April 6th, 2012

I've been really busy lately. The school year is almost finished, and I've been working on getting scholarships. But there's another reason I haven't updated in a while: my mother got a new puppy! We adopted her from animal control, and her name is Mercy. Truck's been teaching her the rules of the house and being a great big brother to her.

I plan to begin working on "alerting to picking" tonight, since it's the weekend. Truck will be trained to jump on me when I start picking my lip, which will be a big help to me. I pick and bite my lip so much that I can't eat or drink without it stinging, and it's frequently bleeding. Anyway, wish us luck!

February 28th, 2012

Day two of public access training. I wanted to take Truck out today, and didn't want to go anyplace without buying anything, so I scrounged up two dollars and went to Petsmart. There I bought a 99 cent plant for my beta fish, Finnigan. A little girl was walking a Maltese by herself in the store, and the dog snapped and started barking at Truck. Truck hardly reacted at all, except for taking a step back, so I gave him a jackpot of treats. He's such a great boy!

 Then we headed to McDonald's to spend the second dollar on a double cheeseburger for my mother. He did amazing, and we had no problems at all. We went for a stroll around some random places and did some alerting work (which he did 100% correctly), and then we headed home. As payment for his day's work he got some Frosty Paws icecream for dogs!

February 27th, 2012

Wanna guess what came in the mail today? Truck's vest! I was so excited when it came. It's so pretty, and it's padded, has a SD patch on it, orange, and fits perfectly. I had to put it on him and take him to Walmart right away. It was his first time in a store other than Petsmart, and I was worried he would be afraid of the carts. He was fine though, and we had absolutely no problems. I was really pleased with the amount of adults who kept their kids at bay and explained to them that you're not supposed to mess with SDs. I'm really happy right now :D

February 19th, 2012

I believe Truck has fully grasped "alert to shaking!" He does it 100 percent of the time at home, the park, on walks, and at Petsmart. As soon as we can go into public places we can work there, too. Which should be soon, because I ordered his vest today! It's an orange padded service dog vest, and I can't wait until it arrives.

Next we'll work on alerting to picking my lip, which is a very bad habit of mine that I do when I'm stressing about something.  After that we'll start with guiding work, but I might have to get the help of another trainer for that, because I don't know how to go about doing that yet.

Our journey continues!

New Video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZG7GpFCng8&context=C346c81eADOEgsToPDskLnz3erIw9UXV02eVB6PgSL

This dog is amazing <3

February 08, 2012

Truck is really starting to grasp the fact that he only gets rewarded if I'm shaking and he alerts me at the same time. I've had to be firm with him and not give him a treat even if he nudges, because I don't want him alerting me for no reason. He's starting to get it, and I'm really proud of him. Tomorrow I'm going to keep a pocket full of treats on me at all times, so I can randomly pretend to shake throughout the day. We started out doing planned training session, so now we'll work on getting him to alert at random times. Wish us luck!

On an unrelated note: Today we walked to Petsmart and a lady asked me if Truck was pregnant. Um...he's a neutered male XD C'mon, he's not that fat. He just has a round ribcage! Of course, we were there to buy more treats...

-Kristen and Truck  

Service Dog In-Training

Since it's a good idea to keep a record of training for all service dogs, I've decided to make a blog about our progress. Truck is my Corgi, and my best friend. He is currently on his way to becoming my Psychiatric Service Dog (PSD). I suffer from severe social anxiety and some depression, and dogs keep me sane. With him I feel much more relaxed and secure around people, and I am able to do things with him that I normally wouldn't be able to do, like talk to people I don't know. He is going to be trained to "alert" me when I start shaking, scratching my arms, or picking my lip. I never realize that I am doing these things until someone asks me what's wrong, so having him alert me will help me to calm down and stop what I'm doing.

Today and yesterday (2-05-2012 and 2-06-2012) I began training Truck to nudge me with his nose when I shake my leg. Since he already knew a target command (to touch my hand when I say so) getting him to nudge me for a treat wasn't a problem. I'm just going to replace the "touch" command with a signal- shaking my leg. So far he's doing great. He'll walk up and nudge me when I start shaking. However, he'll continue to nudge me after I've stopped shaking, hoping for another treat (sneaky boy). He just has to learn that he only gets a treat when he nudges me AND I'm shaking.