First Day of Team Training

Ryan snuggling with Sky during free time.

Sky "visiting" with her boy.

What a day! The morning was spent learning clicker training and shaping a dog's behavior. Clicker training is positive reinforcement for a cue (not command!) the dog does. The key is to catch them doing the cue and then click and treat. For instance, if you cued the dog to sit, as soon as the dog's bottom hit the floor you would click and then give the dog a treat.

I will explain shaping in another post. Ryan has to pick a behavior to shape with Sky. I thought picking up his dirty laundry would be good. Ryan's not convinced.

After lunch Ryan got to meet Sky. She was so attentive to him. Constantly looking at him and staying close. She seems very mellow. Even when we took all the dogs out into the field to play she was not nearly as rambunctious as some of the dogs. She stayed by Ryan more than anything.

Ryan learned the cues: Come, Sit, Down, Stay, Leash (pick up leash and hand it to the person) and Stand. Each of these cues has a verbal and hand signal. You only do one or the other not both (I failed miserably at that!). Ryan wore a clicker and training pouch with treats in it. He would click and treat for each cue.

After a game, we went over information from the Dog Manual Bible. Ryan has to study tonight!

The bathroom.....

Ryan is still dependent on us for his toileting and bathing needs so we spend a lot of one on one time in the bathroom. We always seem to have deep conversations in there.

We were in the bathroom yesterday and Ryan commented "I think this school year is going to be much better this year with Sky. I won't have to sit on the bench at recess by myself and try to figure out what to do."

It made me smile and broke my heart all at that the same time.

Team Training.....here we come!!

I have been a bit (actually a lot!) delinquent in keeping up with Ryan's blog! It has been a roller coaster to say the least! Sky hurt her leg a few weeks before Team Training in June. She was put on crate rest for several weeks to see if she healed. The good news was her leg healed, but the bad news was Ryan missed Team Training in June.

We had Team Training scheduled in October. Less than 2 weeks ago we got a phone call that they wanted to do Training August 8-24th. We did a lot of scrambling and rearranging schedules and somehow cleared our calendars! Sal and I are doing some tag teaming, which is not ideal, but the best we could do on short notice!

Ryan calls Sky, "Sky Girl". He is excited, but also a little nervous as I think we all are! For several months, every time Ryan asked me to pick up his crutches, open the door, pick something off the floor, or retrieve something I would say to him "Where is Sky when you need her?". It's hard to believe after all these false starts she will soon be here.

We got a match!!

Ryan was matched again. She is a beautiful black lab named Sky. She is the one in the prior post walking with Ryan. She was so attentive to Ryan and very obedient. Ryan and Sky will go through Team Training in June if everything progresses with the her training as planned.

The other funny/ironic thing about Sky is that when my niece, Kristyn was planning the benefit run for Ryan's future service dog last fall, she actually opened up a bank account with Sky's puppy raiser who works at the bank! Sky was raised in the Wilkes-Barre area where Sal's family lives. What are the chances?

Ryan is excited, but a little worried that it won't work out again and June feels like a long way off for him. I'm sure it will be here quicker than we know!

Meet The Dogs Finally Happened!

Well. the weather has not been our friend as far as Meeting the Dogs goes! It was scheduled 3 times until Mother Nature finally cooperated.

Today Ryan met 5 dogs: Cabo, Star, Sky, Tundra, & Graham.

This meeting went similar to the other one in that he had the opportunity to get to greet each dog first and then he gave commands to see how they would respond. There was a much wider range of dog personalities this time around.

Ryan particularly liked the Golden Retriever, Cabo. He is your typical love able, goofy Golden. Ryan couldn't stop laughing at him. He is still in his "adolescent" stage so he's a bit more jubilant than I would want for Ryan. But, he is a Golden -so what's not to love?

There was one female black lab named Sky that was wonderful with him. She was so attentive and just seemed to know what to do with him. She even walked with Ryan while he was using his crutches which is something that is quite confusing to the dogs because they have not experienced it previously. Sky is also Journey's sister.

They plan on making a decision tomorrow evening, so hopefully we will know if he was matched with one of the dogs early next week.

Meet the Dogs - Second Time Around!

Good news today! Ryan got invited to "Meet the Dogs" next Thursday, January 27th. We are not sure which dogs he will be meeting because it depends on the dogs' "skill set". For example, some dogs are more suited to be trained to do physical work while others may be more suited for companionship/emotional comfort. For example, even though there may be 6 dogs - he may only end up meeting 2 of them.

Hopefully, second time around will be a charm! Will post more next week.

Two steps forward...one step back.

What a roller coaster of emotions lately! We were so excited that Ryan had a chance to Meet the Dogs and then even more excited when he got matched. Unfortunately, 2 weeks ago we got the news that "Journey" was not going to be able to placed as a full working service dog. She was doing great with learning her tasks to help Ryan, but had developed some aggression towards other dogs since she went into Advanced Training. I guess, it happens to some dogs and may not show up until they are older. Advanced Training is a very intense time for the dogs so sometimes they may develop quirks. To the credit of the agency, they decided it would not be safe to have her in public as a working service dog.

It was difficult because the night before we had the opportunity to meet Journey's puppy raiser and he was telling us all the things she liked to do and what a wonderful dog she was. He was actually getting emotional about having to give her up because she was so special. We were so surprised to get the news the next day.

So, at this point we are back to waiting to be invited to "Meet the Dogs" again. There is tentatively one scheduled in January, but Ryan has not been invited. It depends on if there would be a dog that might be capable of being trained to meet the needs of Ryan. If he would be invited and IF he would be matched, he would begin Team Training in June with his new service dog.

As disappointing as it has been, with some time we have been able to see the silver lining in all of it. June would be much easier for Ryan in terms of not having to miss school for 2 1/2 weeks. It would also give him the summer to become comfortable with working with his dog before going back to school. It would also give him 6 more months of maturity - which is a lot of time when you are a kid!

Ryan is disappointed, but he is smart enough to know that it would not have worked with Journey. I think he also is relieved not to have to worry about keeping up with school. He doesn't seem to want to get his hopes up about getting invited to Meet the Dogs in January.

Through, it all we continue to be amazed at how much work, time, and effort goes into training a service dog. There are so many variables that need to fall into place in order to have a successful working service dog team.

We wish you all a joyous Holiday Season! Maybe we will have some good news to share (again) soon!