week, in a “wait and see” pattern that drove me batty. He had three surgeries and more blood tests than I could count. He was a trooper through all the sutures, bandage changes, blood tests and re-checks.

(Fingers crossed) Everything seems to be ok with our silly dog now. And look how handsome he is these days… We’re planning a big celebration today to mark this momentous occasion! Woofs and goodies for all four dogs!

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