service dog training

Dotty’s Career Prep Begins

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Dotty, a white golden retriever, looks at a table with a timer, a plastic container of treats, and one small dog biscuit
Dotty has learned not to take the treat until she hears the sound

Dotty is getting ready for her future career: She’s going to be a hearing assistance dog. Hearing dogs assist people with hearing loss by alerting them to key sounds, such as a timer, a smoke alarm, a doorbell — even someone calling their name.

During her last weeks with us, Dotty is practicing the first steps in hearing-dog training. We set a timer. I place a cookie near the timer and guide Dotty away. Initially just a few feet, but we’ve expanded the distance a bit.

Dotty, a white golden retriever, eats a small biscuit that was on a table with her sound work timer and treat box
Returning to the table in response to the timer’s beeping, Dotty eats her reward

When the timer rings, Dotty goes to it and eats the cookie. That’s the easy part. Then, she is supposed to come and alert me. We introduce this with another cookie (are you beginning to see why Dotty loves practice sessions?). She nudges my leg and gets the cookie. I then ask her “What?” She is supposed to lead me to the sound and, you guessed it, get another cookie. (The cookies are very small.)

When Orly is home, she sometimes tries to steal the first cookie. If she refrains and heads back at the end of the alert, she gets a ‘good helper’ cookie.

As Dotty gets better at this, we can make things tougher. The first thing we’re doing is adding more time between when Dotty sees me set things up and the timer rings.

We’ll als0 add more distance, with me waiting in a different room or even hiding from her. Eventually, we’ll start working with a second sound. We’ll go back to the basics, with her watching me set it up and the sound alerting only a few seconds later.

As she progresses, her professional trainer will continue to make things more difficult — adding new sounds, increasing distance and time, and moving to unpredictable alerts, where Dotty would not see the setup happening. That’s all pretty far away for her.

In her more advanced trainer, she might also learn different responses to some sounds. For example, if she’s alerting to a smoke alarm, she might lead me to the door — not to the alarm.

We’re only at the early stage of her training, and Dotty is an enthusiastic learner who learns quickly.

Where’s Dotty?

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Dotty, a 7-month-old white golden retriever, wears a blue service dog-in-training vestIt has been a while since I wrote about Dotty, so I wanted to give an update.

Dotty is with her trainer, doing some intensive work on a couple of behavioral issues.

When I dropped her off in late February, just before heading out on a trip, I thought I would see her again in a few weeks. It has been more than 2 months.

At first, I worried that I’d flunked puppy raising; that the issues were because I had done something terribly wrong.

As time passes, though, I have realized that I had flagged these issues last summer, and did what I could (& knew how to do) … and she needed more skillful training than I could provide.

I’ve joked that Dotty is at reform school but … that’s not fair to her. She’s not a “bad” dog and is not doing anything “wrong.” She’s a bit overly exuberant for the ideal service dog candidate, and a lot to handle for the average dog handler, but also a sweet, affectionate pup who really wants to be a good girl.

Orly seems ambivalent. I am sure that she misses her playmate, and she seems bored a lot. But … she also seems to enjoy being the pampered “only princess” in the house.

Reactions to seeing people …

One of her issues is termed “reactivity.” This is a very broad term that refers to a dog who, well, reacts to a trigger in a way that the humans dislike. This is a very broad spectrum. Triggers can be cats, other dogs, squirrels, children, noises, things flapping in the wind … and pretty much anything else a dog might encounter. Reactions can be to startle and recover (fine), to growl or bark, to lunge and pull, to leap around excitedly, to show overt aggression, and more.

In Dotty’s case, the trigger is just about any living creature entering her field of vision, approaching her, and presenting the possibility of a social encounter. Her reactions vary: For a squirrel, her response is fascination. She’d sit and watch the squirrels in our yard for as long as 20-30 minutes, utterly fascinated — and utterly still and calm. For cats, deer, and squirrels encountered on the walk, she was interested and might pull a bit, but was responding well to a Leave it! and would walk on by (usually). For people, with or without dogs, and for familiar dogs in a yard — that’s a whole ‘nother story. Especially people.

I have to say: Dotty is the only dog I have known to leap off the ground, almost to my shoulder height, clearing all four paws. Over and over, maybe 5-6 times within a minute or two. It’s quite an athletic feat. It also gets people to laugh, which encourages it …

Cooperative repeat visitors to my house ignored the antics, waiting until Dotty sat to greet and pet her. But on walks, I was not having much luck breaking this habit.

A different sort of reaction

Her other Big Issue has to do with anxiety, lack of confidence or both. When something unexpected happens, she startles, which is normal. But a confident dog will recover quickly and move on, or (even better) quickly go to investigate the weird thing or noise, whether it’s a paper or plastic bag blowing down the street, a noise when something falls, or something else.

Dotty neither recovers nor goes to investigate. In fact, she seems to hold a grudge against the place where the unexpected thing happens, avoiding a room or area of yard or sidewalk where she was startled, sometimes for days. I first noticed this when I started taking her on public “field trips” — a critical element of training a service dog puppy. She wasn’t keen on automatic doors or the freezer doors at the local small grocery store. And after the first encounter, she refused to enter the store.

Again, I worked on this with what I knew and have done in the past, and hadn’t seen many more examples of it happening. I worked through her discomfort with a couple of large statues at the mall, for example — an 8-foot wooden park ranger and a life-size dog mannequin. But she’s still responding that way to new surprises.

This might be tougher to resolve and could disqualify her for service dog role, where she’d need to be confident enough to accompany her person out in public, naturally encountering new and weird things.

What’s next?

When Dotty’s trainer is confident that he has made significant progress on these issues, Dotty will likely come back to spend more time with us. She’s still got quite a bit of growing up to do, though she’s 14 months old already.

Or, the trainer could decide that she’s not able to work as a service dog and place her in a permanent pet home. We’re not there yet. Dotty’s a smart girl and an eager learner, and the trainer is very skilled and patient. I’m hoping it all works out!

 

 

Happy Birthday, Dotty!

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White golden retriever Dotty leaps on a snowy field, her ears flyingDotty is one year old today!

Unfortunately, my celebration with her will be delayed …

She’s spending some quality time with her trainer. A great deal of quality time, which started during a recent trip I took. Dotty went to board with her trainer, and he promised to work on some of the issues I’d raised with him and … well … found that Dotty needs a lot of work.

To be fair, she’s very typical of golden retriever puppies; she’s just more than most puppies I’ve worked with: More energetic; more aware of every little sound or movement in her environment; more excited to see people she knows, people she doesn’t know, dogs, cats, squirrels, deer…

Orly had a Highly Energetic phase in her adolescence, but it only lasted a few months. Dotty … hasn’t settled down yet. And Orly never achieved the heights — quite literal — of Dotty, who is given to leaping high into the air, with all four feet off the ground, several times in a row(!) when she’s excited.

So Dotty is learning to have better impulse control and to focus on the task at hand even when temptation tempts, whether in the form of a squirrel nearby, a plastic bag blowing in the wind, or a random stranger walking toward her on the sidewalk.

Dotty is also typical of golden pups, adolescents, and adults in that she adores everyone, loves to snuggle, and is sweet and goofy. We (her trainer and I) are still optimistic that she’ll be a fabulous service dog some day. But maybe not just yet.

Dotty’s Breakthrough Moment

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Dotty, an 8-month-old white golden retriever, picks up a cellphone case from a multicolored rugDotty has been working on her retrieve. It’s an important job for service dogs who assist people who use wheelchairs or have poor balance. The dog can pick up items the person has dropped or that are difficult to reach. Ideally, the dog brings the item to the person’s hand or maybe to a tray attached to the wheelchair.

Dotty has had limited enthusiasm for this task, though she’s slowly getting more attentive. She drops things a lot, and often loses interest before getting the item to my hand.

Recently, I started asking her to carry things up or down the stairs. The idea was to get her to hold the items for a longer time. It has been working well, though getting her to carry an item into the office and hand it to me is still dicey. I wasn’t sure how much she understood of what I wanted her to do.

Until recently.

8-month-old Dotty, a white golden retriever, carries a cellphone case. Her left ear flies out to the side as she turns.I was on a zoom call with my boss, and I was writing something down. I moved the pad or the mouse or something and the pen flew off the table and landed on the floor behind my chair.

As I looked for it, I noticed Dotty eyeing the pen, then looking at me. I whispered encouragement, and she … performed a miracle.

Dotty came over, picked up the pen, and placed it into my hand.

!!!

A major breakthrough.

I gave her several treats and whispered praise. The meeting continued.

Though I have asked her to pick up things I have dropped many times, I was far from thinking she had understood and bought into the goal — moving the “pick up dropped item” behavior to an almost automatic behavior. In fact, I was wondering whether she would ever get there.

Doing it once does not mean that she will ever do it again, of course. But I think she’s beginning to understand that I want her to pick things up and that I am weirdly excited and happy when she does. And that she gets paid pretty well in delicious cookies.

It’s great progress.

Step by Step

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White golden pup Dotty lies on a colorful towel in the car
I refuse to get out of this car!

Dotty does not like getting into the car. She hates (and strongly resists) getting out of the car.

This is a problem when, say, we need to go to the vet or to training class, as it would be with any pup. But as a service-dog-in-training, Dotty simply goes more places than most dogs — and she needs to get used to getting in and out of all kinds of vehicles.

When I trained young service dog puppies, long ago, we took them on field trips in a minivan. We had a folding ramp that they walked up and down to get in and out of the van, where they rode in sturdy crates.

I have a Forester, and the dogs ride in the back seat. Getting in and out requires either a big jump onto the seat 0r, preferably, two smaller jumps — one into the passenger foot space, and then from there onto the seat.

Orly learned quickly (from Cali) how to do all of this, and we never had an issue getting her in or out of the car.

Dotty has learned a lot from Orly … but not this. Despite watching Orly get in and out of the car dozens (maybe hundreds) of times. Treats aren’t helping either.

So I bought her some steps. The ramps I saw for sale were too long to be usable either in my narrow driveway or when parking in a parking lot with only a foot or two between cars. They are also often too wide to use at a passenger side door. But these little steps fit.

They’re plastic and sturdy enough to support a much larger dog than Dotty is (at the moment), but they can move if the dog jumps too enthusiastically. I hold them in place with a foot. Orly doesn’t mind the movement. Dotty… does.

(You may remember, though, that Dotty was not eager to use regular steps … the solid kind that are inside the house … especially the ones going down.)

Golden retriever Orly approaches gray plastic stepsOrly figured it out immediately and eagerly showed Dotty how to bound up and down, in and out. Dotty wanted nothing to do with these steps, not even with our top-rated treats.

We moved to the basement and practiced going up and down the steps to get on and off the TV sofa, the only furniture Dotty is allowed on. She caught on pretty fast, with the help of some yummy treats.

We moved to the deck. Orly again demoed quite enthusiastically.

White pup dotty goes up gray plastic steps to a brown deckDotty grudgingly tried (treats definitely helped here)… survived … tried a few more times. Seemed comfortable enough.

Back to the car. She went in. Progress!

But that was it. Dotty did her usual lie down refusal to even consider getting out.

Orly bounded in and out a few more times, showing off her ability and confidence — and making a big deal out of gobbling her treat rewards.

White pup Dotty climbs the plastic steps to enter a blue carUnmoved, Dotty turned her back on us and lay down even harder, if that’s even possible.

We went to training class, where Glenn, our trainer, helped all the dogs go in and out of his minivan using stairs very similar to ours. And a ramp. Dotty did both. She even seemed to like the ramp.

Back to the Forester. She got in, no problem. I coaxed her off the back seat and she — miracle — climbed down the steps and out of the car!

White pup Dotty lies on the car seat, looking out the door, with the gray steps in place to help her out.Once.

Climbed back in and did the hard lie-down. Dared me to try to get her out.

We drove home and … that was it. She was done. Not gonna get out.

I did my usual — picked her up and lifted her out. All almost-40-pounds of her. I cannot keep doing this.

We’ll see who wins this battle. My money is on Dotty, which will present quite a conundrum if she gets any bigger.