Quote: Patricia Angove

Willie,
Count me in too. I would love to hear how it's going.


Dennis,
How in the world did you get Erika to give you the objects so politely? My Axel would tug it right back out of your hand the minute you touched it.

She's not interested in the object as a toy, she wants her ball or food reward and to get it she has to pick up what ever I drop or what I tell her to go after ie tv remote, beer, dumbbell. The down side is sometimes she'll pick up a random object and drop it on my lap.

You have to find the pupper's most favorite toy and trade it for the object in his mouth

Thanks!
lets see, Yesterday we went to the COOP..(farmers cooperative) and took Eddie.
It went great! He got in back of the Expedition, right away..well I bribed him with a chicken nugget.. .
Took the car ride well..no puking.
We got there and held his heel next to me. He was great on the few steps up into the store..he stepped up when I told him and waited on each step, and "braced" for me to lean on him. Step, wait, brace...step....
We have been practicing that at home.
He has been in our house, the vet to be neutered, and the barn. That's it so far.
He did great!!!!!
Walked right in just like he had been doing it all his life!
Concrete floor, no problems.
He didn't try to mark, keep his nose to himself except once he sniffed some stuff on a shelf.
I asked everyone in sight if they would pet him.
He did great with that...even with the lady that walked up from right behind him and touched his pelvis area on his back without proper introduction. He was watching her, but relaxed.
Then there was the lady who was petting his head and then leaned down right in his face and pressed her forehead against his.
He didn't miss a beat.
If he is going to be a service dog he will have people doing all sorts of stupid things to him.
When he is working, no one is supposed to touch him, but that isn't the reality. Sigh. With him being so cute and fluffy, it will be a challenge to keep people off him when he is working.
I'm delighted at how he behaved.
I figured that the COOP would be a good place to start, most people are familiar with animals there.
At home I had him out side going to the bathroom, and the neighbor dog was going nuts trying to get at him, he looked at the other dog, but I told him to leave it and he looked away...all that work with Java in the house is paying off.
We have been working on sit a bunch. he is getting the idea, its going well.
I haven't found what motivates him yet..except ear scratches and cheddar.
He is really laid back, (low drive) and that makes it a really different training situation than what I'm used to.
I think I'm doing free shaping????? When he sits down on his own or lays down, I click and scratch the ears.
Its working.
I thought I'd try cheese-its since he likes cheddar. Any ideas on treats to try.
He isn't interested in any of the grocery store dog treats, not too interested in lunch meat...just cheddar..oh, and crab treats...but that is messy and expensive.
He and the other dogs are doing well. He wanted to play with java, but he could hurt her really easily.
Today we have been working on lying down and relaxing for long stretches at a time.
Being bored id ...boring.
He finally quit trying to do stuff and finally lay down and went to sleep.
All in all its going fairly well.

get a vest that says "DO NOT PET. DOG IN TRAINING" it works most of the time. Leerburg sells some nice ones.

Thanks Dennis, I have a pack/harness coming in the mail. It has several points of attachment, and handles for balance.
I'm going to also get a Agitation collar with a handle.
I really appreciate the idea though!!!
I'm looking at patches to sew on it right now.
I had a friend that had a guide dog with patches on it, and I know that people pet the dog anyway.
I tend to worry too much, I'll get the patches, and just relax.
He did great at the COOP, so that helps a bunch.
I'm going to take him to the hardware stare nest.
Then Petsmart.

I bought a fluorescent cape of sorts at Tractor Supply then had my cousin embroidery, "Dog in Training" and "Do Not Pet" on both sides so he could wear it to the ballpark. No one even paid any attention to it. As they were reaching to pet him, they would ask, "What's the vest for?" My cousin made the patches out of denim circles cut off old jeans, embroidered on them, then sewed them onto the cape. LJ has now outgrown it, so we're searching for something new.

It's been awhile and I'm still interested. Has a new thread been started that I missed?

Thank you so verry much for asking!
Things training wise have been great..It happened so "un training like"
that it was hard to post what we had done!
I just showed him what I wanted and he did it!
I have been using him for at least a week in public as a fully trained service dog.
He meets all the reqirements of the ADA and is just amazing.
He has several trained tasks that he does for me..
"Go Go" I hold his harness and he presses against my leg and pulls me forward so I don't have to balance myself or use much effort to propell myself forward.
"Brace" he locks his legs and I lean on him to get up out of a chair or get down into a chair..or floor.
When I say step he will go up one step, and then I say wait, and brace and he waits and braces so I can do stairs.
He regularly braces when I am falling and call his name...that way I can grab his harness or catch myself on his shoulders.
I can't begin to count how many times that he has stopped me from falling....He really watches me to make sure he can be close if I fall.
He heels off the crutches...I say left or right or wait and he does all that on voice command.
We are having slight steering issues without the crutches..he seems to have a hard time focusing on holding me up...and obeying right and left..but we are working on it.
we are working on him pulling me up off the couch with a tug..we have done it several times...but not yet proofed on command.
We are also working on having him pick things up off the floor..but again...its not reliable yet.
He has been in all the stores I go to...Walmart is always hard, its just so big and busy....but he does really well. Grocery is fine...even the meat isle.
We have a really big problem though...he is seriously ill right now...seriously. I will start a new thread on this.

Thanks Willie, You have allowed me to see how much can be done with a good service dog. Dan

What's wrong with him? You have us worried.

Betty...I started the new thread........help?
Thanks Dan.




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Edited by Connie Sutherland (04/11/2010 02:37 PM)
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