8 month old Chunks, an Autism Assist Service Dog's Journey

 Chunks at his first Dog Powered outing.
 Sebago Brewery 5/3/2011

Eight month old Golden Retriever Chunks has been coming to Gooddogz Training classes  since he was  9 weeks old.  Chunks lives with his two autistic kids, and the hope is that he will be a service dog for one of them.  The family contacted me when they were considering adding a dog.  At that time  I advised them how difficult it is to train your own service dog and suggested they contact  service dogs organization like  NEADS in Ma.  Like many programs, NEADS requires that you train at their facility for a few  weeks prior to graduation for concentrated training.  It has been my experience that many working families with young kids cannot commit to this. It is especially difficult for busy parents.  I have had a few families try to train their own Autism Assist dog for their kids, and in all cases the families didn't realize just how much time and work was involved. Ultimately the dogs were not granted public access, but in all cases the dogs helped the children pretty much straight  away with  therapies, and especially sleep routines.  As a trainer, Mom,  and animal lover it is hugely rewarding to work with families and help them to utilize dogs to help kids.
The canine/human bond never ceases to amaze.

Chunk's family was set on getting and training their own puppy, and I was not successful in swaying them to get a trained dog from a  service dog organization.  The family was set,  and ready for,  and wanted a  puppy.  Many people do not want to wait the often 2 years for a trained service dog.  It should be noted here that most service dog organizations are much more affordable than people think,  and many have  funding available.

Many people who have met Chunks  have  asked me if it is  necessary for dogs to bond with special needs kids as puppies to be successful.  There are service dog organizations who place fully trained dogs with children and there are also organizations who introduce dogs to their  families at young ages.  Those dogs often spend huge quantities of time with their kids, and the transition is gradual from puppy raiser home to forever homes. Raising a dog for Autistic kids has it's challenges. One of the many challenges of a service dog for an autistic is child is that  many of the kids are prone to outbursts and dogs need to be  acclimated to often unpredictable behavior .  Bottom line is that you need a dog with a rock steady temperament, who is task trained, with a very high level of training and socialization. These are very big paws to fill and as with life, there are many paths that you could take to get to your ultimate destination.

I am not going to lie, Chunks is goofy. He is big and sweet and well, goofy!  Chunks' time in training classes  had up until very recently been spent mostly  socializing, and  teaching his Mom how to handle him and to teach and reach him .  I have offered to take Chunks for extended periods of time, but as is often the case, the dog is already an integral part of his kid's daily lives and routines.   Ideally I would like to see him leave his home for a bit for concentrated training, but all I can do is suggest it. Chunks is doing well, but a kid's service dog is a huge job and I can't stress enough how much training a dog would need to be successful.  (Of course I know his family is reading this!  *waves hello*)

I have written before about Dog Powered, a Maine  group of service dog owners who offer each other a lot of support. Dog Powered usually meets one time a month for training and a group outing.  I have been privileged to be a part of their group for several years now,  I have brought several of my client's service dogs, and have also helped them with their specialized training issues. This past Friday, I attended their monthly meeting with both of my  trainer hats on to  help the group with distraction training. I was  thrilled that Chunks could attend. Chunks' Mom dropped him off in the morning on her way to work, and  his Dad picked him up after lunch at his first restaurant outing at Sebago Brewing .  To say I was proud of Chunks would be an understatement.

Chunks started out goofy and within about 10 or fifteen minutes he was pretty chill and working.  I think the one thing that I will never forget (besides Friday the super cute Golden puppy), is that halfway through our meal, the staff seated AN INFANT at the next table.

That baby was so close to him that the diaper bag hit him in the butt!  All I could think of was "wow! we really fooled them!" But it wasn't that we fooled them, under Maine law Chunks had every right to be in the restaurant. He is like the big kid at the playground that everyone thinks is older and expects greater things of. Chunks held his down stay pretty much for the entire hour.   Chunks big thing (all dogs have something right?) is that he LOVES kids.  I could visualize him getting up and slurping that baby big time.  Of course I did not let that happen, but if  I was that Mom, I may  have asked for a different table. Among ourselves, we discussed moving Chunks, but we let it all play out and well, all well that ends well right?  Chunks did what all good service dogs are supposed to do in public, and  ignored  them.

Good boys Chunks and Tom

Good news --Pictures telling their stories

We had a good size computer malfunction here. Not really sure what caused it, but I think I am just going to go ahead and blame the kids. Why not right?  After all they break everything else. 

A lot has happened during  that time -too much to write about, but still I want to share, so I will tell the story in pictures  with  little wording.

Most important is that after spending a week or so with Poppy during April vacation, she was cleared by myself and Greely Middle School to go back to school with her boy Jack.
Woot!

In other news, Valli was adopted by a wonderful family who are totally committed to helping her with her skin issues.  Looks like they will be feeding her raw even.  Valli was a joy to foster. I will miss her gorgeous eyes, expressive ears and her overall wonderfulness.  She is a super lucky dog!!   It does feel good to know that the dog would have lived a life of misery without my help.  However, I am done "trolling" for dogs. There are enough needy dogs out there already without picking needles in hay stacks.

My son went to his girlfriend's prom.  While that is a big deal and a milestone for any family, my son has a complex cardiac defect (CHD) and had 5 heart surgeries before he was 2 and a half years old . He is a walking miracle of medical science and let me tell you it was a really big deal.  18 years ago I never saw this day coming.  He has had a Fontan operation and basically only has 2 chambers in his heart. 

Can I have a big WOOT for medical science? 

And yet there's more!

After a harsh winter, lots and lots and lots of rain, spring finally showed up at my house. It brought a shitload of mud to, but we are trying to stay in our a happy place today. So we won't mention that.

Meet Friday!!!  Hopefully Friday will by my friend Suzan's new service dog.

 

AAAWWWWW!!!

New kid on the block Beck is a blast.  That dog is learning everything so fast.  In between learning new tricks and agility, Beck is giving me a run for my money and pushing my training skills to the limit.

Wouldn't have it any other way.

I have not had the chance to get many pics of our new foster dog Delilah.  DD  loves my composted compost  pile and thinks it is her own personal sand box.    She is a  6 month old American Shelter dog with a high toy drive. Mostly likley she has some Shepherd in there.  DD and Beck play rough and tumble dog games really  well and she is a sweetheart of a dog. 

Oh and one last thing Osama Bin Laden is dead. Last night was one of those historical moments where we will all look back and remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news.  I like many many people heard it on  first on Tweet Deck .

 Social Media is here to stay.

Follow @gooddogz

Wordless Wednesday - Poppy's tuning up

Bromancing my Beck

After back to back posts whining about Beck, I feel I need to set the record straight a bit. He is an awesome dog and I don't regret adopting him, even during his trying times. As a commenter pointed out, dogs who are sweet and cuddly and give us the time of day, are easy to bond with, and to forgive them their trespasses.

Except  for the times when Beck is stalking the not really evil Daisy, or barking, or acting a young fool, he is a blast to work with. I saw a lot of potential in him (*obviously*) when he was my foster dog, but I also saw a lot of potential for a disastrous placement. Between his brain power, high energy needs, and his mild separation anxiety I knew he was not the dog for the average pet owner. Honestly, aside from basics that he would need for adoption, (stop jumping on top of people!), I didn't spend much time at all working with Beck until after March 4th when we adopted him.

Since I made a list of his issues, it is only fair that I write the behaviors that Beck has learned in 5 weeks. This is a dog who did not even know how to sit.

Beck has learned his name and to pay attention and watch me, sit, down, paw, paw an object, leave it, hit an easy button, howl on cue, sit stay, down stay, heel on and off leash on both right and left side, auto sit, come!, target my hand, an object, and a  target stick, boing with 4 feet off the ground, get in, sit front, finish right and left, say his prayers, jump up on something with 4 feet, paws up ( 2 feet) , crawl, play dead, roll over, spin, twirl, put his head all the way to the ground front and side (settle), go through my legs, back up fast, back up on both right and left side, jump 20 inches, send to a jump, bounce jump, down on a table, off, default down, 101 things to do with a box, go out around an object, go to his mat, target a mat with his hind feet, bow, sit up pretty, dance on hind feet forward and backwards and in a circle,. Whew! I am sure there is more, but well you get the idea. Only a few of these are proofed, but that is a lot of new info in just over a month. Yea!

The dog has excellent retention and it is mind boggling to me what a sponge he is. Hard to imagine such a great and needy dog in a shelter  for more than half of his life. I spend lots of time day dreaming and trying to figure out what is important and what in what order I want to teach him new behaviors. I have worked a lot on back, since it is a key behavior in Freestyle and my last 3 dogs have kind of sucked at it. Every night at dinner time, he backs up to his mat. Very enthusiastically I might add.

Today is not his day Beck's day for training. As I mentioned the other day Poppy is here for a service dog tune up, and she will be coming with me every where I go today. Poppy got a play pass yesterday because she looked like this pretty much most of the day. 

Service dogs should never be taken out in public access dirty, and when I tried to rinse her off, she stuck her whole head in the hose with such joy, that I just gave in and let her have a party. She took forever to dry, and by then it was too late and I was toast. So this morning,  she was not allowed access to my swamp yard. The yard  is a major loosing battle right now with all the rain we have had. Poppy came out with me most of Saturday and she did long downs yesterday while I was working with Beck. That was hard work for her and then she got lots of ball time and lots more mud. Poppy  will need a good grooming before I can take her any where today.

We are also watching a friend's Aussie and well, it is total spring break mayhem over here! I can tell you what, this never would happen  if Charlee was still here.  That dog knew how to keep order.

I told Beck to just say no, but he led Scout on. and on. and on.

As you can see, the pups are pooped at the end of the day. 

It's all good.  

Today is also Valli's first day of school.  Wish her well in class tonight.  She has her first meet and greet on Friday and she has to cram.

_________________________________

Trainer's note. Scout's humping is not sexual.  It is a displacement behavior brought on by being a herding dog with lots going on around him that he cannot control.

. When in doubt. some dogs hump. 

Wordless Wednesday- Autism Assist Service Dog Poppy gets a tune up

Chunks! More reasons to be cheerful

Don't know how I left out Golden Retriever puppy Chunks in my last reasons to be cheerful even though February is a dark, dreary, depressing, cold month post. Chunks is being trained by his owner to hopefully be an Autism Assist service dog for her young son. His owner Chris contacted me a ways back and we discussed various organizations that place service dogs in homes with kids. After much thought, and for various reasons, they decided they wanted a puppy.



For many families looking to add a service dog, the deal breaker is the time that is needed to stay over at the facility at the end stages of training. Some organizations require a 1 week stay and others several weeks. For other families, it is the long wait. While I have helped many people train their own service dogs, training your own puppy for special needs kids is high on the level of difficulty. The main reason I have found is that parents are busy with the kids which often gives pups time to practice unwanted behaviors, or parents just don't have enough hours in a day to train.

It takes a lot of time to train a service dog, usually much more than people realize going in.

Time will tell if Chunks will be a full fledged service dog and gain public access, but I do know that he is cute, and smart and adorable and on the right track. As a huge believer and supporter in human-canine bonds, I have given the family a deep "frequent flyer discount."

Whether Chunks makes it to a full fledged service dog or not, he is still a loved family member and either way, Chunks can help to contribute to his kid's therapies and over all well being.

I heart Chunks!