livingms

I’ve finally started the journey towards sharing the experience of raising and training a service dog.  I am not a professional dog trainer, though I do have the assistance of a professional to help guide me in this quest.  Nico’s main role will be to assist me as a balance dog, and help retrieve items that I drop.

Nico is a 16 week old German Shepherd; the breeder selected over his litter mates to be placed in the role of service dog based on his temperament and disposition.

Nico is like any other excitable puppy at this time; however, his training is a bit more focused than for a pet.  During these early weeks, we stress obedience and socialization as well as the typical house training that occurs with a puppy of this age.

House training is fairly routine.  Consistently taking him out after he drinks or eats or appears to be sniffing around works well.  When I cannot watch him, I place him in his crate which is just big enough for him to stand or lay or turn around.  The crate is a wonderful housetraining tool because most dogs will not soil where they sleep so they learn to hold it until you come to take them outside.  Just remember, young puppies cannot hold it long and will soil themselves if not attended to.  The rule of thumb is to take their age in months and add one.  This is the number of hours they can hold their bladders.  The rule for bowels is always within 15 minutes of eating; however, they will go more than that and as a primary care giver you quickly learn the schedule.  Nico’s schedule is every morning around 5:30AM, again at lunch, then right after dinner.

Socialization is accomplished by taking him wherever I can and introducing him to all sorts of sights, sounds and people; as well as getting him used to riding in a vehicle.  We live in a very rural area so it can be difficult to find these situations.  There is a feed supply store called Orschelns that allows dogs inside.  As an 8 week old puppy he loved the attention and all of the people but he kept close to me, a great sign.  He showed interest and the cashier engaged him at the counter which went a long way to establishing confidence and a willingness to connect with his environment.  We make regular trips to different Orscheln stores to expose him to this type of environment and familiarize him with things like carts and helping him ignore things like food and toys.  He does very well with this.  I’ve also started taking him to the local high school track events.  He is exposed to lots of people, announcers booming voices and starter gunshots.  He was enthralled.  This is a great sign.  Confidence is everything,  a dog that shies or cowers would not make a good service dog because a dog that does those things is not consistently reliable in all situations.

Vehicle rides in the beginning were very easy for him.  His first ride; 5 hours long on the way home from the breeder, he slept 90% of the way on the seat next to me.  Now he seems to salivate more and seems a little bit anxious.  I’m not sure what triggered the change as he hasn’t had any bad experiences so we’ll just continue to expose him to rides and make them positive with treat rewards.

I’ve also asked my husband to allow me to care for all of Nico’s needs.  This means that no matter how I feel, I take him for his walks and I feed him and I meet all of his basic needs.  This establishes me as pack leader and it also strengthens the bond between us.  As a result of this Nico is very focused on me.  We have a bit of separation anxiety to deal with as I cannot leave the room; even if my husband is with him.  He is calm when he knows I am leaving the house without him; but if I am in the house, he feels a need to be at my side.  I am not sure if this is good or bad since a service dog needs to want to be with his handler.  I am not correcting it at this point. When I need to go somewhere in the house where he can’t be with me such as the wash room I either crate him or ask my husband to distract him with a toy and that seems to be helpful though he will sit and stare in my direction until I return.

Nico receives 3 structured walks a day.  By structured I mean that he is gently taught to walk alongside and keep his head up.  This is accomplished by luring with his nose and rewarding with a treat.  This concept is important, it teaches him to remain focused on me and not pull me along.  The walks also serve another important function; they help him stay in touch with his natural instincts and need to migrate and work for his food and they help him utilize his energy in a positive way.  That being said; he is a puppy.  We’ve had a rough start with this one as we expected.  At 8 weeks he began to walk very naturally alongside; then by 12 weeks he started to test his limits like a defiant child.  This is perfectly normal.  Corrections need to be kept to a minimum here as not to damage the trust.  I also found that physical corrections when employed too frequently (such as a quick leash correction for pulling) can have the opposite affect on what you’re trying to accomplish.  What I am finding is that ignoring mistakes and rewarding good behavior seems to advance the lessons in a more timely fashion and keeps his attitude positive and interested.  For the days I am unable to walk with him, I’ve started training him to walk on the treadmill at home.

I started his obedience training at 8 weeks using clicker training and food rewards.  Young puppies are very food driven.  I began teaching him to sit by holding a high value food treat (in this case soft chicken bits) just over his nose and luring him straight back so he naturally attained the sit position to smell the treat.  As soon as his bottom touched the floor I clicked the clicker to signify the correct result and that food would soon follow, and then I gave him the morsel.  This worked wonderfully.  He was so attentive he began to anticipate the response.  His focus was so intent it looked like he was staring right through me.  Once he was doing this reliably and without mistake, I added the voice command and a hand signal, once again he caught on very quickly.

I followed with the next command by adding the “down”.  Here I used a chicken bit and lured him by bringing it down and forward…he quickly crawled into the proper position and I clicked then rewarded the behavior.  He now recognizes the hand signal and the vocal command.  Both of these commands; sit and down, are readily obeyed from a distance without treats.

Our latest command is “place”.  I use this command to have him go to his bed, lie down and stay.  This is important in situations where he may eventually go somewhere with me where he will need to lie down for long periods of time in one position such as at a restaurant or meeting.  This is a three part command so it is more complicated.  First he must move to his bed and then assume the down position and stay.  I started this command by using a treat as I say the word “place” and have him follow the treat to his bed, then, without vocal reinforcement I use the same treat to lure him into a down position, once there I hold my free hand in a stopping motion and back away from him without giving him the treat.  If he moves, I repeat the process.  He does not get the treat until he completes all three steps then waits to be called.  He is beginning to do this reasonably well, though he is not consistent yet.

It can’t be all work and no fun; especially since eventually food lures lose their appeal and training can stall.  I found Nico’s soft spot.  He has many toys and he loves them all.  He has a stuffed lion that he has had since the drive home from the breeders and he snuggles with it and occasionally still nurses on it as if he is a small pup.  He also has a Kong toy that’s wrapped in canvas that he loves to growl and play fight with and show how he could have made a great police dog.  But his weak spot is a blue ball that is made of a soft but virtually indestructible material.  He will play with this for hours and if you stop playing he will just sit with it hanging out of his mouth.  So that is his trigger.  That will be his new reward.  I’ve taught him to catch it out of the air consistently, clever boy he is.  He is also very reliable about bringing it back to me each time.  He has trouble with letting go.  He wants me to throw it, but he doesn’t want to let go.  So we are working on that one.

I expect to begin marker training when he reliably hands me the ball.  I plan to begin with a small mat or feed tub.  I will place it on the floor and tell him to “touch”.  Every time he does, I will offer his reward.  This is a precursor training exercise to teaching things such as turning on and off lights, pushing buttons for automatic doors etc.  He will also learn to pull things which will assist with things such as pulling open doors around the house, pulling out a laundry basket, pulling off socks etc.

I expect we’ll continue learning together what works and what doesn’t, and I will continue to update you of our progress.  Over Memorial Day weekend he will be meeting the trainer I have teamed up with and he will spend 3 days there socializing with other dogs and refining some of the things I’ve taught him.  It will be strange for both of us being without each other for that time, but a necessary part of the process.  I’ve had dogs all my life, but this is the first dog that I’ve bonded so strongly with.