The Personality of a Service Dog: Temperament Testing

Sit, down, stand, stay, leave it, come, loose leash walking, waiting patiently at doors - by the time our service dogs-in-training are one year old, they should know all of these skills. And to make sure they know them, we test each dog when they turn one year old.

On Friday, we held our 12-month evaluations for the dogs that are between 11 and 13 months old. This testing allows us to see the progress the dogs have made and discover skills and behaviors the dogs still need to work on. This is also the time when we start to make decisions on whether a dog will continue in the service dog program. Some dogs' skills may be better suited to other lines or work. For example, SSD Honeycrisp (renamed Chloe) and SSD Penny (now called Jade) are now working for the UN, sniffing out explosive devices. Both of these dogs were too focused on their sense of smell to be successful service dogs; however, that same sense of smell makes them perfect for their present position with the UN.

During the 12-month temperament test, we evaluate the dogs in cued and un-cued attention, self control, recall, shaping skills, basic obedience and interactions with other dogs, animals and people. We will compare their results with their results from their 8-week evaluations, so we can see their progress.

Our dogs get evaluated throughout their lives. We test their temperament when they're eight weeks old. Our puppy raisers also complete the C-BARQ (Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire), which is a standardized evaluation of dog temperament and behavior. Puppy raisers answer questions about how the dogs typically respond to common events, situations and stimuli in the environment. The C-BARQ compares each dog's scores to the scores of other SSD dogs, as well as other dogs in a similar category. This questionnaire is especially helpful because it flags any scores that are untypical, so we know what areas a dog needs to work on. (Note: The C-BARQ is not limited to service dogs. Pet owners can take the questionnaire for their own dogs.)

On Friday, we evaluated 12 dogs from the Old West and Hill Top litters - Oakley, Cimarron, Stetson, Denver, Zane, Journey, Thunder, Star, Sky, Sunshine, Hawk and Misty Morning. We also retested one dog that had already been placed with a partner but needed a reevaluation. We will be comparing their results with the results from their 8-week tests, so we can see how they have improved. Usually, we see great improvement, thanks to our wonderful puppy raisers!

In one of our next posts this week, we will share some of the highlights of the dogs during the test.

Clicker Training: Shaping a Behavior

"Rossi, puppy in a box." At those words, SSD Rossi puts one, two, three, all four feet inside an empty half-gallon ice cream container. Pretty neat trick, isn't it?

While puppy-in-a-box might not be a typical service dog skill, the method used to teach it is an important part of our service dogs' training. Rossi's handlers used shaping to train her to put all four feet in an ice cream carton.

When you're shaping a behavior, you're reinforcing small steps toward the behavior until you achieve the actual behavior. For example, to shape puppy-in-a-box, you would start by clicking your dog for looking at the box, then build up to touching the box with his nose, touching it with a paw, putting a paw in the box, putting two feet in the box, etc.

We generally don't talk or communicate with the dog while we're shaping a behavior. We want the dog to experiment, move around and offer different behaviors. When the dog gives a behavior that is a step toward the final behavior we're looking for, we click and treat. Often, we'll toss the treat away from the dog to reset him, so that he has to move around and offer a slightly different behavior.

When the dog is giving a behavior 80% of the time, we'll raise our standards for which behaviors get clicks. For example, instead of clicking for touching the box with a paw, we'll wait for the dog to leave his paw in the box for a few seconds, then click and treat.

We took video of Rossi demonstrating shaping at one of our puppy classes. Her handler wanted her to pick up a piece of garden hose and place it on the wooden podium. To train her to do that, he clicked and treated her for small steps along the way - looking at the hose, picking it up, walking with it, walking toward the podium and finally, putting the hose on the podium. Notice how he keeps raising his standards, making Rossi experiment until she finds a behavior that gets her a click. Also note that when Rossi seems stuck, her handler moves around to both reset her and give her hints about what he wants her to do.

Mary Hunter, a clicker trainer and blogger, has a very nice video on her Stale Cheerios blog that illustrates shaping. You can see how the dog continually experiments with behaviors until he discovers the one that earns him a click and treat.

As we refine a behavior, we add the verbal cue just before the behavior is given. Over time, we will only click for behaviors that we specifically asked for using the verbal cue.

Shaping is a very positive method of training dogs (and almost any animal), and we use it in our service dog training. It teaches the dogs to experiment with different behaviors, and it's fun for both our service dogs-in-training and our trainers and puppy raisers.

Meet SSD Nubble!

In the middle of a snowstorm, a little yellow lab puppy arrived in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. That car ride from Maine to Pennsylvania marked the beginning of a very important journey for SSD Nubble. He began his journey to becoming a service dog.

We're going to be following Nubble as he learns new skills and behaviors. Over the next 18 months, you'll find out exactly how a cute little puppy becomes a highly skilled service dog. Last week, you met SSD Onyx, and we will soon be following SSD Aladdin as well. Look for weekly posts about these three dogs' journeys.

Meet Nubble

Most of SSD's dogs come from our own breeding program, and the names of each litter center on a theme chosen by the mother's breeder caretaker. Nubble, however, comes to us from a program in Maine. He gets his name from the Cape Neddick Light, a lighthouse in Maine known as the "Nubble Light" by the locals.

Nubble joined his puppy raiser family on December 5. He is the first puppy they are raising for a service dog organization. Donna and her 15-year-old daughter, Lindsey, are raising him together. They are part of our Northeast Division, which is spread across northeastern Pennsylvania. Although they have a dog of their own, a terrier mix named Gizzy, raising a puppy to become a service dog is completely different from raising a family pet. It has been a learning process for everyone. Having a strong network of other volunteer puppy raisers in the Northeast Division has helped. They can ask questions and get advice and feedback from other volunteers. What do Nubble's puppy raisers have to say about having him in their family? "Nubble is an absolute joy to have in the house!"

He and Gizzy get along extremely well. When he first arrived, Gizzy was very gentle with him. as he has grown, she has adjusted her behavior toward him, starting to treat him less like a puppy. And of course, she doesn't hesitate to let him know when he's pushing his boundaries with her!

Nubble does very well in the car. Other than that first long car trip, he has not gotten car sick. He spends most of his time in the car either sitting or sleeping. When he and Gizzy are in the car together, she sits on him and he lets her get away with it.

Already, Nubble has learned several cues. He knows sit, come, down, and up (on the couch), and responds to his name. He also targets his puppy raiser's hand. Right now, he's working on stay. He's having a little difficulty with this one, but with some practice, he'll get it. He's a very smart puppy, and he really wants to please his puppy raisers. These cues are part of basic obedience and are an essential part of a service dog's training. All of our service dogs must master these skills. In addition, a willingness to please their handlers is important.

And Nubble is constantly learning and exploring. You know how babies and toddlers explore their world by putting things in their mouth? Well, one of Nubble's favorite things to do is chew. And chew. And chew some more. He will chew on anything. "It's like having a toddler in the house. You can't take your eyes off him," says Donna. Since getting Nubble, Donna has changed the way she manages her household so that Nubble can get into as little mischief as possible. Although there isn't much she can do about chair legs, doorstops, door knobs, rugs, floor tiles, the dishwasher and the refrigerator, she has removed all other items that he could possibly chew on. In fact, the family decided to get a small Christmas tree this year and put it on a table, so Nubble wouldn't have the opportunity to try to gnaw on it. "He would have eaten the whole tree, decorations and all!" says Donna.

As his first outing, Nubble went to a pet store, and everyone who saw him, loved him! They loved him so much that it was difficult for people not to pet him. However, regardless of how cute the puppy is, service dogs and service dogs-in-training are working dogs, and they should not be petted, fed, or distracted in any way while they are working. (General rule of thumb: If a service dog is wearing his vest, he's working.) But, despite the distractions of people trying to pet him, Nubble's first outing was a success! He met a lot of people and came into contact with many new smells - an important part of socialization and becoming comfortable in any environment.

Since then, Nubble has been to convenience stores, a bookstore, a grocery store and the vet. He's usually very well behaved, thanks to the clicker and lots of treats!

Once Nubble has been fully housebroken, he will be spending time with Lindsey at school. So far, he has been to school for 10 minutes to meet the guidance counselor and principal and show them what he has learned.

When people find out that Donna and Lindsey are raising Nubble to be a service dog, they often ask, "How are you going to give him up?" "Honestly," says Donna, "when you decide to do this, you understand that the puppy has a greater life ahead of him than just being your dog. I feel very blessed that we can help do our part for someone else."

Meet SSD Onyx

SSD Onyx spent her Christmas stalking two Dalmatians. Her puppy raisers aren't sure where or how she learned it, but Onyx sneaked up on the two Dalmatians who were visiting for the holidays. She moved slowly, getting closer, closer...then POUNCE! She jumped on them. Neither Dalmatian was especially fond of being jumped on. After getting pounced a few times, the one decided that the best way to avoid Onyx's sneak attacks was to keep moving. The other took a more direct approach and simply growled at the little lab when he had had enough.

Onyx is one of the three service dogs-in-training that we are going to be following on the blog. We will give you a window into her life as she learns different skills and behaviors and grows from a playful puppy to a skilled service dog ready to assist her partner. Look for weekly posts about her, SSD Aladdin and SSD Nubble.

You may remember Onyx from the Puppy Cam. She comes from the Crayon litter, born on September 3, 2009. She joined her puppy raisers on October 31, 2009. When they first got her, this little black lab weighed just under 13 pounds. She was just at the vet last week with her brothers Rusty and Denim, and she weighed 29 pounds. She's growing quickly!

Onyx is one smart puppy, and every day is an adventure with her. She's always exploring and experimenting with behaviors and her surroundings. Her puppy raisers can sometimes see the wheels turning in her head. One day, she picked up her food dish and dragged it from its usual spot all the way upstairs. Now, the SSD Puppy Raiser Manual says to feed the dogs in different rooms of the house, so they get used to eating anywhere. Well, Onyx seems to have taken this to heart. It's as if she was saying, "Today, I'm eating up here!"

She also loves to steal shoes. Her puppy raisers have had to move all their shoes out of reach to keep them from being chomped. However, they don't want to completely discourage her from playing with shoes because someday she may have to retrieve her partner's shoes. If she learns as a puppy that shoes are bad, it will be much harder for her to learn to retrieve shoes as an adult dog in advanced training. Her puppy raisers have been practicing leave it and then substituting something else, such as a chew toy, for the shoe.

And Onyx certainly loves to chew! It seems to be one of her favorite things to do. In fact, that seems to be the favorite thing for all the puppies in the Crayon litter. Onyx will chew on things that just don't make any sense to her puppy raisers - the legs of a metal coffee table or a brick fireplace. To stop her from chewing on things like this, they have been using the leave it cue, just like they do with the shoes. Except that Onyx is smart and has a mind of her own. Not two minutes after getting a treat for giving a good leave it, she goes right back to chewing. In her mind, it must seem like a really cool game. It's as if she's thinking, "If I chew on this, they'll tell me to leave it, and when I do, I'll get a treat. So if I chew on this table, I'll get a treat. I like this game!"

Her puppy raisers are working on keeping her from chewing things she isn't supposed to be chewing. They're also focusing on leave it and making it productive so that she doesn't go right back to what she was doing.

They're also working on recalls. Recently, Onyx had her puppy evaluations, where SSD's trainers ask each puppy to demonstrate certain skills. Onyx, however, was having none of that. She was more interested in chewing the carpet than in retrieving a ball, and she certainly didn't want to come when called, especially when there was something much more interesting to do - chew! Even though Onyx does a recall at home in a familiar environment, she still has trouble if there are distractions. For example, she loves to play with the neighbor's dog, a bulldog named Casper. She loves it so much, that when her puppy raisers call her to come, she ignores them. In order to recall her, they have to call Casper, and Onyx follows him over. Since this is the first time they're raising an SSD puppy, her puppy raisers turned to our trainers and other puppy raisers for advice. Here is some of their advice:

Practice frequently, but start small. Since she has difficulty with recalls when there are distractions, start with a very small distraction and build up over time as she gets better. When you're practicing outside, use an extra long lead so she stays safe while still being free to roam. When she does ignore the distractions and come when called, give her a jackpot of treats. She'll start to think, "Ooo, if I come when they call me, I'll get lots of tasty treats!" Finally, to make sure that she keeps giving a good recall, cue her to come, give her lots of treats, then let her go back to whatever fun, exciting thing she was doing (as long as it's safe). That way, come won't always mean that the fun ends. It will mean "come get tasty treats, then go back and have more fun."

With Onyx, the real trick was finding the right motivation. While she likes her regular treats (her food or cheerios), they just weren't a powerful enough motivator to get her to abandon the fun thing she was exploring. You could practically hear her thoughts: "Go get some cheerios, or stay here and watch these birds flying? Ha! I'm watching the birds." But when another puppy raiser suggested using cheese whiz - wow! What a difference! Now Onyx will voluntarily recall herself when she knows her puppy raisers have a can of cheese whiz. They haven't tried the cheese whiz when they're recalling her from playing with Casper yet. We'll let you know if it works.

She also loves chicken. Her puppy raisers discovered her love of chicken one day while cutting some at the kitchen counter. They had been working on different cues with Onyx, such as sit and down. When the chicken came out, she voluntarily gave a down. It's all about finding the right motivation.

Next week, Onyx will be spending a week with her brother Denim and his puppy raiser. It will be interesting to see how they interact and what they teach each other. Will Onyx learn some tricks from Denim? Check back in the next two weeks to find out.

We wish you and your four-legged friends a happy New Year!

Follow the Lives of the Service Dogs

Do you know how a little puppy becomes a service dog? How about what kinds of skills a service dog learns? Or how the dogs even learn those skills?

If you're not sure about the answers to these questions, don't worry. Next week, we're going to start a series about the life of a service dog-in-training. We're going to give you a window into the lives of SSD Aladdin, Onyx, and maybe even Nubble, our newest puppy. We will be following these dogs on their journey to becoming service dogs.

You'll discover the places they have gone, skills they've learned, and the fun and adventures they've had along the way. You'll also learn about our puppy raisers, those wonderful volunteers who welcome a puppy into their home and raise it for 18 months.

If you have questions about the lives of the service dogs, leave us a comment. We will do our best to answer your questions.

SSD Holiday Party

The holidays started early for the service dogs. Last week, we held our annual holiday party. Puppy raisers, partners of service dogs, SSD staff, and of course, the dogs got together for food, fun and a little socialization for both people and dogs. What a great time!


We started off the evening with a huge potluck buffet. Each person brought a dish to share. As more people arrived, it became a puzzle to fit all the food on the table - and it was all delicious! While the people ate, the dogs waited under the table or at their handlers' feet. Even the little puppies! A great display of how well our puppy raisers are doing with their dogs.

After dinner, it was game time! The dogs and their handlers got a chance to show off some of their skills in D-O-G. In this game, dogs and their handlers form two teams. The first team chooses a dog to perform a trick. The other team needs to find a dog that can also do that trick. If the other team cannot perform the trick, they get a "D." The goal is to NOT spell the word "dog." We took some videos of the dogs and their handlers playing D-O-G:


SSD Gideon picked a quarter up off the floor. It seemed like this trick was going to be too difficult for the other team to counter. But then SSD Dutch came forward. Instead of picking up a quarter, Dutch picked up a dime!

SSD Midge challenged the other team to perform a "hold." This seemed like a pretty routine trick until Midge's handler revealed the object the dogs had to hold: a hot dog! After Midge held the hot dog in her mouth for a few seconds without eating it, the other team had to find a dog that could do the same thing. SSD Pearl stepped forward, and she held the hot dog, too! Great job, Midge and Pearl!

SSD Graham Cracker was able to step up to the plate when the other team challenged him to walk between his handler's legs and sit.

Even one of the puppies from our most recent litter, SSD Slate, was able to match some of the tricks. When the other team challenged him to do sit-ups (going into a sit from a down position), he proved that while he may be a puppy, he was more than ready for this challenge!

Slate is being raised by a puppy raiser in our Northeast Division. We're very glad they were able to come to Harrisburg to enjoy our SSD party with us!

If you'd like to see photos from our holiday party, visit our Facebook page.

We have a wonderful evening of good holiday fun! If you'd like to join us next year, become a puppy raiser! Applications are available on our website.

Help the SSD Princes

SSD Philip, Aladdin and Caspian need your help! These three service dogs-in-training have been diagnosed with Cauda Equina Syndrome, a serious disease in which the spinal nerves in the dog’s lower back are compressed. This compression can be caused by a variety of things, including infection or a ruptured disc. It can be very painful for the dogs.

However, there is good news! The nerves damaged by Cauda Equina Syndrome can be repaired through surgery! Philip and Aladdin have already had the surgery and both are doing well. We expect Philip to return to training in early January. Since Aladdin had his surgery more recently, we are unable to determine when he’ll be able to return to training. However, he is doing well in his recovery. Caspian will be having his surgery sometime soon. We hope that all three of these wonderful dogs will be able to return to training in the new year.

Susquehanna Service Dogs, Philip, Aladdin and Caspian need your help! The diagnosis and surgery for these three princes costs a total of $4,800. ($1,600 for each dog) Would you please consider making a donation to help us pay for these important surgeries? Please help us make sure that Philip, Aladdin and Caspian are happy, healthy dogs that will one day help their partners live full, independent lives.

Thank you so much for your support for these wonderful dogs!

Please make a donation now.

Read more about Cauda Equina Syndrome.