SSD Judge: A Sweetheart Who Loves to Serve

Like his namesake, Father Mychal Judge, SSD Judge is happy to serve others. This sweetheart loves people and loves to work!

Judge is from the American Heroes litter, born on May 2, 2011, and he’s currently in advanced training. When he returned to his puppy raisers, Donna and Jim, for the weekend, they were impressed by how quickly he moved into the heel position and how he closely watched his handler while loose leash walking.

In January, he and his puppy raisers traveled to New Jersey for his puppy raisers’ grandson’s first birthday. There were about forty people of all ages there, and it was crowded and loud, but Judge stayed in a down-stay and fell asleep. His puppy raisers also took Judge to Cape May, where they visited the shops, the beach, and restaurants.

Judge’s favorite toys are sticks and Jolly Balls, although now that SSD Irwin has joined the family, he likes any toy that Irwin has!

Judge loves food. In fact, he won the Clean Plate Club Dog Olympic Game at PawsAbilities twice last year! His favorite foods, however, are fruits and vegetables. Since Judge grew up on an orchard, it should come as no surprise that he trains best with apples as treats. Judge loves helping on the orchard. When Donna and Jim were marking the location of posts and trees, Judge really wanted to help. He kept picking up the flags, so Donna gave them to him to carry. He was one happy boy!

Judge just wanted to help out on the orchard.

Because he loves food so much, learning the cue “leave it” was a challenge, but he has mastered it. In fact, Judge can now ignore food so well that he falls asleep right next to it! He can’t help drooling when he walks past food, though.

Judge fell asleep while ignoring some of his favorite foods on the stool. He's been ignoring the food for 30 minutes!

Besides “leave it,” Judge has found greetings to be challenging. But as often happens, his puppy raiser found the key to nice, calm greetings, thanks to some advice from a veteran puppy raiser. Instead of having the person greet Judge, Donna asked the person to greet her. While they talked and Donna explained about Susquehanna Service Dogs, Judge remained in a calm “sit-stay” or “down-stay.” Then, if Donna thought Judge would be able to handle it, she let the person greet him. This is an excellent example of setting a dog up for success!

Judge has also learned to greet other dogs calmly. He and his littermates used to get very excited to see each other, but at last year’s Highmark Walk for a Healthy Community, he and his brothers and sisters were able to walk next to each other calmly.

L to R: Ripley, Judge, Hale.

Now Judge is waiting to be matched with his partner.

Leave It: Anywhere, Anytime

SSD Judge fell asleep less than three feet away from his favorite foods. That’s pretty impressive all by itself, but what’s even more amazing is that he could have easily grabbed that carrot cake or corned beef. He chose not to.

Judge’s “leave it” skills didn’t appear overnight. His puppy raiser, Donna, has been working with him from the start. She began by working on down-stays. When Judge was a young puppy, she and her husband used baby gates to keep him in certain areas, but then they progressed to using the down-stay to keep him from crossing the doorway. They also trained him to “go to bed,” meaning he will go to a designated blanket and lay down. They used both of these skills to keep him in certain rooms.

Once Judge had mastered the skill of not crossing the threshold without his puppy raisers’ permission, they decided to challenge him even more by adding a “leave it.” She asked Judge to “down” and “stay” in the doorway of one room and then placed food on a plate in the other room. The food was within his reach, if he had chosen to get up. Donna then walked away and disappeared from his line of sight, although she could still see him. Then she walked back to him, clicked and treated him, as long as he didn’t break his down-stay. Gradually, she increased the amount of time before she returned until Judge could hold his down-stay and leave it for over 30 minutes! He was even able to relax enough to fall asleep.

(Please note that before Donna started putting Judge in a down-stay and leaving the room, she had already spent many weeks working to perfect his down-stay. If you’re going to try this with your dog, start small, and don’t add additional temptations, such as food, until your dog has a solid down-stay. You can start by just asking your dog for a “down” and gradually increase the time he stays there. Then you can start adding distractions – clap, do jumping jacks, walk around your dog, walk a few steps backward, leave the room and come back, ring the doorbell, etc. Then you may be able to start adding the food temptation.)

Donna has also placed food, paper items, toys, bird eggs, etc. on plates throughout the house and outside. She worked with him on and off leash to get him to ignore the things on the plates, and if he went toward one of the plates, she used the “leave it” cue. (At this point, Judge already knew the cue “leave it.” If your dog doesn’t know the verbal cue yet, don’t use it.)

When Judge ignores the plates or listens to the cue “leave it,” Donna picks up the plate and treats him with one of his favorite food items. For example, if he leaves a plate of his favorite salad greens, Donna will pick up the plate and give him a piece of salad greens by hand. That way, Judge learns that the good things in life come from his handler, not from the floor.

One time, Donna forgot to pick up the plates outside, and Judge started making a beeline for them. She quickly said “leave it!” and to her amazement, he did! He stopped as soon as he heard the cue.

Judge’s next challenge is to learn to generalize the cue “leave it,” so he can do it anywhere, not just at home. Soon he’ll have no problem walking through a busy cafeteria and ignoring any food on the floor.