Training a Service Dog - Page 1

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kitkat3478

by kitkat3478 on 23 May 2014 - 11:05

     I am giving my boss of 20 years a puppy. He was diagnosed with lung AND brain cancer last year and has gone thru numerous treatments.

    His overall prognosis is pretty good. He is out and about quite often alone. THAT worries me. 

This guy is a die hard farmer. He loves his animals, but circumstance has limited his abilities. As has his family. The family is behind my decision to get him a dog.(If for nothing more than companionship, but I know the dog can be so much more).

    I will keep the pup until 3-4 months old, laying down the basics for him. She is coming to work with me today to begin the training. She is 7 weeks old.

    I know training a service dog is totally different than what I do with my dogs.

Anyone got any suggestions, and MUSTS...for my endeavor. 

    I want this girl "bombproof" for him.


Sunsilver

by Sunsilver on 23 May 2014 - 13:05

There are no hard and fast rules, except the dog needs to be friendly with everyone. (I'd look for a pup with strong pack drive,)The last thing you want is it trying to protect him from strangers who come to help him if he has a medical crisis. That just might mean the dig will wind up a dead dog!

Other things I'd look for would be brains, intuition and good problem solving skills. Since he's on a farm, a medium energy dog would be okay.

The intuition and problem-solving just cannot be trained, but it' s incredible to see. I heard about a young pup a man was planning to train as his service dog. He'd been brain damaged in an accident, and would sometimes have siezures and fall down, or suffer memory lapses and wander away from home. Shortly after the dog came to live with him, he fell to the floor unconscious and the family couldn't rouse him. The dog was extremely concerned, and kept pawing at him and licking him until he opened his eyes. No training whatsoever, just instinct!

Another example: the owner of one of the first Seeing Eye dogs in N. America recovered his sight due to a new operation. However, because he had been blind so long, he had trouble interpreting what he saw. One day, he was out walking with his former Seeing Eye dog on a leash. He came to an intersection and wanted to cross, but an empty float truck was blocking the crosswalk. For the life of him, he could not figure out what this obstacle was, or how to get around it. His dog saw he was in trouble, grabbed the leash in her teeth, and led him around the truck.

You just can't train some of this stuff...  Teeth Smile

What are his limitations? What would the dog do for him, other than provide companionship?

Dogs can be taught to dial 911 in an emergency. That might be a good task to teach. There are special phones with large buttons that can be used for this purpose. If he has progressive brain damage, I wouldn't rely on just teaching the dog to bring the phone so he can call for help himself. Sad Smile Though I have seen a 4 month old GSD service dog that was already trained to do exactly that!

What's his living situation? Is he still working? Does he live alone?

Other than the above general guidelines re. the dog's personality, it all depends on the person's needs and the environment they will be living in. Okay, he's on a farm...expose the dog to farm animals and noisy farm equipment from a very young age. Does the pup have herding instinct? Teach it to help round up the animals. Is your boss having trouble with manual dexterity? Teach it to open doors. Most barn doors are thumb latches, so this shouldn't be hard.

Given how dangerous farms and farming can be, I'd say the most important thing would be to teach the dog to help in a medical emergency. I don't know a single farmer (and most of my uncles and aunts were farmers) that hasn't been seriously hurt at some point by either their animals or a piece of farm machinery. The risk of falls is pretty high, too (barn lofts and trap doors, slippery, muddy or icy footing, etc. etc.)


by Nans gsd on 23 May 2014 - 15:05

Safety first and foremost for  all my animals but particularly my service dogs.  Of course you need what I would call extra exposure and socialization for a service dog;  schools, noisy ball games, large crouds like concerts are good, and really that never ends.  But I would start the exposure at an early age, after first shot maybe, like carry to a store, hold and let people pet so he/she will be friendly to all.  Believe me later on he will be able to pick out trouble relating to a "bad guy" these guys as I am sure you already know are really good at that.  I would chose a natural retriever and herder, one that likes to carry things, ball, slipper, other toys, they start that really early like 5 weeks.  You can usually see a natural retriever early on and that for me is extremely valuable however you CAN teach it, but natural is soooooo much easier and it can be done quickly with little effort on your part.  Teaching the retrieve to the average dog can take some time otherwise and can be more of an adult task.  Pulling of course later can be valuable but really it all depends on the nature of the personal challange.

 

You could go and watch someone like Canine Compaions or Guide Dog training sessions;  like my neighbor uses a retired guide dog for her mobility medical service dog, he anchors for her to keep her standing so she does not fall forward, gives her balance.  But for me that would be worthless to teach my dog as I am in a wheelchair 24/7.  So see all challanges are different.  So if you can observe your boss on the farm;  you will be able to see what he needs and what will help him the most and go from there.

 

Of course to start the basic obedience needs to be bombproof which can take some time.  A good start for any training program service dog or otherwise.  Would be nice to start with a well socialized l year old as it sounds like the need for a dog is in the present.  The service dog training and exposure takes time.  I could not find a l/2 year old and had to start with a baby puppy which I picked out at 7 weeks old and he was started in his basic obedience at 9 weeks and came to me at 13 weeks;  even house broke.  Was the best for me;  my breeders have a program they have implemented if the buyers chose to take advantage they will put the first 4 weeks of training on your puppy, send you home with video full of information for when the puppy comes home, what he/she will already knows, how to keep up the training, what NOT to do.  For me it was absolutely fantastic as I learned obedience in 1973 from a marine sargeant;  training methods have definitely changed for the better from then, so helped me to update my knowledge.  My boy is just turning 1 year old now and still has quite a ways to go but is excellent; friendly to all wants a doggy friend but my 2 others dogs l being an intact male wont have it so that has created a problem here but otherwise his foundation training is excellent and he was not a natural retriever so we (hubs and I) have had to teach that.  He is my 4th service dog and I have made some mistakes along the way believe me so if I can help you and make  your job any easier please do not hesitate to ask.  If you can pair up with another person willing to take a well behaved dog along with you in the puppies training the puppies do learn a lot from watching another dog.  Also a good doggy friend for puppy to have. 

 

Hope this helps you in your challanges ahead and your boss is going to be forever grateful to you.  Good luck  Nan

 

PS:  Strive for getting a CGC on this dog as the public likes to see that. Not a requirement but nice to have.  Definitely wear identification as a medical service dog;  I use a pack that has "Please don't pet" Working Assistance Dog.  Something of this nature and IF some dummy just grabs your dog and starts petting or grooping even a kid just kindly remind them that "THIS DOG NOW HAS TO REMEMBER WHAT HIS LAST COMMAND WAS"  that helps to explain to them that the dog has a very important job and has to give undivided attention to the owner/handler.  Focus on handler is extremely important and imparative to his/her training.  Nan


kitkat3478

by kitkat3478 on 23 May 2014 - 15:05

The easy part is done. I have a 7 week old pup from my breeding to work with. I have been with the pup since day one. I picked the calmest, but most 'interested' female pup for him already.

    My boss lives with his wife and their full grown St . Bernard female. He still works a bit, but cannot do the labor with his farm animals that he used to live so much.

   He still gets in his truck, all alone, and drives hundreds of miles to auctions and goes on other ventures for their business.

   While it is not ideal, this man wants to luve his life,  and try to stay as independant as possible.  A very sad situation. Like I said, I have worked for the family 20 years.

   It is agreed, the dog is going to need so much more training than can be done in the next couple months, so we are working togeather on it. She will spend alit of time between both of us.

   I want the dog to be very sociable, but protect at the same time.AND alert...

Thank you both for the ideas so far, very much needed food for thought.

He has a gorgeous little red sable now. I can 't get her picture to load.

Please, keep the ideas coming. I do need help


kitkat3478

by kitkat3478 on 23 May 2014 - 15:05

Sorry double click


by Nans gsd on 23 May 2014 - 16:05

Wonderful, did not know the "special" puppy had been picked already, and you are right some of the hard work has already been done and that is finding the puppy.  It took me 3 years to find my boy.  Onward and upward but as you probably already know with a puppy that young there is a lot of growing up time needed along with mental maturity to handle the job that has to be done.  Maybe she will grow up sooner rather than later she will let you know I am sure.  And the "alerting" usually is very natural for these guys as  well as the personal protection just guide her in the right direction.  Best of luck  Nan


Sunsilver

by Sunsilver on 24 May 2014 - 11:05

Kitkat, could you give us some idea of what problems the man is having as a result of his disease? That would help!

I am sure his energy level must be affected by the lung cancer, so teaching the dog to retrieve things for him is definitely good. Dogs can also be taught to assist someone back on their feet after a fall, though the pup is too young for that just yet. (It requires bracing, and taking at least part of the person's weight on their back.)

Sounds like he doesn't need much in the way of mobility assistance tasks yet, such as opening/closing doors, turning lights on and off, etc., though that may be needed in the future. S.O.P is to tie a piece of rope to the door to help the dog open it.

I would definitely look into some sort of system the dog can use to dial 911. There is a special extra large red button that can be put near the phone, which is big enough for the dog to easily activate by hitting with his paw.  No idea where you can find one, but I am sure an organization that trains service dogs can help with that.

Yesterday I saw a dog (beagle, I think) on Yahoo News that had been trained to fetch a fresh diaper for the baby, then take the soiled one and put it in the diaper pail!   Teeth Smile 

Here are some of the tasks a Viszla is trained to do for his wheelchair-bound owner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ptu8xn3UVM&list=UUZtFfCdrHYeaGRldtyValHg

and here's a really fun video featuring this same dog and a German Shepherd! This was all done using clicker training:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXYAV_Agbms


by Nans gsd on 24 May 2014 - 16:05

Love both video's sun but in real life I only teach things I need to use.  Learned that the hard way when I taught my sammie girl to open cupboards to get her own treat which was OK,  however that was transferred to the outside gates and she would open all of them to greet anyone coming to the house and let all other dogs out.  She was so bright,  too bright for her own good.  Also carried that on to my Rottweiler boy who learned to open the LOCKED van door;  his mother could open closed windows/screens and let herself out.  Not safe for humans or dogs...  So if the dog is not going to use opening/shutting/lights on/off now days I don't teach it.  Especially lights as that is called up work which means UP on the rear and if I don't use it I would rather they not use their rears like that.  JMHO, but for keeping training interesting some things are fun to teach and have the dog learn but maybe not for your use.  Hope that makes sense to you.  With the shepherds since they are soooo big I mostly teach mobility stuff and like to teach bracing as I can use that but my last big boy 120 lbs. spine/rear went to hell early so I won't be teaching that with my puppy boy;  just too much pressure for the dog to endure.   YES they can do it but to preserve them somewhat, really don't think its a good idea.  Again, JMHO.  Thanks for sharing  Nan

 

PS:  they like to help bring in the groceries, I teach that and tie the bags shut and teach to carry and bring in the house from the car.  Very helpful.  Teeth Smile 


Sunsilver

by Sunsilver on 24 May 2014 - 19:05

Nan, I certainly see your point!  :(  Dogs may be smart enough to open windows and doors, but not smart enough to stay out of trouble once they are outside!


fawndallas

by fawndallas on 24 May 2014 - 21:05

One thing not mentioned, make sure the pup gets high marks on hips and elbows.  This is especially true if they will need to do any mobility/stability work.  Wait until you get the prelims done before starting any stability training.  If the high marks are not there, no big deal, just do not have them for any significant mobility work.

Ulimately, you want a dog that is neutral to everything; sounds, walking on strange textures, people, other animals.  The idea is to have a dog that is so focused on the owner, it almost borders obsesiveness.   Nothing else should matter to the dog, but their best friend.

Something I resently learned with Max, having a great out/leave/quiet command is a wonderful thing to have, especially when the natural instinct to protect kicks in.   Nothing is worse than when you are in public with the service dog and they start to growl at a bad guy.  Sadly there are still many places that frown on service dogs and look for any excuse to have them leave.

 

another issue will be the shedding.  Start teaching the pup the "Shake" command.  If they only shake on command, less to be concerned about in a store.






 


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