Shit happens. Maybe you get in a car accident or your dog eats something toxic. You are away from home, and away from pertinent medical records for you and your dog. What do you do? You are so flustered you can't remember the contact information for your primary care doctor or you dog's vet. Your dog can't stay in the hospital with you - do you know your dog trainer's number by heart? Do you know anyone's number by heart? Can you explain why they can't take your service dog to the pound? So much is going on. Too much is going on. That's where an emergency portfolio comes in handy.
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The Long Down is a great exercise to teach your dog patience, how to lay quietly in one spot without sprawling, and prepares them for being out in public. When you start doing public access with your dog, they will need to be good at lying down at your side or under a table and staying there for 30 - 45minutes without sprawling or trying to leave. In this post I will go through the steps for doing the Long Down at home. I learned this technique from our trainer at Eastwood Kennels.
This does not have to be done every day, but it is a great training exercise for when you don't have the energy for much or you need to get other things done and can multi-task. Kennels & Crates are the same thing. For the purpose of this post, I will call it a Kennel, because that is our command for Robbie. Kennels must ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be a SAFE place for your dog to go if he is feeling tired, stressed out, it's bedtime, or he just needs a break. Kennels should never be a punishment. To explain this, I will discuss why punishment doesn't work on dogs and then why kennels should be safe and how to make it a good place always. I use a compilation of training methods when I work with Robbie, rather than one type. My style of training has been called force training, but it is not. I assure you. In this post, I'll discuss exactly how I train, where I got the ideas for my methods, why it works for me, and a little bit into why I don't buy into other types of training.
Ahh the pet store. That wonderful store where anyone with a dog can take their animal inside to go shopping with them. It's magical and exciting and DANGEROUS. ***I am in no way trying to bash pets in this post. Please do not get offended if you have a pet dog that IS well-trained. The purpose of the post is to alert you to the possible dangers of taking your valuable service dog into a pet store*** Why is Taking My SD to a Pet Sore Dangerous?You might be thinking, well my dog is well-behaved and well-trained so it will be ok. And in that respect, you are right. Yes, your dog is very well-trained. They go into restaurants unnoticed. They walk through the grocery store without ripping steaks on the shelves for some mid-work fine dining. When you enter a grocery store, you can be reasonably certain that there won't be another dog in there, and if there is that it too is a service dog that is well-trained and under control. You CANNOT make the same assumption when you enter a pet store.
I am not saying that all pets are wild, uncontrollable, devils that will maul your service dog. I have met tons of well-trained pets. But, we can agree that the average dog owner does not train their dog to the same degree which we train our service dogs. Most of these dogs spend all their time at home, little exposure, get spoiled, maybe get some training, but not much beyond the basics, may or may not be at the heel when on a leash, and some are just bat shit crazy because they don't get enough exercise. Yes, training a service dog has turned me into a bit of a training snob, but I am ok with it. It means that I know how to spot a dog that I need to keep Robbie as far away from as possible. You never know if a dog pulling on a leash is going to get lose and tackle your service dog, whether in friendliness or aggression. When we are out and about, it's easy to get focused on our task at hand because we know our dogs aren't going to be doing something they shouldn't. However, this gets us in trouble in a pet store, because those owners rarely pay attention to what their dogs are doing and their dogs are typically sniffing, pulling, trying to run up to other dogs to say hi, barking, etc. Every time we take Robbie into a pet store, we hear at least once, "Oh it's ok he's friendly!" Well, I don't give a damn if you think your dog is friendly. My dog is working and can't be approached, and even if Robbie off-duty, there are so many people who don't actually know the difference between friendly and aggressive dog body language. No thank you, please stay away from us. |
My Name is Sally...I have a condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. This blog is about my journey training Robbie, a dog who helped me regain independence, confidence, and achieve the impossible in the face of my disability. It continues on with the training of Austin, Robbie's successor. Check Out... - "More than a Dog" was published on a site called The Mighty Categories
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