Milk Paws — MilkTraining

Driving Miss Daisy

October 15, 2015

I was inspired for the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday from their post Driving Lessons. Well, I just wuv to drive, and so does Cloudy! Maybe we aren’t exactly Driving Miss Daisy, but we often drive Mommers or Arabella! BOL! Of course, we get demoted to wingman sometimes, but that’s ok and just as much fun, too!

Cloudy likes to take the captains seat!

Arabella takes control from the center console!

Sometimes I look dapper while riding shotgun!

Many times I’m stuck in the back because I get wet playing in the lake at the doggie park!

And sometimes I even practice my training skills in the car! Here I am practicing ‘get small’!

And how could we forget the goofster Buddy!

International Assistance Dog Week

August 8, 2015

OH my doggy! I’m learning about IADW, or International Assistance Dog Week late, but I caught it just in time for the last day 🙂 This years IADW is August 2-8, 2015. Thank pawness I’ll know for next year – maybe we will do something special. Did you know there is a whole week dedicated to pups who assist their hoomans?!? How pawsome is that?!?

According to the IADW website, this week is dedicated to:

Recognize and honor assistance dogs
Raise awareness and educate the public about assistance dogs
Honor puppy raisers and trainers
Recognize heroic deeds performed by assistance dogs in our communities

This weeks dedication means alot to me and my Mommers cause I am training to be a service dog, or assistance dog for my Mommers (in addition to my therapy dog training!) And guess what, just this week, we were studying a new (to us) form of positive dog training called shaping, and I learned 2, yes 2, new tasks! A task is something that specifically mitigates a disability issue. I learned to pick up my own food bowl and bring it to Mommers AND I learned how to open a drawer by tugging on a rope that’s attached to the knob! I was even able to generalize my ninja drawer pulling skills to another drawer, and am starting to build strength on opening the dreaded heavy freezer drawer! It’s a lot of training, but I’m starting to have fun with the different things I am learning cause we play games and I get treats and lots of praise (ok, sometimes too much praise Mommers – I’m smarter than you think!)

I’m just in the beginning stages of learning tasks, so I’d like to give high paws to all my fellow assistance pups who work for their hoomans everyday and make sure they can live more normal lives and navigate society. Service dogs or assitance dogs are working dogs that deserve the most respect ever! And ‘member, pawlease be aware if a dog is working – we can be easily distracted and ask that you do not touch without asking our hoomans!

<3 MilkSDiT

p.s. I hope to pupdate soon with some fotos of me working 🙂

Stand or Lean: The Basics of Dog Play vs Dog Stay

February 17, 2015

Hiya Pupsters!

I went to a group dog training over the weekend and my hooman learned something new about me. I’ve been having a hard time transitioning from hard play to instant listening skills, and I think we found out why!

See, I like to play, and I mean PLAY! I’m a hyper pup. I can’t lie. I wuv to run, and jump, and most of all, zoom! Zoom, Zoom, ZOOMIES!!!!!! But, I don’t always listen as I should, so sometimes that limits when I get to play. I don’t think that’s always fair, but if the hooman has to go somewhere, she has to make sure she can get me to come along or go to my house if she must leave without me. The other thing it limits is the places I can go. I just wuv little kiddos, but if I start to play, I must know how to calm down on command. Same with the big kiddos ( and by that I mean hoomans never really grow up! )- if I want to party, I must learn to party like a respawsible pup!

Did you that if you lean over towards me, that I am anticipating a chin scratch, head rub, and praise! Well, I certainly did – that’s for sure! BUT guess what?? My Mommers was leaning over to get near me to give me a command or a verbal correction (e.g., at at, no). She thought that if she was closer to me, I would listen to ‘down’ (lay down) better because I would follow her positioning. WRONG! I was waiting for the pets and ‘Good Boy!’, and to keep playing!

So, she learned that if if she stays standing (or sitting depending on setting) when giving me a command, I actually listen! By leaning over, she is actually encouraging me to keep playing! Now I can begin to play and listen immediately on command. We practiced this at group training by being in a circle, with each pup taking a turn in the center. In the circle, our hooman got us really excited and playful, then stood straight and gave the ‘down’ command. And guess what?!? I understood what she was barking! You can practice this at home with one hooman and one pup, but having other teams around will also help with distraction training… oh that’s another MilkBlog DogBlog post to come… DISTRACTIONS!!!!! I wuv distractions…..what did you say? Where’s that kitty cat going with MY toy…

Until next time! Wooferoo!

<3 Milk

Driving Miss Daisy

International Assistance Dog Week

Stand or Lean: The Basics of Dog Play vs Dog Stay

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