Week 2

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