As we began to build into the
foundation of being a dog owner, we are now coming into play the part of being
a service dog owner. Many may say there is
not a big difference between the two however there truly is and as we add on to
what is expected of a service dog owner my mind begins to open to real world
experiences as well as accepting the fact a lot quicker that my family just got
a whole lot unique.
I am going to bring everyone up
to a little more speed after having the first day be interrupted by viral
infection and then the second day I was just pooped. There are twelve families in all. Our little lady actually has a sister pup in
our mix name Pretzel who will be living in West Virginia. All of our pups are amazing well trained,
behaved, and just particular adorable however they are used to their trainers
voice and so the process of getting them user to our voice is simply the
challenge as well as getting them to respect our commands. The very first day we worked on sit and down I was extremely proud of myself because I got the hands
commands and word commands down pack quickly and Sherbert responds to both
being given together or simply one of the other.
Our second day wasn’t bad well
for me it was a rough one after a night in the local ER for a viral infection
everything got to me from sound to smell and I was determine to fight it
out. Our goal for that second day was to
get our counterparts to remain in the sit and down commands for longer periods.
How many people you know wants to constantly have to tell their service
dog no and sit and stay among other things so it’s a learned and practice
behavior to get them to stay one place in one position while their handler
takes care of whatever it is that they are doing even when distractions are around.
The great thing about these
service dog is they have a understand that when a command is given that I’m
already letting him/her know to stay in that command until I give the release
command which happens to be free. When Sherbert is given the command to sit she knows it’s an implied condition
that she stays in that position until she’s released which is simply by me telling her free.
I was amazed at how calm this little lady acted when they started
throwing out some cool treats that she seems to love in front of her and the
tennis ball.
O let me tell you about the tennis
ball I thought at one point my arm was going to be ripped from my arm she may
look small but Sherbert is extremely strong so we keep tennis balls away from
her unless she’s being rewarded or we are in play mode.
Sherbert can also walk into a heel mode which for her it means walk to
my left and have her ears within the my leg distance and to follow my every
turn and step without over powering me or trying to pull me ahead. To say she had my respect and attention is
far by means but now I realized she knew what she was doing so I know needed to
show her I was learning but I was still Mom and she needed to follow rules so
here comes day three.
Today was tracking and do mind
you I woke up to snow flurries (Did I mention to anyone I’m from South Carolina
below the Dixie Line and that we don’t do snow) so imagine my crazy little self-watching
the news and seeing all of the craziness going on so my first thought was let’s
leave early (that didn’t happen) but we did get there on time. Now today was totally fun well after I warmed
up it was but we went tracking and I have to say if I didn’t say it before My
Girl Is A ROCKSTAR she was on her boys trail snapping and S-trailing all on his
body cell scent. For those who are
wondering what snapping is basically
it’s her head movement that lets me know whether we still have a hot trail and
also her way to be able to pick up where her boy has gone. The S-trail
is basically if she’s in a wind pattern the wind will blow the skin cells in
certain areas so she’s on the trail but she has to work with the wind pattern.
With a few new tricks up my sleeve such as place
when Sherbert gets on this special mat that she has and she always keeps
atleast two paws on it and she can do whatever she wants. We had a lot of fun with disturbance training
it’s interesting to find how she has now adjusted as me being her owner and
when I leave she always thinks like Jonathan has and that thought process “Oh
Mom’s gone yeah baby no rules.”
Overall she’s a good girl I’ve
been taught some things to recognized about her I know she’s a stubborn little
thing because my child is stubborn and I know she will do well as long as I
respect her and she respect me. So all in all we are good however I hear my little
angel in her kennel snoring and I’m now going to lie it down since tomorrow is
a early day and it’s a super fun day as we are going to be doing more tracking
as well as our first public access run a busy mall.
