Meet SSD Lagoon

Meet SSD Lagoon, a playful, curious puppy in training from the Water litter. At three and a half months old, Lagoon is like a sponge, soaking up all kinds of skills, behaviors, and experiences.

Right now, she and her puppy raisers are working on play retrieves and recalls. They often go to the dog park to practice, which also gives Lagoon the chance to meet other dogs. Between practicing recalls and retrieves, meeting other dogs, and just generally playing, Lagoon is one sleepy dog afterward!

They are also working on the cue “go to bed.” When Lagoon fully learns this skill, she’ll go to a designated bed or blanket, lie down, and stay there for an extended time. This is an extremely useful cue for the dogs to learn. Among other things, it can be used to anchor the dog when visitors arrive, or to keep the dog from getting underfoot while someone is preparing food in the kitchen.

In addition to going to the dog park, Lagoon has also gone Christmas shopping with her puppy raisers, and this past weekend, they went to the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Lagoon met a donkey, saw cows, sheep, and other animals, and got lots of practice walking calmly through crowds and interesting smells. 

 

Monday to Friday, Lagoon goes to work with her puppy raiser. She’s getting lots of experience relaxing in an office setting. One day, she may need to accompany her partner to work every day, and she’ll need to know how to spend the whole day sleeping, or at least relaxing, under a desk or in an office. Constant practice means that she’ll fit seamlessly into her new partner’s life.

Until that day, though, she’s learning as much as she can, and her puppy raisers are having fun watching her grow and learn every single day!

Early Socialization Class

All of our puppies are now with their puppy raisers, which means it's time to start learning how to be service dogs! For the first 9 weeks with their puppy raisers, our puppies attend early socialization classes with the other dogs in their litter. During these classes, we introduce and practice new some basic skills that the dogs should know, such as "sit," "down," and loose leash walking. These classes lay a solid skill foundation for the puppies before they move into regular puppy classes with the rest of our dogs in training. And as the name suggests, they also give the dogs a chance to be socialized.

In Tuesday's early socialization class, the Water puppies practiced "sit," and then started working on "down." To teach "down," we start the dogs in a sit, then with a food lure, move our hand from the dog's nose to the floor. As soon as the dog is lying on the ground, we click and give the dog the treat. We'll use a lure up to three times, and then we'll just use our hand, still clicking and treating when the dog is lying down. At this stage, it's important not to use the word "down." The verbal cue will be added later, once the dog is reliably lying down. Soon, the Water pups were doing beautiful "downs!"

We also practiced loose leash walking, which is one of our most important service dog skills. It's one of the hardest skills for a dog to learn because it involves so much self control. It's also a skill that needs to be taught from day one so the dogs learn never to pull. The Water puppies are off to a great start!

Watch SSD Rain practice loose leash walking. Although the carpet has lots of distracting smells, Rain's puppy raiser gets her attention and then clicks and treats when the leash is nice and loose while Rain is walking next to her. When Rain pulls to the end of the leash, her puppy raiser backs up and gently pulls Rain back. See how Rain follows, and is soon trotting along again on a loose leash? (Also, check out how Rain's puppy raiser delivers treats right to Rain's mouth at the puppy's level. This keeps Rain from adding a little hop to get her treats.)

We also continued working on the cue "go to bed," where the dog goes to a mat or dog bed and lays down. This cue can be used as a great anchor for the dog, and it has many uses. It can be used to give the dog a place to be while their handler is preparing food in the kitchen, or it can be used as an anchor when guests visit, among other things.

To teach this cue, we put a towel or blanket on the floor and start by clicking and treating the dog just for looking at the blanket. Once the dog has that down, we wait to click until the dog takes a step toward the blanket, then two steps, then three, until the dog has all four paws on the blanket. We keep increasing the criteria until the dog goes to the blanket, lays down, and stays there. Once the dog has that behavior, then we'll add the verbal cue "go to bed."

Watch SSD Cove practice "go to bed." She walks right over to the towel and puts all four paws on it. Notice how her puppy raiser delivers treats so Cove has to step off of the towel. This sets it up nicely so that Cove has to keep moving and walk back to the towel for another click and treat.

We're looking forward to seeing what these puppies learn by next week!

It's Time to Meet the Water Puppies

On September 22, we got a huge surprise. SSD Opal gave birth to seven puppies!

You can watch Opal and her Water puppies on the puppy cam. That means that you now have three litters of puppies that you can follow online! 

We're expecting one more litter this fall, and we really need your help getting ready for them. These three litters of puppies have used up a lot of supplies! We're going to need storage containers, baby nail clippers, storage containers, puppy crates, tiny service dog vests, and more. Please check out our puppy wish list for a complete list of the items we need. Thank you so much!

Meet the Water Puppies

SSD Bay, yellow female, purple collar

SSD Cove, black female, blue collar

SSD Lagoon, yellow female, red collar

SSD Ocean, yellow female, pink collar

SSD Rain, black female, orange collar

SSD Stream, black female, yellow collar

SSD Ripple, yellow male, green collar