New for PawsAbilities: The Cutest Dog Contest

Do you have a cute dog? Do strangers often comment on how adorable your dog is? Now is your chance to find out just how cute your dog is. Enter your pooch in PawsAbilities' Cutest Dog Contest!

At noon on Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14, show off your adorable dog on the PawsAbilities stage. The audience will decide which dog is the cutest. The dog that receives the loudest applause wins! The top three dogs will receive ribbons to prove that they are the cutest dogs.

It's FREE to enter. Sign up at the Dog Olympics registration table the day of the event.

No costumes, please. For the Cutest Dog Contest, dogs will be judged in their natural state. For dogs who love to get dressed up, we have a separate Costume Contest.

For more information about PawsAbilities and to buy tickets for the event, visit www.pawsabilities.net.

Onyx's Travels

Onyx loves playing in the snow, and we wanted to share this video that her puppy raisers took after the big snow storms.

These past few weeks, Onyx has been a rambling dog. She went to Cashtown, PA with her puppy raisers Mark and Carol for the Mysterious Journeys Weekend - a weekend of touring the locations of the Ghosts of Gettysburg episode of Mysterious Journeys on the Travel Channel. Onyx spent the weekend at the Cashtown Inn, and she was such a good girl! During dinner, her puppy raisers put her in her crate to relax, but while the speakers were presenting, Carol took the opportunity to practice hand cues. Onyx did great, and she stayed quiet for almost the whole time! Carol used power treats - chicken (one of Onyx's favorites!) and hot dog pieces.


Onyx didn't go with Mark and Carol on the actual tour, but on Sunday of that weekend, she got to play with the Cashtown Inn's dog, Barnum. The owners of the Inn closed off the tavern room so the dogs could play without getting into too much trouble! Carol took advantage of the situation and practiced recalls with Onyx. You may remember from our first post about Onyx that when she's playing with other dogs, she tends to ignore the cue to come. Well, at the Cashtown Inn, Carol had Onyx's favorite treat - cheese whiz - and Onyx responded every time Carol cued her to come! Of course, Barnum usually came too, once he found out there was cheese, but it was a definite success for Onyx.

This past Saturday, she went on the puppy outing to Chocolate World. Knowing that this would be a challenging experience for the dogs, Carol brought the cheese whiz. Onyx was perfectly fine in the parking lot. In the building, she handled the stairs and rotating floor with no problem. But when it came to getting on the car for the ride, Onyx wouldn't do it. SSD Rossi demonstrated how to get on the car, but Onyx still didn't want to do it. Carol and Mark took her outside to relax, then came back to try it again, but she still didn't like those cars.

Even though Onyx balked at actually getting on the ride, she still got good experience being at Chocolate World. She had to go through the turn stile and walk past all the free candy samples Hershey gives away, and she had no problem with either of them. She did fine in the Hershey store and completely ignored the other SSD dogs, keeping her attention on Mark, Carol and the cheese whiz. Chocolate World was very stressful for her, but she still got some good practice. In the photo below, Onyx is the one eating the cheese straight from the can.


From Sunday to Thursday (today), many of our puppy raisers have swapped puppies. This is a great experience for both the puppies and the puppy raisers. The puppies have to adjust to the ways of a new household and family, which is something they will eventually need to do once they become service dogs. It also gives them experience with different handlers, who might ask for behaviors in different ways. For the puppy raisers, it gives them an opportunity to work wtih another dog. They suddenly have a new puppy with a different personality and behaviors, and the training plans and style they use with their puppy might not work with the new one. they'll have to think outside the box. When the puppies return to their usual homes, puppy raisers usually have lots to share.


Mark and Carol swapped puppies with SSD Sienna's puppy raisers. Sienna is a yellow lab and Onyx's sister. So far, Sienna has had several new experiences - meeting new people and dogs and learning to go up longer flights of stairs. She even went to a tour guide meeting and did great! "It'll be very interesting to see everythign that Onyx has learned when she gets back," says Carol.

Shaping Behaviors with a Plan

We held our first clicker shaping class last night! We've posted about shaping before, and we've discussed it in puppy classes, but this is the first time we've done a small, hands-on shaping class. This class focused on shaping with a plan.

When you shape a behavior, you're breaking that behavior into tiny steps. We use shaping to teach complex behaviors, such as turning light switches on and off. In order to shape a behavior, you need to know what the end behavior looks like, and then break it down into small progressive steps until the dog reaches that goal.

If you create a plan before you start shaping, you can be more systematic and you and your dog are more likely to be successful. Keeping detailed records allows you to break a behavior into tiny steps, and gives you, the trainer, a visible plan to follow. You'll be able to see the dog's success as he progresses through the steps. And if he has difficulty with a certain step, you can more easily backtrack to where the dog was successful.

When you're shaping a behavior, the dog should have an 80% success rate before you move on to the next step. If you're not having success with a step after three trials, you may need to backtrack. Don't keep insisting that the dog get that step right. You and the dog will just get frustrated. If your dog is having trouble, it's your job as the trainer to figure out why. It may be that you tried to take too big of a step. You may need to go back and break the behavior into even smaller steps.

With each step, you're going to change the criteria. For example, in the shaping class, we demonstrated by beginning to shape SSD Gideon to turn in a counterclockwise circle, a behavior he has never learned before. We began by clicking him for looking to the left. Once he was successful 80% of the time, we only clicked if he turned his head to the left. Here's a video of the beginning step of shaping Gideon to turn counterclockwise:



It's important when you're changing the criteria that you only change one thing. What would be a change in criteria? In the Gideon example, a change would be waiting for a head turn rather than just a look. But a change in the dog's actions is not the only thing that counts as a change. If you sit instead of stand, that's a change. If another person enters the room, that's a change. If you move into a different room or take a few steps away from the dog, that's a change. So you need to be careful that you're only changing one thing each time you move to the next step.

In the shaping class, we broke into pairs to practice shaping. Each pair was asked to shape one of the dogs (SSD Gideon, Star or Fire) to put their nose in a cone. (Since Gideon already knows how to do that, his group had to shape him to put his entire paw in a ring.) Everyone started with a plan. For example, Fire's handler's decided to start by clicking him for looking at the cone, then move on to clicking for touching the cone. As you can see in the video, Fire quickly caught on to looking at the cone.



But when his handlers increased the criteria to touching the cone, it became more challenging. Instead of simply touching the cone with his nose, Fire began biting it.



Because he wasn't successful at this step, his handlers backtracked to clicking for looking at the cone.



They also adjusted their shaping plan, breaking it into smaller steps. Instead of jumping from looking at the cone to touching the cone, they clicked for looking at the cone for a longer amount of time.

As a trainer, the challenge with shaping is to make the steps small enough. When the dog isn't being successful, it's your responsibility to figure out why and adjust the plan accordingly. You want to set the dog up for success.

Mary Hunter's Stale Cheerios blog and Karen Pryor's website are great resources for more information about clicker training and shaping.

The shaping class was a lot of fun, for both the people and the dogs. Have fun practicing shaping with your dog!

Dogs Change Lives Contest Extended to March 14!

We love reading your stories about how your dog has changed your life! We've gone through a few boxes of tissues while reading some of them, but every single story has made us smile.

In fact, we're extending the submission deadline to March 14. Voting will still start on March 1, but you'll be able to continue submitting stories until the end of the day on March 14.

So far, we've read some extraordinary stories. We've read about Largo, a Rottweiler that saved her partner's life by alerting her to a seizure. Ripple, who stuck by her owner through some tough times. Mr. B, whose love helped to heal his owner. Bleu, the dog whose presence helped a young girl sleep calmly through the night. Duke, who guided his family through a blinding snowstorm. And Woozy, a dog that gave a young man new purpose in life.

These are just a few of the stories we've read. Every story on Dogs Change Lives is extraordinary, and it's amazing how dogs can touch our lives in large and small ways. Please visit Dogs Change Lives and read these heart-warming stories!

Keep submitting your stories about your dogs, and don't forget that voting starts on March 1!

Chocolate World

Our dogs-in-training visited Chocolate World in Hershey, PA on Saturday. The visit was one of our puppy outings. We hold several outings throughout the year that are designed to give the dogs experience in different situations.

The visit to Chocolate World was certainly a test of the dogs' skills. The dogs and their puppy raisers went on the Chocolate World ride, which tells the story of how Hershey makes its chocolate products. To get on the ride, the dogs had to walk down a set of stairs onto a rotating floor. From there, they had to climb into open cars, which take you through the ride.

Some of the dogs had no problem getting on the cars. They didn't even hesitate at the rotating floor or the cars. Other dogs wanted nothing to do with the cars. One of our demo/interview/therapy dogs, SSD Rossi, was a calming influence on some of the dogs. By calmly demonstrating how to get on the ride, she showed some of the dogs that the cars weren't something to be afraid of.

The cars swiveled slowly from side to side as the narrator discussed different parts of the story. Within the ride, the dogs encountered things like singing cows, active sample factory machinery, and of course, the smell of chocolate. At the end of the ride, dogs had to exit the cars and walk off the rotating floor and go back up the steps. At the top of the stairs, the dogs had to go through a turn stile.

And then came one of the big tests. At the end of the Chocolate World ride, Hershey always gives away free samples of its candy, usually a new product. Right now, the new product is Pieces - candies like York Peppermint Patties, Almond Joy and Special Dark Chocolate in a candy-coated shell, similar to Reese's Pieces. That means that there were pieces of chocolate candy on the floor. The dogs got lots of leave it practice!

Here are some videos from the dogs' trip to Chocolate World:

SSD Lavender climbs off the car of the Chocolate World ride.



SSD Aspen practices loose leash walking after getting off the ride.



SSD Rossi demonstrates a service dog skill for visitors - unzipping a jacket.

Great Biscuit Bite-Off

For Team Training, one of our volunteers made special dog biscuits for each of the new service dogs. The dogs loved them! Does your dog love homemade treats? Do you love to make special treats for your dog?

Now’s your chance to win a prize for your dog’s favorite recipe! Enter the Great Biscuit Bite-Off at PawsAbilities!

The Biscuit Bite-Off will be judged by our very own service dogs and service dogs-in-training.

Visit PawsAbilities’ Great Biscuit Bite-Off for information on how to enter.

Don’t forget to buy your PawsAbilities tickets! The big event is coming up soon – March 13-14!

Snow, Shoes, and More with Nubble

While all this snow might make for difficult driving and parking conditions for people, the dogs love it! Nubble has been having a blast in the snow! He would live in the snow, if he could. He romps through the snow and burrows. After a nap inside the house, he’s be ready to go back out and do it all over again. His puppy raisers had a great time playing in the snow with him. “It’s very neat that you can throw a snowball into 20 inches of snow, and a dog will chase after it and find it,” says Donna.

Nubble also tried to “help” Donna shovel. First, he had to check out the shovel. Then he wanted to remove all the snow from the shovel. Finally, he’d chase after whatever snow Donna managed to toss to the side.

Last week, we shared Nubble’s first progress with shaping. Donna and Lindsey are working on shaping him to stand on a small platform. When we left off last week, he was putting two feet on the platform. Now, he pivots around it. He has been developing other skills, as well. He has gotten very good at going through doors. We train all of our dogs to wait for the “go on through” cue before going through doors. It’s still a challenge for Nubble to go through the front door because of the temptations of cats and cat food, but he’s getting better. Also, when Donna lets him out of his crate, he waits patiently for the “okay” or “go on through” cue, even when Gizzy is in the room waiting for him. Nice self control!

Donna and Lindsey continue to work on loose leash walking. They’ve been practicing in the yard, sometimes with Gizzy, sometimes just by himself. He hasn’t quite caught on yet. Another thing they’re working on is up, all the way up, and off with furniture. While Nubble understands all of these cues, he still tries to climb on the couch when he hasn’t been given the cue. Donna is working on finding a way to make him understand that he can’t get on the furniture any time he wants to.

Nubble has gotten bigger! He’s now 41 pounds and can jump over the baby gates Donna was using. Here are two pictures of him in the car. The first one is him as a puppy, when Donna and Lindsey first brought him home. The second is Nubble today. What a difference!

He’s now big enough to countersurf, and he does it even if there’s no food on the counter or table. We’ll keep you posted on Nubble and his puppy raisers’ progress in changing this behavior.

This week, Nubble went back to the gym with Donna. They worked on stay while Donna did several reps on 4 different machines. He was doing great until one of the gym’s employees walked over to ask Donna about the dog. Once Donna explained that Nubble was a service dog-in-training, the employee understood, but by then, Nubble’s concentration was broken. The trip to the gym, however, was still a success. Nubble gave some great stays and Donna had the opportunity to teach someone about service dogs.

Nubble also went to a shoe store this past weekend. He was fascinated by all the shoes – what temptations! Donna, her husband and Lindsey worked on stay in the aisle. To make sure Nubble didn’t wander off, Donna’s husband stood on the leash behind the dog. Donna asked him to stay while she walked away. Then she and Lindsey walked away together. It was more difficult for Nubble when both Donna and Lindsey walked away, but by the second time, he stayed nicely.

Nubble had a successful interaction with a strange dog on Sunday. While driving near the shoe store, Donna and her family came across an older lab wandering the street, blocking traffic. Donna stopped, and with the help of another driver, she managed to get the dog off the road. He was shaking and scared and very thin. Since Donna had a spare collar and leash, they took him to the Animal Rescue League. Before putting the strange dog in the car, she put Nubble in his crate, just in case. When the strange lab got in the car, all he and Nubble did was sniff at each other. (If you’re wondering, the Animal Rescue League did find the owners of the lab.)

Nubble has been doing great! “I just love raising him,” says Donna. “I just love it!”