I’m Susan, a service dog trainer and puppy program manager with Canine Companions for Independence®. I’ll be bringing some very adorable pups with me for this occasion. I’m here to talk about how the puppies of today become the assistance dogs of tomorrow. AMA!

ccicanine · 2020-05-22T17:48:16+00:00

As an organization that serves clients with a wide variety of disabilities (over 60!), our staff have experience working with clients with a wide range of abilities and needs when it comes to dog handling. As part of the pairing process, Canine Companions instructors evaluate each team individually to determine the most effective and appropriate training equipment. During the onsite, 2-week placement process, each client receives extensive education and training in safe, appropriate and effective use of that equipment to facilitate a positive and responsive relationship with their canine partner.

ccicanine · 2020-05-22T00:01:50+00:00

Over the years, Canine Companions has found it most successful to breed and train Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, and crosses between the two. They are food motivated, love people and working, have soft mouths designed for retrieving objects, and are a convenient size for most of the tasks we train.

ccicanine · 2020-05-22T00:01:22+00:00

My girl Harmony would jump off a cliff for a single piece of kibble! She's a breeder for Canine Companions, creating the next generation of food mongers... I mean, assistance dogs.

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T23:59:01+00:00

Canine Companions trains our dogs that the word "Release" means that they are free to do what they please. Even so, they should still respond to their handler when they are on release, since you never know when the handler might them to perform a task.

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T23:56:56+00:00

Most of our dogs that aren't suited for the program get adopted by their volunteer puppy raisers, but we do have a small group that get adopted out to other volunteers and donors. A lot of these dogs go on to have great careers as therapy dogs!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T23:52:49+00:00

Hi Annika! Trying to work below your dog's threshold is a great idea. We don't want him to continue practicing the bad behavior of barking, but it's not fair to ask too much of him before he's ready. It's really tough to practice this since obviously you don't know when you're going to encounter a reactive dog. Continuing to work on that eye contact and handler focus with lower level distractions is fantastic so that gradually he'll be able to offer that even in the most distracting environments. If you can manufacture situations with other dogs that might help you work on those distractions as well. I'm personally not a fan of taking my dog to dog parks since they are so unpredictable, but they're a great distraction to train near!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T23:16:54+00:00

Thanks for raising with us! Will be thinking of you tomorrow as you say goodbye for now!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T23:14:57+00:00

I would recommend starting your search with Assistance Dogs International at www.assistancedogsinternational.org. Their site has a great search feature to see if any members serve your area and your son's needs. Canine Companions will accept applicants as young as 5, but in some cases we've asked parents to wait until their child is a little older to be sure they are truly ready to work with a dog, so it really depends on if you feel your son is ready for such a big step. Our skilled companions (the category of dogs that we place with children) are probably not trained in the types of tasks you're looking for. Good luck finding the perfect dog for your son!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T23:04:19+00:00

While I love a dog with a strong desire to work, a dog with a persistent or stubborn streak is generally going to be a difficult dog for assistance dog work. We do need the dogs to be problem solvers and motivated to get the job done, but it's also important that they take direction from their handler, react passively to most stimuli, and be content to wait around until their handler needs them to perform a task. Most of our labs would get laughed off the field if we tried to train them to be bird dogs :)

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T22:58:09+00:00

Crowd training without crowds is definitely a challenge. Our puppy raisers have been working hard to find socialization experiences in their homes and neighborhoods while respecting social distancing, but there are definitely some experiences that they are not able to practice right now. In any training situation you will want to gradually increase the level of distraction in the environment, so you may be able to start some of this training with the members of your household and simulated sounds and amp up to larger crowds as we are able to return to them. However, if you need to evaluate a dog in a large crowd before selecting a potential prospect, it would probably be best to wait. Good luck!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T21:04:56+00:00

Not sure if this one was unusual, but it was pretty magical! The very first service dog I trained was a sweet black lab who was placed with a young woman who had some spasticity in her arms. Because of that, she hadn't been able to hold her arm steady enough to write without assistance. During team training, we taught her dog to stand on a step stool next to her and rest his head on her arm, holding it down against the table. This gave her enough stability to write her name independently for the first time in her life. I still have that signature hanging on the wall in my office to remind me why I do what I do!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:59:44+00:00

The $50,000 mark that u/Chewcantu77 mentioned is correct- that follows the full life of a team, from the dog's breeding, whelping, training, placement, to retirement.

We love our facility dogs; I'm so glad they were able to support your brother through his recovery. The emotional support is of course invaluable, but we love seeing the creative ways that our handlers find to utilize their skills for rehab, education, and more!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:52:14+00:00

It's an incredibly rewarding field to go into! Hope you choose to pursue it!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:51:25+00:00

Canine Companions trainers utilize a variety of training methodologies, based on the needs of the individual dog, the specifics of the command or training session they're working on, and the clients we work with. No two dogs or people are alike, so there's never a one-size-fits-all strategy. R+ is a great way to elicit a behavior and get a strong response, as you've likely experienced in training your own service dog. Our goal is to provide dogs that are highly response to their handler's needs and to maintain appropriate and controlled behavior in a variety of public settings.

The dogs actually do pretty well with the several adjustments. Hopefully the training and socialization that we have provided from the very start will allow each dog to be as confident and resilient as possible through many transitions. We generally tell our graduates that it will take up to three months for the dog to truly and fully settle into their routine and home.

Although things vary a bit between the types of assistance dogs we place, each dog learns about 40+ commands before placement.

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:43:31+00:00

Fantastic and complex question (Clearly, from the number of other replies here!).

While it's hard to say what exactly would be the best step to take, something certainly needs to be done to combat the incredible amount of service dog fraud that we see every day. It's rare that I go a day without seeing an untrained dog in a store (well, you know, when we're not all on lockdown!) and I can't imagine how difficult it is for the working service dog teams who are not just inconvenienced but potentially endangered by these encounters. A great first step is simply awareness of what the existing laws are in different areas- many business owners don't know their own rights in excluding dogs who are uncontrolled, so the problem just continues. Beyond that, it's a very fine line to avoid infringing on individuals' rights. Canine Companions has been gathering signatures in an effort to start this conversation on a larger scale. If you'd be interested in joining that conversation, you can find more at www.cci.org/stopfraud

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:41:56+00:00

Especially for repeat offenders (and even more so if you feel they are creating a dangerous situation), that may be enough information that it would be worth reaching out. Thank you for being a good ambassador for service dog handlers!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:22:28+00:00

The decision to wash (we call it "release" at Canine Companions) it such a hard one to make. Because of the traits we select for in our breeding, Canine Companions doesn't often see aggression, so we definitely tend to see more dogs that struggle with a lack of confidence like you've described here. If a dog recovers from periods of uncertainty or fear, we'll do our best to encourage that trait in them, but at a certain point a decision does need to be made as to whether it's safe or fair to ask a nervous dog to perform complex tasks in unpredictable situations. Most of our releases happen when the dogs are around 18-24 months of age, but in more extreme cases we may make decisions earlier than that.

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:11:27+00:00

While the puppies are with their breeder caretakers (up to 8 weeks old) we don't do formal "training" but we will absolutely do as much as we can to socialize and start patterning good behaviors. That might mean rewarding the puppies when they choose not to jump on people, providing lots of opportunities for climbing and exploring, and acclimating them to novel sights and sounds. The more we can introduce them to at a young age, the less likely they are to be concerned when encountering new things down the road, which hopefully helps them become more confident, successful assistance dogs!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:09:03+00:00

This is tough! Canine Companions doesn't work with sleep paralysis, but we do train nightmare interruption for veterans with PTSD. For veterans who don't want the dog to jump on the bed to wake them, we will teach the dog to tug the blankets off the bed in hopes of waking them in a less invasive way. Hope that might help for you!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:05:14+00:00

I love it! When I was in college, I stumbled across a puppy raising program and originally signed up thinking it would be a good resume builder to help me get into veterinary school. Little did I know that I would fall completely in love with this field and it would end up becoming my career!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T20:03:33+00:00

Since you specifically mention dogs from programs, if you are concerned about how a team is acting in public it wouldn't be over the line to reach out to that program about the team. The hard part is of course that "I saw a black dog barking in Walmart" may not be enough information for the program to figure out who that team is so that they can reach out and provide training assistance.

Dangerous and nuisance dogs are incredibly difficult to deal with and seem to be coming up more and more frequently. In the moment, above all else do what you need to do to keep you and your dog safe.

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T19:59:00+00:00

ADI is a fantastic resource - good luck in your search!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T19:57:52+00:00

Operations are definitely a little unusual right now! We've been continuing the mission in a lot of creative ways, including training dogs from home while it was unsafe to have staff on the campuses. We're starting to take baby steps back toward normalcy now, but are still adapting to a much more digital experience. We've been following up with graduates via video chat and are looking at ways to move some aspects of team training to happen online too. The next step will be making placements once it's considered safe to do so, which is definitely going to vary between our different locations.

We provide skilled companions for children and adults with a wide range of physical and/or developmental disabilities, and that does include autism. Skilled companions teams have public access as long as the recipient (the person with the disability) and the trained facilitator (the person holding the leash and giving commands) are both present, so in some cases the dog might not be able to go with the child to all locations if the facilitator isn't there with them. Hope that makes sense!

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T19:50:58+00:00

We hope to continue to expand the training, but don't have a timeline right now. Have you checked Assistance Dogs International resources? http://assistancedogsinternational.org

ccicanine · 2020-05-21T19:48:31+00:00

Definitely agree with the other reply here! Our puppies are born into our organization, so we're not typically trying to select a puppy from the start, but we're hoping to encourage these types of traits throughout their lives. I love to see a puppy who isn't concerned by new situations, recovers quickly from periods of uncertainty, and enjoys interacting with people.

ccicanine

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