Team Training: Closer to Being Working Service Dog Teams

Last Thursday was one of the biggest days in Team Training. Each partner took their dog home for the first time.

It was the longest any of them had spent with their dog. They had a chance to bond and start to learn each other’s habits. For example, SSD Dylan’s partner learned that Dylan snores at night – loudly. But Dylan also stuck by her side throughout the evening and the next morning. He knew exactly where he was supposed to be.

SSD Zappa and his partner went for a long walk together and played in the yard. SSD Jagger’s partner put him to work – Jagger pushed drawers closed on cue. He also picked things up off the floor for her, even when she didn’t ask him to do it. At one point, they were outside, and Jagger saw a bunny. His head came up as he stared at it, but his partner told him to leave it, and he immediately turned and looked at her.

The first night was a happy success!

Today, we went over grooming. We mostly train labs because they need minimal grooming, but that doesn’t mean there’s no care involved. Labs shed, and we give all of our partners three different types of combs and brushes to manage all of that fur. The dogs also need to have their teeth brushed, their ears cleaned and their nails trimmed.

Since each team has different cues they need to work on, we split into small groups so each team could practice their cues.

SSD Dylan and his partner worked on turning on the light switch. In the video, Dylan uses his nose to flip on the light switch and his teeth to turn it off. And he does all of this while standing on his hind legs.

SSD Falcon and his partner practiced getting in and out of the car. Falcon will ride in the back of the family’s van, so he practiced hopping in the trunk on cue. Falcon’s puppy raiser had given his new partner his blanket for the van, so when Falcon hopped in, he felt right at home.

SSD Zappa and his partner spent time working on shaping. Each partner chose a trick they wanted their dog to learn, which is a great way for both dog and partner to practice clicker training and shaping. Zappa’s partner decided that he wanted to teach Zappa to go through a hula hoop. He started by clicking Zappa for looking at the hoop and then for moving closer to the hoop. It’s a longer video, but look at how much progress Zappa has made by the end of the training session! We have no doubt that he’ll be walking right through that hoop by the end of team training.

A Tempting Puppy Class

All of our puppy raisers came to puppy class with their dog in training, but this time, they didn't work with that dog in class. Halfway through puppy class, we had all of our raisers switch dogs. This was good practice for both the raisers and the dogs. The dogs had to learn to work with a new handler, and the raisers had to learn to communicate with another dog, and usually that dog was very different than their own dog. Both the dogs and puppy raisers improved their skills.

After switching dogs, we had everyone practice loose leash walking. Even though the dogs were working with different handlers, they did great! Watch the video of SSD Zappa, Topaz, Nubble and Yukon walk beside different handlers.



"Leave it" ranks right up there with loose leash walking when it comes to important service dog skills. It can be used to cue the dog to ignore a number of things, including food, people, other animals and objects. At puppy class, we had our puppy raisers practice "leave it" with their new dogs. To make it interesting, we played a version of Temptation Tower, the newest Dog Olympic Game!

We gave each raiser a four dog biscuits, and they had one minute to build a tower and have their dog practice leave it. At the end of the minute, we gave everyone four more biscuits. They rebuilt their tower. Each time we increased the difficulty for the dogs by adding more biscuits, but the dogs were doing so well that we had to make it even more challenging. We had our raisers build a tower, then stand up, all while their dog remained in a down-stay. When the dogs succeeded at that, we had our raisers not only stand up, but also walk to the middle of the room. And the dogs didn't budge!

In this video, SSD Taz watches his handler build a tower of dog biscuits. Watch his face. You can tell that he really wants those biscuits, but he still doesn't try to eat them.



SSD Rio is like a statue when she plays Temptation Tower. Her handler told her "leave it," so she doesn't try to eat the biscuits, but she stares at them.



Before everyone switched dogs, we practiced the cues "under" and "paw." Watch SSD Dylan present his paw in cue for his puppy raiser. "Paw" is useful for nail clipping. We clip all of our dogs' nails, and we want the dog to be a willing participant. We train the dogs to offer their paw and let us clip their nails.



It was a fun puppy class, and we think our dogs and puppy raisers are going to be well prepared for their evaluations next week!