# Service Dog Training Tips



## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

A few of us are either training service dogs, have service dogs, or are considering training our poodles to be service dogs. Let's make a spot for collective wisdom on PF. Here's where you can share your victories, and failures, or questions about being partnered with a service poodle.

Today's victory was in the store where my daughter works. One of the managers who Noelle really likes reached out her hand to pet Noelle. Without being told, Noelle sat still for petting and did not go wild over it. A year ago, that would not have happened. 

A struggle we're having is down/stay at restaurants when the server coos over Noelle. Noelle will creep commando style across the floor in a crouch to say hi. In a pet, it would be adorable. In a service dog it is a facepalm. It's like Noelle is saying, I'm still down, I'm lying down, I'm just moving while lying down, see?
I have taken to bringing my mat with me to restaurants. Go to your mat gives Noelle a specific place to do a specific thing, down and stay.

Noelle is still not fully convinced that stay means glue your poodle self to the place where I have put you. It's getting better. Cooing people remain a distraction she finds hard to resist. 

OK, SD handlers, SD trainers, and everyone considering training a SD, what's your latest victory? What's your latest struggle? Wanna rant? Sound off? Whine? Brag? Here's the place to do it.


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## Charleeann67:) (Nov 6, 2017)

I'll be following this as I'm just at puppy stage hoping that his personality is suited. Maybe to start out with I'd like to ask what traits in your dog's personality would suit them to be an SD?


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## asuk (Jan 6, 2017)

Mine is not a service dog but we work on manners all the time. Yesterday I taught him the "look at that" game because he is like a banshee when he sees other dogs on our walks. Not barking but wants to go say hi. We are on phase 2 of the game where my kids or husband does something distracting and he has to just look. First day training and already on phase 2, I love his intelligence!


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## Charleeann67:) (Nov 6, 2017)

Would you mind sharing how the "look at that" game works? I've been working on "look" with Rudy, holding the treat first by nose and moving it up to my eye level and then rewarding. He is doing great with that in just a few repetitions.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I've been thinking of training Babykins to be a mobility SD and Click is giving me the impetus to get started.

I've Autoimmune diseases (AI) - if you have one you always have several and new ones are always popping up when you least expect them. Between my AI and arthritis I'm sometimes so stiff that I can't bend down to pick up things and moving around is difficult - and it's random because I can be fine for weeks and then boom. I have a history of syncope (not heart related, not clear why) and Myositis in my arms and legs which both limited my mobility for awhile as well as arthritis which I've had since childhood. I never know when something will pop up unexpectedly. I realize it would be smart to train Babykins to assist with helping pick things up off the floor, get my cell phone and some other tasks. Better to train her now while I'm mostly well and pretty functional than wait til an episode when I could really use the help.

It was following Click, Snow and Catherine talk about training their dogs which made me think about training Babykins. Years ago I had only thought of SD as seeing eye dogs but now I know they are effective for many tasks.

I have some advantages and weakness with my dog. She is naturally not a barker and a sweet, friendly dog so I don't have to worry about barking inappropriately in a store, or having her attack a stranger. Because of all the dog sport classes we've taken she and I are both attuned to training. She's also passed tests for AKC Canine Good Citizen and Community Canine Good Citizen so we have some fundamentals in good behavior while out in the community. In addition I trained inside some friendly stores to prepare her for those tests so she's used to going into the bank, TJ Maxx/Marshals, Lowes, Nordstroms etc. She's also is trained to ignore us while eating - she never begs from the table nor when I'm making her batches of food so she smelling it being prepared.

Her weakness are she is extremely friendly - trained as a therapy dog so she loves to be petted - and we still have problems with jumping up on people that she loves. She is reserved with meeting new people so she generally will sit or stand to be petted. 

Her non-competition heeling needs improvement. And we will have to work on heeling in grocery stores around food.

She is also fearful of new floor textures. You think you've encountered everything - and then you're surprised by something unexpected. We were at an arts festival last week and there was a steep shiny silver metal ramp up to an exhibit. She was scared of it and no amount of treats could lure her on - and I wouldn't even know where to go to train for this kind of ramp. She also got spooked on a glass elevator so we have to go back to square one on elevators and elevators are all different in how they move so we'll need a lot of training here.

She's also never been one to lay down by my feet nor under my chair. I've started to train her to go under a chair recently so that's a start.

For my part I need to figure this all out. I also liked Click's advice to Snow about training a SD - often we look at SD that have had many years of training and we think they are perfectly behaved and that is our goal, In the training phase we have to make it fun, be flexible, accept partial victories as wonderful as we slowly make our way to the goal line.

Click sent me a link to an article about an amazing dog - this is inspiring to read. https://papillonclub.org/articles-from-lap-to-laundry-papillon-service-dogs/


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## Charleeann67:) (Nov 6, 2017)

WOW, that papillon is amazing!


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## asuk (Jan 6, 2017)

Charleeann67:) said:


> Would you mind sharing how the "look at that" game works? I've been working on "look" with Rudy, holding the treat first by nose and moving it up to my eye level and then rewarding. He is doing great with that in just a few repetitions.


Click was the one who suggested that game, it's awesome. Click is awesome, she suggested the "you win a prize" game when I was dealing with milo jumping on people. It worked like a charm. 

This is the look at that game


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Traits I look for in a SD prospect are a willingness to follow my lead, quick recovery from startle, low body sensitivity, low reactivity in general. I told my breeder I was looking for the middle puppy in the litter. Not the one that starts the squabbles, but not the one who is scared of them, either. A middling temperament.

A quick recovery from startle is useful because startling things happen sometimes. A cart rumbles past, or a box falls of a shelf. The dog can jump. The dog can spin around and look surprised. The dog can even bark once or twice. Pee the floor, bark hysterically, trembling with fear and being unable to let that go, are not acceptable responses. 

The easiest test for your SD prospect is wait for your puppy to have her back turned in the kitchen. On the other side of the room, or several meters away, drop a pot lid from counter height and watch your puppy. Spin around, bark, look at the lid and then go back to playing, that's an A+. Spin around, run for you and hide behind you? A-, because the puppy is looking to you for comfort and protection. A fail would be trembling in terror, peeing the floor, barking uncontrollably, trying to leave the area, and not being able to let that startle go after more than a minute. A dog with that high a level of sensitivity to stimulation is not going to do well in public with a screaming toddler chasing her. Not to mention a store manager yelling, "Get that dog out of here!"

Noelle's response to the dropped pot lid was literally, she jumped straight up in the air, spun around, looked at the pot lid, looked at me, and went back to playing as if nothing happened. She has a very quick recovery from startle to this day. Service dogs are allowed to jump, they are even allowed to bark once or twice. But, they just can't lose their heads.

Pull your puppy's tail, feet, ears roughly, not like you're trying to remove them, obviously, but not gently, either. Does the dog ignore this, or become very upset? Stranger's children will grab your dog from behind. Your dog's body sensitivity must be low enough where they won't turn and bite that child.

So, if your puppy has a low body sensitivity, a low to medium reactivity to stimulation, and is willing to follow your lead with joy, you have potential. Don't screw that potential up by training your puppy to be a service dog. Your puppy needs to be trained how to be a normal well rounded puppy. Do not put your preschooler in college and get angry when they can't solve differential calculus equations. 

Aim for the Canine Good Citizen award, and train your dog to like the world we live in. Go out and play look at that. Sit outside a store and watch people. Offer extra jackpot treats for seeing men in hats, women in religious clothing, children running. Make sure your puppy sees people of every race. Get your puppy around people speaking different languages. 

The people do not have to interact with your puppy. YOU interact with your puppy while watching the world go by. Jackpot the man with the sunglasses and the beard. Look at the nice man, six treats bonus! A woman wearing a sari. Look at her beautiful clothes, 4 treat bonus. A woman wearing a hijab is worth three treats. If her face is veiled, jackpot treats. In the winter, anyone wearing a ski mask is a treat bonus. 

I have the bonus of living in the most diverse area of my county. If you spin the globe and point, someone from that place lives here. Yesterday I heard nine different languages in a six minute period. This makes socialization very easy. Noelle is not thrown by people who look different and sound different, religious garb of all types, none of this matters to her.
"Look, that's our neighbor! Say hi neighbor!" in a cheerful tone, while giving your dog treats will help your puppy associate everyone as a neighbor. It's also a very welcoming experience for people who sometimes feel less than welcome these days. I cannot tell you how many people have broken into a huge smile when I said, "Look at her, she's our neighbor! Say hi, neighbor!" and given baby Noelle treats. 

Teaching your puppy that the world is safe and you're there to help, is a good place to start. Service puppies need a solid foundation so start there.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Skylar,

Noelle freaked out when we walked on a shiny floor with a highly reflective surface. She wouldn't walk on it. So I started acting silly on the floor and finally she touched it with her paw. Once she discovered it was solid, we were fine.

With a shiny scary ramp, I would stay back and watch people go up and down, up and down. Take one step closer and watch again. Put your dog in a down stay and you walk up and walk down. See if she'll follow you up. If you have space, call your dog to front, stand one step back on the ramp and call her to come. Reward a paw touch as if she just won the Nobel Prize. 

Glass elevators mean putting your back to the door, call the dog to front, and encourage eye contact while you look out the glass wall. Your dog is looking at the door. Up you go. When the elevator stops, you pivot into heel position and leave together.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We had some good testing of our public access in the last two nights at work. Yesterday we walked in with a friend who breeds GSP who Javelin has known since he was a tiny puppy. Although he wanted to say hello to Michael he stayed with me with his leash loose. He also ignored a person walking a dog fairly close to us (which he doesn't always handle so well outside of obedience training scenarios).


After class both nights this week we have walked out while the overnight maintenance crew that cleans and waxes floors was setting up. This massive floor cleaning only happens two or three times a year when there are not a lot of courses running and is always done overnight. It involves removing all of the furniture from rooms and some really heavy duty big machines. So the gauntlet was men stacking student desks in the hall, men moving the machines out into the hall and lots of loud talking so the crew could coordinate the set up. We had to squeeze through much of the path to the elevator, but Javelin stuck with me pretty well. He got mildly startled once or twice, but recovered quickly. I made sure I paid well.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

I somehow miss this wonderful thread. On the phone app, it does not show all the threads. 

Lucky takes his cgca and we are gonna bring kit to see if she can pass early before her cgca class ends. Lucky had almost no practice but the instructor thinks he would pass without much practice since he already does everything. We just never got to test it. He also takes the CGCU, which is like the public access test.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Let me know how they do! I'm sure it'll be great!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I'm excited for you and Lucky and Kit - hope the testing goes well.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

Yay!! Kit and Lucky got their CGCA!!! We are testing another time for the CGCU. Next week I take Lucky to Tampa to complete his service dog training work with his program! 









They were very cuddly today 

























Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

snow0160 said:


> Yay!! Kit and Lucky got their CGCA!!! We are testing another time for the CGCU. Next week I take Lucky to Tampa to complete his service dog training work with his program!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Congratulations - time to celebrate. Both Lucky and Kit - fabulous.


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