The Smart Dog U Blog

Stage Mom Antics

Ike did a fine job during his television debut today. Teddy fans will be happy to hear that Teddy did well, too. And Libby, and Maverick. Today was a big day for Hero Dogs, the service dog organization in Brookeville, MD that provides service dogs to veterans.

Holly Morris of Fox 5 (WTTG) here in the Metro D.C. area is also a dog lover and dog owner. She was a natural and didn't mind getting down on the floor with four energetic Retrievers!

We got up at an ungodly hour to make it to the shoot in plenty of time to be briefed about the shooting schedule and get our microphones attached. Wearing a microphone when working with a young Labrador retriever -- who loves to put everything in his mouth -- stressed me out in the beginning. But once we started working, I forgot all about, and thankfully Ike never noticed it.

Hero Dogs wanted to show off some of the specific tasks that the dogs do and I was given the assignment of working with Teddy (ah, reunited) to polish his paw targeting skills before his on-screen debut. As usual, Teddy was a quick study and was paw targeting like a champion in no time. We also worked on tug a little bit, too, in case there was time to show off two behaviors.

Note to self: there is never enough time to show off anything on tv! Four minutes sounded like forever when Holly told me how long we'd be on. Ha! It felt like 10 seconds when it was really happening. I also discovered just how much down-time there is on those morning shoots. They need 30-second teaser shots as they're going to commercial, then there's about 40 minutes between segments. That's quite a bit of time. Time for puppies to get tired. Time for puppies to get over-excited. Time for puppies to need to poop and pee.

But also time to get to know the reporter. Holly Morris is a dog owner and dog lover. I didn't have to twist her arm to get her to get her phone out so I could see pictures of her two dogs. She was very comfortable with all the ruckus that four adolescent dogs brings to the scene and never batted an eye at the chaos. What a trooper!

Ike was a champion Labrador pup. He picked up keys, brought a wallet, and was an all-around crowd pleaser. He was a real treat. We did some work during one of the segments, then also let the pups be pups and roll around on the floor to show everyone that these little guys are allowed (encouraged!) to be pups. It was an exciting day. And I hope Hero Dogs gets lots of interest, puppy raisers, volunteers, and donations!

For Ike: he came home and crashed for three hours after the shoot. This whole filming thing is exhausting! Here's the summary of all the segments we did today.

Perfecting Teddy's "Kennel" - Video

A lot of people find it interesting to see how much work goes into training. Whether working with a service dog or a pet dog, the training is the same. Clicker training creates an eager dog, a dog who wants to be part of the process. A willing dog makes a great training partner. 

Too often, I hear owners say "He knows how to do this, he's just being stubborn." In my experience, the dog isn't stubborn. He doesn't really know the behavior like you think he does. If you're confident your dog knows what you're asking, put him through the test for stimulus control. Here are the four conditions of stimulus control:

1. Your dog does the behavior when asked. (Your dog goes to his kennel when you ask him.)
2. Your dog doesn't do the behavior if he isn't asked. (Your dog doesn't go to his kennel if you didn't ask him.)
3. Your dog doesn't do some other behavior when you ask. (Your dog doesn't sit when you ask him to kennel.)
4. Your dog doesn't offer the behavior when you ask him to do something else. (Your dog doesn't kennel when you ask him to sit.)

I thought Teddy's kennel behavior was pretty good so I put it to the stimulus control test. And video-taped it. Ugh. We have a lot of work to do! Check out the link at the bottom of this post for the video. (You can see it on YouTube if it looks odd when you watch it through the blog.)

So the next time you swear your dog knows something, give him the test for stimulus control. I'll bet he doesn't really know it. That's ok. You're the teacher - get out there and work with the dog some more. We're working hard and will get all of Teddy's behaviors under stimulus control. It just takes time and training.

 

Another Notch In Teddy's Belt

In the short time we've had Teddy, he's been to:

• the post office
• Tractor Supply
• SuperFresh grocery store
• Luncheon at Holly Hills Country Club
• Wal*Mart
• a freight elevator
• a variety of steps including all glass, no risers, concrete, metal, and circular
• cafeteria
• Federal government building
• restaurant and
• The UPS Store.

He's heard applause, amplified voices over a p.a. system, microphone feedback, loud cars, big trucks, and motorcycles.

Teddy's also gotten quite used to bouncing around from house to house, spending the night here and there.

I'm going on three back-to-back trips and won't be around for an entire month. Teddy's going to put another "experience" notch in his belt: he's going to spend a month at yet another person's house while I'm gone. All this change is very good for Teddy. He's learning to be flexible and to go with the flow. He has a good time no matter where he is -  an important attribute for a service dog.

While I won't have any Teddy updates until my return, keep an eye on the blog. I will be blogging about my business trips (going behind the scenes at the Denver Zoo, participating in an animal training seminar with Ken Ramirez at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago) and all the excitement that goes with travel. And I hope to have some Talos updates as well!

 

Set the Bar High

It's interesting having a puppy in public training as a service dog. People are so eager to excuse Teddy's jumping or general silliness beause "he's just a puppy."

As if THAT'S a good excuse to allow a puppy to greet people inappropriately or pull on the leash!

Puppyhood is the perfect time to teach appropriate greeting behavior. If Teddy learns to sit in order to be petted, I'll never have the headache of trying to fix a jumping dog.

Teddy's young, but he's not dumb. And he's very capable of the self control needed to greet people in a polite fashion. He's also smart enough to learn that when he pulls on the leash, all forward motion stops.

If I don't teach Teddy these things now, how fair is of me to expect a full-grown, adult dog to understand that jumping and pulling is NOT what I want. Especially since those very things have been working so well for him in the past?

A little extra time, training, and patience while Teddy's still young is exactly how Teddy will learn good manners and self control. If I were to subscribe to the "but he's just a puppy" philosopy, my job would be much harder, and Teddy wouldn't understand why the rules had changed. It's better for both Teddy and I if the expectations were clear and consistent and were in place as soon as he became a service pup in training. 

So have patience with us if it takes Teddy an extra second or two to gather his wits about him and sit nicely for you to give him a scratch. Your patience helps Teddy learn!

 

Teddy Takes on the Federal Government

It's not nearly as serious as it sounds. My husband works for the Federal government and it's a terrific place to socialize the service dogs in training. The campus is huge, there are long, shiny corridors, gigantic cafeterias, a bazillion different types of staircases, and two very different types of elevators: regular passenger elevators and big, bulky, noisy freight elevators.

You might remember Talos' experience (and video) with the very same freight elevator. I took video of Teddy's experience, too. But I need to figure out how to convert 3gp format to something my Mac recognizes. (I took the video on my Droid, not the Flip.)

I will get the video posted as soon as I figure it out, but in the meantime the report on Teddy is good: he noticed the loud bangs and ducked at the outset, but recovered super-quickly and pranced right into the vast elevator. Once he was on, he very curiously looked around like he was at Disney World!

It becomes clearer and clearer that I'm not doing enough polite walking exercises with him. He's at the end of his leash and pulling hard very often. I stop everytime the leash gets tight - and that makes for slow going. I also carry treats with me so I can reward him when he's in the right position. He gets it for a little while then is distracted quickly. Did you see the movie "Up?" He's like the main doggie character who's having an intelligent conversation and then is instantly sidetracked: "SQUIRREL!"

All in all, a good socializing experience for Teddy today.

Go, Go, Go and Slow, Slow, Slow

Teddy's public debut focused mainly on getting in and getting out of locations and situations rather quickly. We stayed just long enough to expose Teddy to a new situation, make it fun, and then we're outta there.

Today, we worked on settle-in-and-relax scenarios. The life of a service dog is varied - there are times when they're in and out of places lickety-split, and there are other times when they're in it for the long haul -- they might as well get comfortable.

Teddy debuted today at the Frederick Chamber's lunch event with former Governor Robert Ehrlich. This was a good opportunity for Teddy for several reasons:

• Many of the attendees are service-dog-savvy. Talos did a great job of breaking them in so they'd know what to expect when a woman with a young dog walks into the room. Friendly, but not exuberant greetings are the norm with most of the Chamber folks. They make for excellent and knowledgeable distractors!
• I could leave if Teddy wasn't ready for the situation or if he became unruly.
• The luncheon would require that Teddy be still for a considerable period of time. We've worked on this skill at home - it was time to measure our progress in the real world.
• There would be manageable distractions. Lunch being served! Delicious, hot lunches! Again, if Teddy couldn't manage, I could very easily leave.
• New sounds, surfaces, people to experience. Applause, carpet, draping table cloths, microphones, hustle and bustle, noisy crowds.
• Lastly, this was a "quiet" event. Quiet meaning Teddy needed to settle in, relax, and take a nap.

I went well armed: clicker and treats were at the ready! Teddy's loose leash walking skills leave a lot to be desired, but we practices stopping and starting every time the leash got tight. He's still a young dog, he has self control issues - his desire is to jump and say Hi to people, but he's starting to try to maintain his decorum and restrain himself from putting paws on people. It takes a lot of work on his part, but with lots of practice, it's becoming less of an impulse and more under control.

Applause was a little startling to him. He sat bolt upright and looked curiously around the room. He didn't appear frightened, but the noise took him by surprise. After realizing that, I had my treats ready and they magically appeared immediately after any applause started. He ate the treats greedily, which means he wasn't particularly stressed.

It's important that potentially scary things (and applause can definitely be scary) be paired with very good things from the outset. By the end of the luncheon, we'd paired applause with treats appearing out of thin air about 15 times. He's beginning to look forward to applause now!

Teddy responded perfectly to his down cue (the word "down") in the midst of a crowd of people. He also took it upon himself to curl up under my chair when he really settled in. The service dogs will be taught a "go in" cue which means: tuck yourself under the table or chair and chill until I tell you otherwise. It's basically a "you're off the clock, but don't go anywhere" message. We haven't started teaching that to Teddy yet, so I was doubly pleased to see him make that choice of his own accord today. Especially when there were so many delicious smells and interesting things to check out.

He got a chance to meet Bob Ehrlich (a dog lover) and many other people today. He didn't jump or put his paws on anyone - that's an accomplishment.

One thing people don't think about very often - Teddy also had his first experience accompanying me into the ladies room. Service dogs need to learn to accompany their person everywhere. Public restrooms are one of those things that a dog needs to be introduced to early on in his training. They're small little cubes with panels that make voices sound echo-y and loud. They obscure 90% of the person in the neighboring stall -- except the feet! Of course, most dogs want to duck their head under the stall to see who those feet belong to. It's a bit disconcerting to be on the other side of the stall, minding your own business, and have a dog head suddenly join you in your stall! So not only do the dogs need to get used to going into the stalls, but they have to get very good at minding their own business when they're in there!

Both of Teddy's outings have been good experiences for both of us. He's a smart little guy who seems to enjoy this new life in public.

Teddy's Debut

How easily I forgot how much work a novice pup needs. Today's first public outing with Teddy brought me back to reality quickly - young dogs need a lot of work! Lots of fun experiences, lots of learning needs to take place to help a young dog learn how to walk calmly, sit politely for petting, and
how to "take it all in" without getting flustered, scared, or flighty.

Today was a perfect starter day for Teddy. I had lots of errands, but all of them would be quick, in-and-out. None of my errands were imperative - if Teddy's behavior fell to pieces it was very easy for us to leave. I had some high-value treats with me, as well as some of his regular dog food.

Because he'd be earning quite a bit of his food on this jaunt, I fed Teddy only half his breakfast. No need to get him good and full before we left - you don't need a pup who's got to go to the bathroom and then wants to take a nap when you're out for the morning running errands!

Our first stop: The UPS Store, where I had to drop some packages off. Teddy looked positively thrilled to be out and about. A customer inside the store was very happy to see us, but didn't reach over to pet him, thankfully. Teddy's experiences up to this point have been quite misleading - everyone he's come into contact has been overjoyed to see him and he's gotten very warm receptions. Teddy now believes that everyone - even in public - is going to pet him.

Service dogs need to learn to be invisible, inconspicuous - they're supposed to blend in. This one's going to be a hard lesson for Teddy to learn. He wants to stand out! He wants to jump! He wants to pull! He wants to be petted! Blending in isn't on his list of things to do...yet.

With the help of the very cooperative customer in the UPS Store, Teddy got his first lesson in being inconspicuous. The woman spoke very fondly of Teddy to me, but didn't come near him, which allowed me to redirect Teddy's attention to me. He's a smart bugger, he catches on pretty quickly and gave up on soliciting attention pretty quickly when he learned he could work with me and earn bits of his breakfast instead.

Second stop: Walmart. Walmart can be overwhelming, even to people. It's big, it's bright, and there's a lot going on. Teddy alternated between pulling ahead and lagging behind. He was quick to investigate any spot on the floor, hoping it might be a piece of food. I kept up a good, quick pace though, reinforcing him for catching up to me and pretty soon he was keeping up just fine. He sat nicely in line while I paid for my purchases - he's got patience!

Third stop: Post Office. We practiced waiting before going through doors here. I'd noticed he'd started flying through any open door and that's neither safe nor polite. After making sure there wasn't anyone on either side of the door waiting to come through, we spent a few minutes on "wait" and "at ease."

Last stop: Tractor Supply. What an interesting place if you're a dog! All kinds of different smells -- dog food, cat food, horse feed and treats, bird seed, leather...it must be intoxicating! Teddy was very curious - eyes moving all the time, nose on the ground (we'll work on that), and eager to see and meet new people.

You never know what you're going to get the first time you take a young service dog in-training into public. It never goes perfectly, but it's not supposed to. Young dogs need to learn, they need to see, they need to do. Think of all the new things Teddy experienced today:

• shopping carts banging and rolling
• bright lights
• shiny, slippery floors
• smells, all the funny (and probably delicious) smells!
• the new sounds: cash registers, public address systems, cars starting
• loud trucks revving their engine
• concentrating on me while there are so many other things to see and do!

Teddy had a great first day out. I'm planning another fun day on Thursday for him that will introduce him to sitting quietly for a period of time. Service dogs need to be able to go, go, go like we did today, and they also need to learn to relax quietly when needed as well. It's fun to watch the dogs learn new things and experience the real world for the first time.

 

Teddy's Goof-Off Day

Don't let this silly face fool you. Teddy's a grass-churnin', rip-roarin', goof off fool! The dogs were home alone for a few hours today and were more than a little ready for some R + R in the backyard when I returned home.

I still had a lot of work to do when I got home, but I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and multi-task. I took my work outside with me and sat in the Adirondack chair under the shade tree.

Lily's idea of goofing off is to lay flat on her back and have her belly rubbed. Continuously.

Tango's idea of goofing off is retrieving the tennis ball. Continuously.

Nemo goofs off in a few different ways: he lopes around the yard blowing off some steam, he then rolls in the grass, kicking his feet to the sky, and then heads for the kiddie pool for a cool-down.

Teddy goofs off in a million ways, but his favorite goofing-off activities involve annoying Nemo.

It's been a long, tough week here at Smart Dog U - we're having a kitchen re-do. The past few days have found me and the four dogs sequestered in my office as the kitchen cabinets were installed. Lots of banging, noise, and dust.

So at the end of a very long week, the dogs had to blow off a little steam. Here's a quick look at that fun. (If you have a hard time seeing the entire width of the video, double click it and you can watch it direct from YouTube.)

 

Teddy's Report from Summer Camp

Dearest Teddy went away for about ten days to the service dog version of summer camp while the rest of the family went on vacation. He spent some time with the founder of Hero Dogs, was the Guest of Honor at a Hero Dogs picnic, then spent time with another Hero Dogs person. The change in scenery, people, locations, dogs, personalities, does a young dog good. It helps the dog learn to roll with the changes instead of being thrown by changes. It's a great idea for every young dog to develop this resilience, but especially important for a service dog. By all accounts, Teddy had a grand time on his vacation and nothing threw him for a loop.

Teddy's been a little fresh with my dogs. He's taken a rawhide out of Nemo's mouth, he's relentless in his play with Nemo, he barges into the water dish even if another dog is already there, he'll grab hold of a tug toy even if two other dogs are playing with it, AND he's been humping them as well.

Teddy needed to spend some time with some dogs and people who weren't pushovers. Who would show him very appropriately where the line was and tell him (appropriately) when he'd stepped even one little paw over that line. If you give Teddy an inch, he'll take a mile. Or two.

Thankfully, the Hero Dogs dog-sitter has three Corgis. If anyone'll keep Teddy in line, it'll be the Corgi's! They're little, but they're feisty! Sure enough, the dog-sitter said the Corgi's did their job and showed Teddy exactly where that line was and told him if he crossed it!

He's gotten bigger in the ten days he spent at camp! I'll be getting some new pictures up soon. We're in the middle of a kitchen renovation, though, so if the background of some of the pictures looks like we live in an abandoned house, you'll know why.

While Teddy was at camp, he seems to have graduated into some other new (and not so pleasant) behaviors. He's back to humping everything again (toys, his bed, people, the dogs), and he's started the delightful habit of counter surfing. I'll take care of the humping by simply removing the toy, dog, bed, leg the instant Teddy starts to even think about humping it! The counters - well that's easy: we don't have any right now! Our kitchen is completely bare. No floor, no stove, no dishwasher, no counters. Nothing. So there's nothing to surf. Hopefully since he can't counter surf here, that nasty behavior will go away because he won't have a chance to practice it!

Teddy's Off to Summer Camp

Teddy's off for a week of summer camp. He'll have a fun week in completely different surroundings - new people, new house, new dogs. Service dogs not only need to be very well-behaved, they also need to be pretty darn flexible. It's important that Teddy learns that change isn't something to fear, in fact change can be fun!

To that end, since Teddy came to live with us he's spent one night a week back at the service dog agency. There are some kids, some dogs, and some cats. And most importantly, different surroundings. Different noises. Different surfaces. Different schedules. Different toys. All fun and all different. He's done really well with his one-night stays, so now it's time to give him a little more time away and visiting others.

Introducing a young pup to change is helpful even if a career in service work isn't in his future. All pups benefit from spending a night somewhere else, with someone different.

Pups that are exposed to different circumstances when they're young usually adapt readily to their environment, no matter where they are. It's nice to have a dog who feels at home no matter where you take him. Adaptable dogs are a pleasure to travel and live with, as they're comfortable no matter their surroundings.

So while Teddy's off galavanting around from house to house this week, our three permanent dogs will enjoy their break from the exuberance and puppy-ness that drips from that precocious puppy!