Six Month Retest of Public Access Test

Ryan & Sky had their 6 month retest last night & they passed without any problems! Sky hit the handicap buttons to open up the door on her first try. I was a bit concerned because they don't have opportunity to practice too often. They also walk a dog by Sky to make sure she continues to keep her attention on Ryan & she did super. They got an unexpected second chance to demonstrate it again when they encountered a very small SSD puppy in training in the mall. She did super with leaving any food that was dropped on the floor by the tester. Then Ryan wanted to really show what she could do & managed to drop his whole bag of cut up chicken breast power treats on the floor. She did ignore them, but it was oh so hard.

She showed off all her retrieving skills & we volunteered a few extra demonstrations for good measure. She even demonstrated her new cue "Get help".

They both did a super job. Now we are off to our next adventure. Ryan is going to be having orthopedic surgery & will be in the hospital for at least a week. Sky is coming along. We will see how she likes hospital life.

New cues!

Hoping everyone had a wonderful holiday season!

It went by too fast! We took advantage of the time off school to work on some new cues and practice old ones.

The neatest thing we taught Sky was "Get help" and "Show me". Ryan will give the cue "Get help" and Sky will search until she finds me and then "bump" me with her nose to alert me. I, in turn, give her the cue "Show me" and she takes me back to Ryan. It's pretty cool.

This will be so helpful for us. Ryan has a very quiet voice and I often can not hear him when he calls me especially if he is on a different floor of the house. Mark tends to be his voice and will call "Mom! Ryan needs you!" (I have no problem hearing Mark when he yells!).

Sky currently finds me on the first floor and in the basement. We need to expand to the 2nd floor and finally when Ryan is outside.

The other new thing she is doing is pulling off Ryan's socks. She does a great job and it is not the easiest because Ryan wears knee hi socks with his leg braces. It takes a bit more effort to pull them off than typical socks.

Sky attends physical & occupational therapy every week with Ryan. Her "job" is often picking up things for Ryan. He will throw bean bags or some other object & she retrieves them for him. The other neat thing is that she often distracts Ryan when he is doing something difficult or painful in therapy. He doesn't complain as much because she is there with him & he is focused on her.

Ryan is also learning to use Sky when he needs help. As I'm typing this, he just called Sky to come pick up a dropped item in the bathroom. Yesterday while traveling to therapy, Ryan dropped his book and immediately asked me to pick it up for him. Ryan thinks I am an octopus and can reach anything in a full size van even while driving! I told him to have Sky get it for him which she did without any problems. He then proceeded to drop it another three times. Poor Sky!

I feel like I'm always saying this, but they are really learning to work together as a team. I can't emphasize the "team" part enough. Having a service dog is not easy. There is a lot to learn and the responsiblity of always having a dog with you is huge. But the rewards are great. I am so proud of both of them for how far they have come and what they have accomplished thus far.

O Sky Puppy...How Wonderful are You?

Tonight we did some training. Sky gets so excited when we do "training sessions". She so much wants to work.

We did some "shaping work" tonight. The idea behind shaping is to positively reinforce the dog by clicking and then treating when they do the desired behavior. It is build upon in small steps. You may initially just click for the dog looking towards an item and then when they are doing that successfully, build up to the next step. Sky really seems to love this type of training. It is neat to see her try to figure out what we want her to do. She keeps trying new things until she gets it right.

Sometimes it is difficult for Ryan to push his footplate on his wheelchair down to put his foot on it. We decided to work on training Sky to help with this task. We started clicking Sky just for looking at the footplate and then eventually for putting her paw up near the footplate and then for pushing the foot plate down. In about 10 minutes she was successfully pushing the foot plate down with her paw. I tried to capture it in a picture. It's not the best, but you get the idea!



One of the cues Sky knows is "Tug". She will grab Ryan's coat sleeve and start tugging. If he needs to he can say "back" to get her to pull in the right direction. She and Ryan were having a difficult time before because his arm was getting caught in his sleeve and he couldn't get it out. We purchased a larger coat for him so it would be easier to get his arms out.

One final story. Today Ryan was up in his bedroom with Sky dusting his airplane collection. I heard him singing a song to the tune of "O Christmas Tree". It went like this. "O Sky Puppy, O Sky Puppy. How wonderful are you!"

Belated updates

Ryan and Sky have been doing well. Couple bumps in the road, but making nice progress overall. Sky seems to have settled into school. I went in today to watch them and they have the elevator down pat. I was very impressed.

One issue they were having was Sky sniffing at everything. There's quite a wide array of smells in the school and very tempting for a dog. We discussed it with the trainer and found that Ryan was not providing enough positive reinforcement for good behavior (i.e paying attention to him) when they were walking. So we worked with Ryan to click and give treats while driving his wheelchair. This took quite a bit of practice, but he's starting to get it! We have also noticed an improvement in the sniffing issue now that is he is providing more positive reinforcement.

It is much easier for Ryan when he is in his wheelchair versus walking on his crutches. There are multiple reasons for that 1)he has better control over Sky 2) he can go faster and it gives her less time/opportunity to sniff 3) he can give treats while still moving.

She has definitely developed a bond with Ryan. She will often go check on him if he is another room. She also stays upstairs with him in the morning while he is getting dressed instead of coming downstairs with the family dogs.

Another cool cue she knows is how to tug off Ryan's coat sleeve. This is real helpful when he is in his wheelchair and his arm gets stuck in the coat sleeve. We asked the trainer about teaching this to her and evidently she already knows it! We just never had the opportunity, nor did we think about it in August during Team Training.

School and More

Sky has been going with Ryan to school regularly the past 3 weeks. We bring her in around 12:30pm and she stays with him the remainder of the day.  Then she rides home on the bus with him.  The afternoon is a bit easier for them because they don't have as many transitions and it tends to be a bit more constant.  Overall, things are going well.  She sometimes gets a bit restless at the end of the day. We are not sure exactly what that is about.  The majority of the days we take her for a walk so she can get some exercise & potty before going into school. 

Last week she was in band and was "singing along". Oh, my!  I was reassured it was not a problem.  Ryan has band at the end of the day today so I'm going to go in and check out the "situation". 

One of the cues Ryan wants to work on with Sky is retrieving his back pack from the closet at school.  At the end of the day when he is ready to pack up he needs to wait for someone to bring him his backpack. Ryan sits about 4 feet from the closet so it will not be a long haul.  We are going to practice first after school without other kids or back packs around to distract her.  Next step will be add in the other students & their back packs.

She has been doing really well with retrieving dropped items for Ryan at school.  Yesterday she was feeling particularly helpful and picked up another student's dropped pencil! 

Susquehanna Service Dogs sent a volunteer and demo dog into the school.  They did a real nice job with the mini-assemblies.  They were able to show various cues that service dogs can perform and went over service dog etiquette.  It was well received by the students and staff.  For the most part, the kids in his class just ignore Sky.  And most times she is so quiet that you don't even know she is there.

At home we have been working on various cues.  She is now "finding the phone".  When Ryan gives her the cue she will find the phone and bring it back to him. 

She is also working on getting her bowl from off the kennel and putting it on the floor so Ryan can put the food in it.  She first goes "up" on the kennel then "takes" her food bowl and puts it on the floor.  Ryan gives her the cue to "sit & stay".  He then puts the food in the dish and gives her the "ok"  to eat.  After she is done eating she picks the bowl back up and puts it on the kennel.  Ryan is the only person who is allowed to feed her in order to promote bonding.  He is very committed and knows when it is time for her to eat. 

Ryan is also working with her to carry his dirty clothes to the hamper outside his room and carry his book upstairs at night. 

They are getting better every day!

We have been working on a few different cues with Sky.  Ryan "parks" his wheelchair outside of the classroom and then he walks into the classroom with his crutches.  He is not able to carry his backpack with him so he relies on others to do it for him.  We have been working with Sky to drag his backpack.  It's a work in progress, but she will drag it all around our house to him.  We are planning on doing a practice session at school soon.  I have tried to capture a few pictures, but the dark back pack and the black dog do not make for real great photos!  I also can not figure out how to make them look "nice' in the blog, but you get the idea!



This is why I can never find my running shoes!



Snuggling on the couch

She is super at picking things up for Ryan.  Most times as soon as something drops she will pick it up for him before  Ryan gives her a the cue.  Sometimes she gets over zealous and will start picking things up that are scattered all over our floor (usually Mark's socks or shoes!).

The other thing we have been working on is her carrying things to other people.  She will carry a paper to me that Ryan gives her and vice versa.  We hope to eventually incorporate this into the school setting.  We have also used it when Ryan wants something. I will give it to Sky and she takes it to him. 

One of the next things we want to work on is how to have her get his library books up to the check out counter.  We haven't figured out exactly how we are going to do it yet.  We have toyed around with her carrying them in her mouth (she is not real slobbery, but probably not the greatest idea!),putting them in his backpack and having her drag the backpack up to the checkout or even carrying a small tote. 

Ryan is very much looking forward to bringing her to school.  He is getting very impatient.  If all goes well, we hope to have the meeting with the kids in the class next Thursday.  We will slowly bring her in a little bit at a time & increase it as they tolerate it.  He is so much looking forward to it!
 

My Life: Changed

This is Ryan. I have a few words to say: This dog has changed my life. Taking care of and handling a Service Dog is a big responsibility. But, I have to say Sky is a big help!!