February 20 2017
Hello all!
This week’s internships were definitely more interactive
than the last.
So first off: Power Paws. When I arrived at the facility, I
was informed that I would be helping with the morning training class as I did
last week. This week I was working with a gorgeous Golden Retriever named
Molly. During the class, we worked on “Visit,” the dog putting their head on
the partner’s lap, “back-up,” which is pretty self-explanatory, “high-five,”
“heel,” walking at the owner’s side, and “push/alert,” which is essentially
teaching the dog to push buttons on a wall. In order to teach and train these
tasks, Power Paws utilizes a small clicker and puppy treats/food. When training
Molly for “push,” for example, a snack was held up to the button to lure her to
push it with her nose while saying “Push”. Once she did, the clicker was
clicked and she was rewarded with her snack. She caught on pretty quick and
soon enough it was just a matter of saying “Push,” nose touching, clicking, and
rewarding. The way one trainer described to me later that day, the clicker
functions as a type of camera for the dog. When it does what you want it to do
and you click the clicker, it captures that moment and encodes that action with
the cue. Soon enough, the dog comes to associate the cue with the action the
trainer wants it to perform.
After
the morning training classes, I tagged along with two trainers and two Labrador
Retrievers to a Career Day at a nearby school. There I spent a few hours
listening to them describe how Power Paws operated and observed the dogs in
action. All throughout these speeches, I was very impressed with the dogs who
were very obedient to the trainers despite the several distractions. The
diabetic alert lab even alerted a trainer. Throughout these speeches I did
learn some new facts about Power Paws. For one, Power Paws takes about two years
to train its service dog and training essentially starts when they’re just a
few days old. They become socialized with the outside world and all sorts of
different people, thanks to the puppy petting program. This way they are
prepared to encounter and type of person of every age or behavior when they go
out into the real world one day as a service dog. Since Power Paws primarily
trains its internally bred dogs, they can rely on the good health of the dog
and temperament to ensure the dog will live a long working life with a good
attitude towards its job. Power Paws specializes in training Type 1 Diabetes
Alert dogs, PTSD, and mobility assistance.
After
the presentation, I spent the rest of the day with the trainers learning some
fun facts about service dogs in the real world. For example, when service dogs
go to theme parks, such as Disneyland, the parks tend to have specific areas
that the dogs can be taken to to use the bathroom. In addition, Disneyland
arranges a service dog handler to have an assigned Cast Member to accompany
them throughout the park to watch the dog when its handler is on a ride that
the dog cannot accompany it on.
To say
the least, even though I didn’t have 8 golden retriever puppies to pet this
week at Power Paws, I still had an amazing day learning about what it means to
be a good service dog trainer as well as a successful service dog.
The
next day, I was with the FSDS watching their training classes. Once again, I
sat in on the morning puppy classes, and the more advanced afternoon training
class with older dogs. In the morning class, the dogs practiced tasks such as
loose leash walking and long sits/long stays. Loose leash walking serves the
purpose of essentially teaching the dog how to walk alongside its handler
without tugging on the leash or pulling them in different directions. The dogs
were walked around the room and between cones, being rewarded for eye contact
and proper walking, and being stopped for straying aside or giving into
distractions. The long sits and long stays were essentially exercises that
built up the amount of time the dogs can stay in those positions without
wandering off or breaking their positions. It was amazing to see that even at
the young age of these puppies, most of them were able to hold themselves in
one spot and position up to a minute. In terms of training and rewards, the
trainers use a specific verbal cue “Yes,” which functions similarly to a
clicker, before rewarding the dog with a snack. The “yes” allows the trainers
to pin-point the moment the dog does something right in order to reinforce that
behavior in the future or upon a specific command. My on-site advisor explained
to me that the pitch and manner of delivery of “yes” travels straight to the
dog’s frontal lobe, allowing it be encoded in its brain far more effectively. The
fact that this a verbal cue allows the trainer to have both of their hands to
their disposal for either delivering treats or performing whatever tasks they
need to during training. To build on the long sits/stays command, I, alongside
some other individuals sitting in on the class, helped the dogs work on polite
sitting for petting. This task essentially allows the handlers to practice what
they would say to people if asked questions about their dogs in public, and
helps train the dogs get their excitement under control when someone new wants
to touch them. And being the golden retriever lover that I am, I was more than
happy to help.
In the
afternoon class, I was very impressed to see how far the dogs came since their
last class last week. Since most of these dogs live with student handlers
before they are placed into their new home or their partners, they are trained
all throughout the week, which became evident in this week’s class. Last week,
for example, these dogs practiced retrieving items from a closed cabinet. They
got the job done last week, but there were a few bumps along the road. This
week, however, the dogs were able to retrieve their items from a longer
distance with almost no trouble in doing so.
My favorite part of the classes had to be when the dogs trained the
command “get help.” Since a lot of the future handlers of the dogs might find
themselves in a situation where they would need help from another person, the
dogs are trained to go get these individuals for them. When one of the dogs was
up to take their turn in front of the class, I was the person they were coming
to get for “help.” When the handler told the dog to “get help” the dog went to
get a small rectangular toy, called a Brinsel, which it then brought to me and
then used that to tug me towards the handler that needed “help.” Because the
dogs were still fairly new at this task, they did need encouragement, but, even
then, their enthusiasm and thus far success in this task warmed my heart.
Shortly afterwards, the dogs worked on “brace,” which essentially a body
posture they must take on in order to help their handler get up if they find
themselves having a hard time doing so. The class ended with the dogs
practicing item retrieval.
Overall,
this week’s classes did come to show how these dogs can grow within one week.
Watching how these dogs performed last week’s tasks far more successfully and
then witnessing new tasks come to life was truly heart-warming to see. I can
confidently say that I cannot wait to see what next week has in store for me.
This
past week was a bit of a rollercoaster, so I wasn’t able to get as far in my
additional sources as I would have liked. I did begin the book by Diana
Lawrence and was able to gain more insight about guide dogs, which are dogs
trained to help the legally blind function in the real world. Since neither one
of my facilities trains these sorts of dogs, this book is allowing me to see
further into yet another aspect of these furry little helpers. But more of this
aspect of my research next time.
Until
next week! J
