Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Puppy Swap for Success



Different raiser, different house, different routine—it’s a puppy swap! SSD Lucky spent a week with puppy raisers Revenda and Brian Bierley to broaden his experiences. These puppy swaps are an important part of Lucky’s early socialization, helping him learn to work with other people and settle in to a new environment. After all, he’ll one day live at our kennel during the week while he’s in advanced training, and then he’ll ultimately go live with his new partner.

Revenda chronicled Lucky’s time with them:

“When he arrived, SSD Lucky was extremely excited to find SSD Russet, a 16-month-old golden retriever, waiting to show him the ropes. Their first introduction was typical: a lot of circling and sniffing. Lucky quickly became Russet’s sidekick and they enjoyed a lot of playtime. On occasion, Lucky’s energy surpassed Russet’s patience, and Russet took refuge in a quiet corner of the house.

Lucky’s first outing occurred the second day of his puppy swap when he visited the Carlisle Library. The library is a great place to take young service dogs in training because it offers a wide array of opportunities to practice newly learned cues along with new experiences.


Lucky practiced down-stays in the book aisles and went under chairs and tables. We also found some unique surfaces for him to stand on, practiced walking on stairs, and every worked on his elevator skills. Lucky will practice these behaviors in many different environments as he continues his journey to become a service dog.


He did such a lovely job practicing his newly learned cues at the library that we added a short walk around town. We kept the walk short, but it gave him the opportunity to experience the noise of traffic, crossing a crosswalk, and walking up cement steps.


On Friday, he went swimming with Russet. They enjoyed romping around the pool, chasing each other, and retrieving toys from the pool. Lucky quickly found his inner water dog and is well on his way to becoming an accomplished swimmer.


On the weekend, Lucky went on an outing with Russet. We took both dogs to Kohl’s, where Lucky (and Russet) practiced loose leash walking, down-stays, and “under.” This time, Lucky has the added distraction of working in close proximity to another service dog in training. This was a very successful outing, and Lucky was unfazed by Russet.




Toward the end of our time at Kohl’s, two small children asked to say hello to Lucky. He did a nice job keeping all four paws on the floor, even as his little tail was wagging a mile a minute.*

On Monday, Lucky went on one more outing with us before his scheduled return to his raiser. He was a rock star at T.J.Maxx. For a 3-month-old puppy, he showed off some impressive loose leash walking. I heard multiple people commenting on how well he was doing. We also took the opportunity to practice “under” and down-stays, as well.”

It sounds like Lucky gained some valuable experiences! He’ll continue to build skills like these over the next 15-18 months.

*Note: Even though the public is not supposed to pet service dogs, we train all of our dogs to be able to handle greetings. They’re trained to keep all four paws on the floor and stay focused on the person holding the leash. It’s all part of their training to ignore distractions.


Help build a new training center for our dogs in training! Donate here: https://www.crowdrise.com/susquehanna-capital-campaign  

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Service Dog Training at the Elizabethtown Fair



Guest post by Becky Dombrowsky, puppy raiser and volunteer

One of the reasons I love raising a puppy is it encourages me to go out and experience new things. Last year, Matt and I moved from Harrisburg to Elizabethtown, PA to be closer to his job. In that time, we have explored some of the restaurants in the area, but that is about it. I was excited to learn that Etown has its own fair!

Matt and I had planned to attend on Thursday night with Lucky, but the weather was supposed to get into the 90s. Friday’s forecast was much cooler, so that was the better choice.   

Not having been to the fair before, I wasn't sure what to expect. Assuming there would be all sorts of smells and foods, I knew I needed to make sure to bring along good power treats to keep Lucky's attention. We packed dog food as usual, but I also had some other dog treats plus small pieces of hot dog. I like using hot dogs because the juice gets onto the kibble and turns the kibble also a higher value treat. Last I grabbed a travel bowl and water, and off we went.

We decided to pay $5 to park closer to the fair. I was amazed by all the people, rides, food, games, music, animals and smells! Since we didn't know our way around, we headed into the fair and started exploring. Click-treat, click-treat, click-treat. And then it started: "Excuse me, can I pet your puppy?" 


At this point, I can choose to say yes or no, based on Lucky’s behavior. I picked yes, and asked them to pet him behind his harness when all four feet are on the ground. Lucky practices a lot of greetings when he’s in the office with me, so I was confident he could be successful with the greeting. It went well, we took two steps, and someone else asked to pet him. I realized I had started down a rabbit hole and we had just became the most exciting thing at the fair. We continued with a couple more greetings; it was nice for Lucky to practice greetings with younger children. Greeting with little kids can be tough for a puppy because the kids are so much closer to the puppy than an adult. We then made a quick exit and headed for the food.


While Matt ate the amazing fair foods, Lucky and I found a seat and listened to the music coming from the stage. We worked on "down" and hanging out as the sun set.

From there, we decided to head over to the animal section. The fair had many farm animals, which Lucky had never seen before. First up was the sheep. Lucky wasn't so sure about him, and we worked up to being a couple feet away. 



Lucky did get startled with the sheep baa-ed at him. I decided to make this less stressful on both animals and picked Lucky up as we walked through the rest of the animal area to also meet a cow, baby ducks, and a goat. 


It’s important to remember the animals at the fair had limited space to move away if they weren't comfortable, so I did my best to keep Lucky’s exposures short.




On the way out of the fair, there were far less people and it made walking by all the games and rides a lot easier. 

I think the night was a success. I look forward to getting to build Lucky's confidence with different animals as he grows. 

Help Susquehanna Service Dogs train more dogs like SSD Lucky! Donate to build a new training center: https://crowdrise.com/susquehanna-capital-campaign